Pinto beans, also known as brown beans and soup beans, are a traditional southern delicacy typically served with corn bread, and onions, chow-chow, and jalapeños or other hot peppers. These have been one of my favorite foods since I was a small child spending summers on my grandparent's farm in the Appalachian mountains of Southwest Virginia (coal producing region). My mother made them regularly too (we called them brown beans), and I've been cooking them about monthly for forty years. On that basis I estimate that I've cooked probably 450-500 pots of beans since I got serious about cooking them in the mid-eighties (when my mother's health declined).

I'd love to help people learn how to make an excellent pot of beans. And to hear from others who know how special a really good pot of beans can be. We can also discuss cornbread, garnishes and sides.

To be clear, this sub will be about cooking traditional soup beans of Appalachia and the Southeastern quadrant of the US, not how many various ingredients and spice combinations anyone has ever tossed into a pot. If you're interested in understanding the traditional soup beans of Appalachia, you're in the right place. If you have ideas involving the creative use of beans, there are a bunch of food subs where anything goes, such as r/cooking and r/beans.

I am working on basic descriptions and recipes to post here.