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Thread: Beans: Cans or home cooked?

  1. #51
    DavidT's Avatar
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    Default Re: Beans: Cans or home cooked?

    When I had to forego tomato products, I bought Nomato baked beans on occasion.

    They're not the same but I like them and still buy them. Anyone tried them and liked them? They're an 'acquired' taste, I think.

  2. #52

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    Default Re: Beans: Cans or home cooked?

    When I got up this morning, I did not think that I would be up at 10:30 reading an a buyers guide to baked beans and then writing in an internet forum about that article :S

    I've never heard of De Rit? And I didn't realize Nomato made beans, I really like their ketchup. Its more like tomato puree than ketchup and has a 'sun dried' taste to it. Its quite hard to find though.

  3. #53

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    Default Re: Beans: Cans or home cooked?

    Oh no I've just noticed the bar at the side of that baked bean article linked a few posts up. It has articles on how ethical (or not) other food stuffs are and ranks the brands .. Actually that website is huge and has sections on all sorts of other products, along with boycotts, blogs and the like... I have a feeling I'm going to end up getting lost reading all that for hours upon end :/

  4. #54
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    Default Re: Beans: Cans or home cooked?

    Quote f2097 View Post
    And I didn't realize Nomato made beans, I really like their ketchup. Its more like tomato puree than ketchup and has a 'sun dried' taste to it. Its quite hard to find though.
    Their pasta sauce is, errmm, different too. I like it but my OH doesn't. It's quite a sour sauce, in a nice way of course.

  5. #55
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    Default Re: Beans: Cans or home cooked?

    Due to the economy these days and the fact that food prices are soaring where I live, my mother decided to start using dried beans. My grandmother gave her this interesting tip to make cooking beans from scratch easier. I'll use chickpeas as an example. My mom will soak a ton of chickpeas for the recommended 8 hours/overnight. She'll then drain them and portion them into individual freezer bags. She'll freeze them and whenever she needs chickpeas, she'll just take out a freezer bag and use those chickpeas. They'll cook in 30-50 minutes. Nifty idea my grandmother had.
    Peace, love, and happiness.

  6. #56
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    Default Re: Beans: Cans or home cooked?

    I believe a pinch of bicarbonate of soda will speed up cooking times.

    However here's what I often do:

    soak the beans overnight
    throw away the soaking water
    put the beans in a pressure cooker
    add just enough water to cover them completely
    put in two or three drops of oil to stop any 'foaming' (which may or may not occur)
    when the pressure cooker reaches normal pressure, back off the heat
    cook for between three and and four minutes, maintaining pressure
    turn off the heat and let the pressure come off naturally (release the pressure straight away and the beans explode)

    any unused beans, when cool, can be spread on a tray and frozen, ready for use

    follow this method for marrowfat peas but cook for longer (perhaps eight minutes) and let the pressure off fast under cold water for mushy peas

  7. #57
    DavidT's Avatar
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    Default Re: Beans: Cans or home cooked?

    Quote DavidT View Post
    A freudian slip there, I think, as Biona are a little out of favour with me at the moment because of the large number of non-vegan products they produce. I'm asking them to at least replace honey with syrup of some kind, as De Rit have done, even if they have difficultly getting rid of eggs and milk.
    A reply from Biona:

    Dear Mr Taylor

    Many thanks for your suggestions. I will pass your email on to the
    product development manager.

    We are currently selling quite a few products where we use agave syrup
    as the sweetener, for example: Biona Organic Cranberries in Agave Syrup.


    Please do not hesitate to contact us again with any further comments or
    questions.

    Kind regards


    Bertel Haugen

    Windmill Organics
    Customer Care
    34A Clifton Road
    Kingston
    Surrey, KT2 6PH
    phone: +44 (0)208 547 2775
    fax: +44(0)208 546 9942
    www.windmillorganics.com
    It's a start I suppose. As an example of what I've noticed, their 'wild berry crisp' is delicious but I won't buy it as it contains honey. It already contains wheat syrup and honey is next-to-last on the ingredients list, so I can't see why they shouldn't feck it out.

