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Beans Mexican
2 cups pink beans. 6 cups water. 1 small onion. 1 tablespoon drippings 1 chile pepper Salt Wash the beans and soak them in the water over night. In the morning add the onion; boil gently until soft; then drain, saving the water. Put the grease in a large skillet; when sizzling hot add the drained beans and stir thoroughly until each bean seems to have a coating of the fat and begins to burst. Add one cup of the water in which the beans were boiled; gently crush a few of the beans to thicken it; add the remainder of the water, salt to taste and the chile pepper, finely chopped. Simmer until the beans are almost dry and serve.
The printed ingredient list on this leaf is incomplete — only the drippings, chile and salt survive — but the method is a clear account of frijoles refritos and works with standard proportions.
- Missing quantitiesThe original gives no amount for the beans, water or onion. A pound of dried pinto beans, soaked in about 6 cups of water, with one medium onion, matches the method as written; anything in that range will behave the same.
- Which bean"Beans" here most likely means pinto or pink beans, though the recipe does not say. Black beans work but give a much darker, heavier result.
- DrippingsBacon fat or lard is what is meant. Either gives the correct flavour; oil will fry the beans but leaves them noticeably flat.
- The hingeCoating every bean in sizzling fat before any liquid goes back in is the whole point of the dish. Rush this and you get soupy beans in seasoned water rather than the dense, glossy mash the frying produces.
- Save the cooking liquidDo not discard it. It is starchy and seasoned from the onion, and it is what makes the finished beans creamy; plain water thins the texture.
- The chile"1 chile pepper" may be a dried red or a fresh green one; the recipe does not say. A dried New Mexico or guajillo, stemmed, seeded and chopped fine, suits the method. One chile is modest seasoning for a large pot, though heat will vary with the variety.
- SoakingOvernight soaking as directed is fine. The recipe gives no boiling time; start checking for softness at about 45 minutes of gentle simmering.
- YieldA pound of dried beans made this way serves roughly six to eight as a side, or four as a main dish.
This is the standard American cookbook rendering of frijoles refritos, the well-fried beans of northern Mexico and the Southwest — boiled first, then fried in fat until they thicken on themselves. (The prefix is an intensifier rather than a literal "twice," though the twice-cooked gloss is often repeated.) The recipe also shows how Mexican cooking entered mainstream English-language books of the period — the technique is transmitted accurately, but the seasoning is pared down to a single chile and salt.