Does Anyone Else Eat This?

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KingBrianI

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One of my all-time favorite comfort foods is something my grandfather taught me when I was a little kid. He had a bunch of interesting combos for food but this one really stuck with me. He grew up poor in East Tennessee so I'm not sure if it's something people around there do or if it was just him. But it's living on with me because I can eat the heck out of the stuff.

What it is is basically pinto beans that have been cooking all day with a chunk of salt pork or something in there. You put some of those in a bowl along with some of their liquid, then add a generous splash of apple cider vinegar, and a bunch of black pepper. Add a wedge of onion and accompany the whole thing with a slice of white bread or cornbread. I've never seen anyone else eat this so I was just curious if other people eat beans this way or if it was unique to my family. Other variations are that you can add chow-chow (a kind of pepper relish) or corn relish to the beans for a little change. Anyone else do this?
 
I don't recall the cider vinegar being used, but I do remember pinto beans & cornbread. I still like them too. My mom and dad split when we were young, so with 4 kids plus full time college & work, things were tight for her.

I also remember what she called S.O.S. (**** On Shingles). It was something like a slice of toast with chipped beef and gravy poured on it. If I remember right, she got the "recipe" from what my dad told her they often served them in the army, and that was their name for it. Dessert was not often, and was sometimes rice with sugar & cinnamon. I still eat it all, and actually like it.
 
We eat em like that too here in NC. I don't usually go with the vinegar but I've seen several people add it to their beans.

My Brother in law puts vinegar on his cornbread. To be clear: when I say cornbread I'm not talking about the sweet, yellow, cake-like, cornbread but real buttermilk cornbread.

My grandmother used to pickle little cayenne peppers while they were still small and green before they got too hot. These little peppers are an outstanding side to a bowl of pintos and cornbread.
 
we have something similar, using northern beans rather than pinto, definatly good home style eats IMHO
 
With the exception of the vinegar, yep. We'd also often have potatoes too & would crumble the cornbread over the taters & ladle the beans & sauce over it all. Regards, GF.
 
No, but it sounds like something a fellow Naval officer's wife made. She use garbanzo beans and made a crock pot full every week. Being a Filipino, there was always rice.
 
Yep, I grew up watching my mom and dad eat beans this way. I still cook beans with ham hocks or ham bone in it occassionally. Old habits die hard. And forget about having beans without cornbread, just gotta have it. Don't do the raw onion though, I put it in the beans while they are cooking. I grew up having a bottle of vinegar with peppers in it, on the table with the salt & pepper shakers. Beans, chili, etc. When you grow up poor, you learn how to spice up your food the best way you know how.
 
KCBrewer;231278 I also remember what she called S.O.S. (**** On Shingles). It was something like a slice of toast with chipped beef and gravy poured on it. If I remember right said:
Actually, we use to beg my dad to make SOS for breakfast. He was an old Marine who use to get up every Sunday morning and make the most awesome breakfasts ever. I carry on the tradition every Sunday morning with my kiddos.
 
A variation of this would be a part of my menu should I ever open a bbq joint.

Presently, you can find this well represented this at Central Texan BBQ in Castroville, CA.
 
Yep, that's the way we eat them here too, but I'm a NC guy as well. Actually, that cooking method sounds like the way we eat greens, field peas, green beans, etc also.
 
Yep, we call it ham and beans. Take some of that cider vinegar and soak fresh cayenne peppers in it for a few weeks and add that to your beans. Pretty hard meal to beat on a cold winter day!
 
We used to have pinto beans/cornbread fairly regularly when I was a kid. My dad would use the vinegar from 'peppers in vinegar' but he was the only one (never in military). Every few months we have a bean day at work and make 7 crock pots full, plus cornbread, plus (not sure how this got added) baloney sammichs on white bread with mayo and sliced tomato.
 
Down here we use ham-hock for the pork, and no vinegar, you won't find a lot of it in cooking down here. Otherwise the recipe is about the same.
 
Down here we use ham-hock for the pork, and no vinegar, you won't find a lot of it in cooking down here. Otherwise the recipe is about the same.

Around here vinegar is a condiment used on quite a few things. It's great on Beans, Greens, French fries, "Beenie Weenies", and my Dad used to add them to his can's of vienna sausages on fishing trips.
 
Yep, although without the vinegar. Mashed potatoes goes good with it. We had this dish two weeks ago. Great way to use up left over ham from the holidays...
 
Wow, it's more of a widespread dish than I expected. Those of you who haven't tried it with vinegar should give it a try some time. I think it really makes the dish, but that could be nostalgia having an effect.
 
Used to have that as a kid. The pork, beans, vinegar, and cornbread thing. Was an annual thing at our house.

Also ate sticky white rice with milk and cane sugar.
 
No vinegar here, but the Pinto Beans with crumbled up cornbread topped with the bean juice and then smashed with the fork....and a wedge of raw onion...yep, that'd make a meal right there.

My mother was from Tennesee and Dad was from Ohio. Mom would always make fried potatoes, meatloaf or keilbasa with the beans for Dad...all I ever took was a plate full of beans and cornbread...I stil can't make them like she did though...
 
if we get deer opening morning, breakfast the next day is venison tenderloin cut into coins, pan fried, then add a few cans of cream of mushroom soup. over toast.

my mom fed me that cinnamon rice for lunch as a kid. hated it then, hate it now. i like cinnamon and rice...just not together.
 
All my family roots are in the south so beans and savory, not sweet, cornbread is part of my comfort food. Pinto beans cooked with ham hocks served with raw onion or some sort of chow chow. And for breakfast the next morning, crumble that cornbread in your bowl and cover with buttermilk. OH BABY!
 
Down here we use ham-hock for the pork, and no vinegar, you won't find a lot of it in cooking down here. Otherwise the recipe is about the same.

Grandpa grew up in OK during the dust bowl and moved to TX after retiring from the Air Force.

Ham hock and pintos with cornbread and onion is a staple and was dinner at least once a week.

Molasses on the cornbread next morning for breakfast too.
 
I've had it. My grandparents made it. I think it might be German as they are German.
 
I never had beans that way until I met my wife, her mom makes beans just that way. I don't know what "real" cornbread is though, because I grew up in Minnesota.
 
I know, I thought it was really cool too. The ones we had so far were really good. Not mouth-orgasm good, but we're talking about beans here. They're never going to taste like ribs or something...
 
My friend's family were always poor but always had some of the best food. That welfare cheese was great!

His parents would cook up beans in a large kettle (they had a bunch of kids) and there would be beans for dinner, beans for breakfast (great with eggs!) and beans with lunch. I never got tired of them.

His dad was from Tennessee or Kentucky, I can't remember which. Whichever it was, he liked the moonshine from the other state better.

I'm still working on figuring out how to make beans the way they did. Their juice was very dark, so I wonder if they put a bunch of black beans in there too.
 
Soup Beans? Pretty common. Wife loves it I'll eat it. Actually just learned of a story last night of why I may not prefer them. Apparently when I was real little I sat on my great grandpa's lap and he fed them to me and I ate and ate and ate. Then later that night was in horrible gaseous pain. Could be why I tend to dislike them until I actually eat them.
We have a local Apple Festival in the fall around here at the local Apple Orchard and they always have a HUGE open fire pot of these going with corn bread.
 
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