    They would gain at least one more customer.

    Perhaps if anyone else out there wants to get in touch with them?

  8. #58
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    Default Re: Beans: Cans or home cooked?

    I'll fire off some emails, even though I've never had any of their products.
    given there is a massive depletion of the bee population which is in part being fuelled by honey and an increase in the capturing of wild hives for honey production (I kid you not) anything that can be done reduce the use of honey must be right now
    If I sink to the bottom I can run to the shore.

  9. #59
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    Default Re: Beans: Cans or home cooked?

    And then people query why we would prefer not to consume it!

    Where we are, there seems to be a healthy wild bee population, so pockets will survive.

  10. #60
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    Default Re: Beans: Cans or home cooked?

    Quote bradders View Post
    ...and an increase in the capturing of wild hives for honey production (I kid you not)...
    bradders: can you provide a link for this? It sounds like useful information to have. Thanks.

  11. #61

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    Default Re: Beans: Cans or home cooked?

    Google
    capturing of wild hives for honey production
    you will get lots of hits, we could chat more on this in a honey thread, of which there are a few on this forum.
    See my local diary ... http://herbwormwood.blogspot.com/

  12. #62
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    Default Re: Beans: Cans or home cooked?

    Cans or home cooked? - my can opener is worn out!

  13. #63
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    Default Re: Beans: Cans or home cooked?

    I always buy dried beans and soak overnight before cooking. I do a pound or two at a time, and freeze what I don't eat right away. That way I can just pull out of the freezer any sort of beans I like, make some brown rice, and steam some frozen veggies and I have a complete meal. Because they're bulky, heavy, more fragile, and more expensive, I save cans for things that don't come in dried versions.

  14. #64

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    Default Re: Beans: Cans or home cooked?

    Cans and lots of them. Rich in good essential dietary stuff. Fast food for vegans! Love 'em. Especially the organic ones from Biona with no added salt or sugar. They are heavy and I have no car so I order them online from goodnessdirect.co.uk in bulk (no postage fees on orders over Ģ35). The Biona range has some good organic bean varieties. The Puy lentils are nice. A favourite snack is a tin of cold chickpeas with some ketchup on eaten with half a dish of sage and onion stuffing rings. You might be surprised how nice that is. I find chickpeas to be softer cold, esp. when they are large (small ones can be much less fun). A tin of mixed beans (the Natura Organic brand are nice) are also delicious cold.

    Red Kidney beans added to a mash of spuds, carrots and leaks with a large dollop of organic Pure: just gorgeous.

    I have always loved baked beans on toast but find most too salty or too strongly flavoured. I drain most of the tomato juice from the tin before putting them in the pan to try to reduce the salt. Tins of JS organic baked beans recently vanished from our JS (as did JS organic oven chips). OK, there's a credit crunch but surely food should be the last stuff folk compromise on. If they take them off the shelves, we don't even have the choice anymore.

    Couldn't find ordinary tin openers in the local shops. Had to buy them (new) off ebay! Always take some when you travel. In some places, the only vegan stuff you can get is a tin of beans.

  15. #65
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    Default Re: Beans: Cans or home cooked?

    Yes, the Biona ones I think are probably the best. They're also the most expensive, I find: there you go.

    Hey, vegandave! Welcome to the forum. Happy veganising.
    "The trouble with quotes on the internet is that you can never tell if they're genuine" - Abraham Lincoln

  16. #66
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    Default Re: Beans: Cans or home cooked?

    Tesco's value kidney beans - 19p per tin, very cheap, quick, and tasty! Though they're not as good quality as the 60p + tins, they make more ecomnomical sense. I find cooking beans too much hassle, yeah I know I could cook loads and loads and loads and freeze them, but I really cannot be bothered with all that!

  17. #67

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    Default Re: Beans: Cans or home cooked?

    Canned, mainly. For reasons too long-winded to explain.

  18. #68
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    Default Re: Beans: Cans or home cooked?

    Haha Fiamma!

  19. #69
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    Default Re: Beans: Cans or home cooked?

