Navy Bean

Instead of using canned tuna, this recipe puts you in control of the quality of the tuna and how long to cook it. We like it on the medium-rare side.

Our test kitchen had an Aha! moment with this dish. Crumbled bacon, mixed in with the breadcrumbs, makes a great topping for these tangy-sweet beans. We think the combo would do the same for mac and cheese.

A specialty of the southwest of France, cassoulet—named for cassole, the oval earthenware dish in which it was made—is a rich, slow-cooked bean stew made with white beans, meats (most often pork and sausages), and duck or goose confit. The dish is time consuming—it can take an entire day from start to finish—but is manageable when you break it into three tasks, which can be spaced out over a few days. The first step is to prepare Duck Confit (see page 232). Next the beans (which have to be soaked overnight) are cooked on the stove. Then the confit and beans are layered in a pot, along with pork and sausage, and baked for about three hours.

When you’re finished slicing and chopping a smoky beef brisket, what’s left on the cutting board are the coveted crusty, juicy bits called the burnt ends. In beans, burnt ends add robust, meaty flavor just like a ham hock, a hunk of salt pork, or bacon. Here the bits of barbecue and meat juices are tossed in with canned white beans that have been doctored up with the regular barbecue sauce ingredients. We add pretty much any cheater BBQ meat scraps to canned pork and beans, too.

After moving to Tennessee, R. B. discovered that his favorite baked bean cooked without molasses was actually white. Simple white beans flavored with salty local country ham are a favorite at Nashville’s famous “meat and three” restaurants and at catfish joints all over Tennessee. A big slice of white onion on the side is a must. The other popular white bean garnish is a spoonful of sweet-savory chow-chow (cabbage relish). Chow-chow is available in the pickle section of Southern supermarkets.

It’s no big deal to make a pot of real “baked” beans, especially if you forget about the baking part and use a slow cooker. The only work is cooking the bacon and onion before dumping everything into the crock. Boston beans have lots in common with barbecue. The vital ingredients—molasses, mustard, onion, and bacon—are the same components that impart the barbecue balance of sweet/sour/savory in sauces. In the slow cooker, the beans finish up just as thick and dark as any from Boston.

Using canned beans instead of dried greatly reduces the cooking time for this New England specialty, but you can use dried beans instead (see page 365 for soaking instructions).

This flavorful potato, bean, and mushroom stew is ready in less than an hour. You can use other beans, such as black-eyed peas, in place of the navy beans; kale or Swiss chard would be nice substitutions for the spinach leaves.

An unexpected and even elegant side dish (I love that it can also be served cold, as a dip). You can make this with leftover cooked beans, canned beans, or frozen beans—in which case it will take 10 minutes—but if you cook dried beans this way, with these seasonings, they’ll be sensational. Other legumes you can prepare this way: chickpeas (allow for longer cooking time), flageolets.

Years ago, Mrs. Herman Talmadge, wife of our state senator, shared with us Georgia ladies the bean soup recipe that was served in the Senate dining room. It is quite wonderful.

A few years ago, at Easter, in addition to the usual spread of ham and sides, I made a gratin of white beans, country ham, and collards from Frank Stitt’s very fine Southern Table cookbook. That dish, which everyone raved about, and the leftover ham bone—a prized ingredient that should never, ever be put to waste—inspired this low-on-the-hog soup.

The creaminess of navy beans makes a great base for spreads and dips, which I’ve supercharged by adding sun-dried tomatoes. Use it as a sandwich spread, or a dollop on veggies.

This dish has much of the flavor of a cassoulet but is considerably simpler, because it uses ready-cooked duck-leg confit, which is obtainable today in most good markets and can also be ordered online.

Greeks often serve white beans on days of fasting as a filling alternative to meat. Good alone or served over orzo or brown rice, these beans have even more flavor the second day.

They call it the Tunisian cassoulet.