    Cans, cos' its faster

  20. #70
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    Default Re: Beans: Cans or home cooked?

    When I feel like a nice, big, easy breakfast, I like to go for baked beans on toast.

  21. #71
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    Default Re: Beans: Cans or home cooked?

    Being from the hills of wv regular home cooked beans are almost always on the menue two or three times a week.
    I am the Devil, and I'm here to do the Devils work.

  22. #72

    Default Re: Beans: Cans or home cooked?

    I used to be a canned girl... but now making my way over to dried. I love black beans, and they are so expensive here in the UK I can't justify buying the canned types. Now I have a pressure cooker, it's really no bother to make a batch or two up. When Mr_Derious gets me my new freezer, I'll be able to make even move to freeze down.
    Quitting something because it's hard is wrong, and quitting something because it's wrong is hard. One takes cowardice, the other bravery.

  23. #73

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    Default Re: Beans: Cans or home cooked?

    I usually buy both - canned for convenience and dried for variety. Dried beans make such wonderful homemade soups, thick and stewy and delicious.
    To become vegetarian is to step into the stream which leads to nirvana. -Buddha

  24. #74
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    Default Re: Beans: Cans or home cooked?

    Quote everdream View Post
    Tesco's value kidney beans - 19p per tin, very cheap, quick, and tasty! Though they're not as good quality as the 60p + tins, they make more ecomnomical sense. I find cooking beans too much hassle, yeah I know I could cook loads and loads and loads and freeze them, but I really cannot be bothered with all that!
    19p? Is that 19 pence? I'm trying to convert the currency here, having no luck. Your money system makes no sense.

    Anyways-
    A can of organic beans beans here costs me about $3.00 CAD. A can of no-name brand (definitely not organic) beans cost about $1.50 CAD. A small package of no-name brand dried beans is about $1.25 CAD, which makes about 2 cans worth of beans once cooked. Expensive, is the point I'm getting at, especially the organic ones!

    Also- when I cook dried beans, I can't get the as soft as canned. I soak them overnight, then add to whichever dish I'm making, and allow them to cook a bit more. Any suggestions?
    Be the change you want to see in the world.

  25. #75
    Abe Froman Risker's Avatar
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    Default Re: Beans: Cans or home cooked?

    ^ Yes, it's 19 pence, how does our money system make no sense? Tinned beans here for the most part are incredibly cheap, it just doesn't make financial sense to cook up dried ones, it'd cost you more.

  26. #76
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    Default Re: Beans: Cans or home cooked?

    As compared to dollars, I'm just not used to it. I was tired when I wrote that.
    It seems canned ("tinned", lol) beans are way cheaper on your side of the pond than mine.
    Be the change you want to see in the world.

  27. #77
    DavidT's Avatar
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    Default Re: Beans: Cans or home cooked?

    We do our own beans - "baked" or otherwise - most of the time.

    I like to buy dried beans in custom quantities, rather than pre-packed bags, so I encourage a local shop to stock loose beans and chick peas. Firstly, it means we don't have extra rubbish to deal with such as cans or plastic bags (we take our own bags) and secondly we can buy as few or as many as we want. We don't have a rubbish collection so we have to consider everything we buy from a disposal point of view; all the unwanted stuff has to be stored till we make a worthwhile trip to a recycling centre.

    Anyway, after soaking beans etc, I cook them using a pressure cooker. The most any beans ever take is just over four minutes from reaching pressure, then the heat is turned off and the beans allowed to cool (quick cooling would burst them, which is sometimes what you want!). A few drops of oil in the cooking liquid prevents any foaming.

    After cooling, I'll make a meal using some of the beans, put another batch in a sealed container in the fridge for a meal two or three days later, and any others go in the freezer, on a tray to stop them sticking together, before putting in a container.

    It might be more complex than simply buying cans but I enjoy the process and, as I said, we don't have to buy unwanted packaging. We have gluts of tomatoes at certain times of year and there is nothing quite like making your own 'baked' beans.

    I insist on organic ingredients every time.
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