Mayacoba Beans

These beans are very buttery with a mild herb flavor.  They are wonderful hot out of the pot over rice or chilled in a bean salad.  I used them as a side dish along with steamed brown rice with grilled vegetable kabobs and chicken sausage.  The leftover beans are stored away in my freezer for later use…maybe a bean salad.  Here’s the recipe for the Mayacoba beans…

1 lb Mayacoba beans

4 garlic cloves, smashed

A bunch of herbs (I used thyme, rosemary, oregano, & bay leaf)

6 oz salt pork

About 12 cups of water

Salt, tt

Pick through your beans, looking for discolored, shriveled, or broken pieces along with any pebbles.

Soak your beans overnight or use the quick soak process (see the black bean post for details).  Rinse them well after soaking and before cooking.

For the herbs, I leave them on the stem and tie them all together with kitchen twine (the French culinary term is “bouquet garni,” which means garnished bouquet).  This makes it really easy to remove the stems and leave only the herb leaves behind to flavor your bean liquor. 

I happened to be out of twine this time, so I just cut an extra long piece of thyme as a substitute and it actually worked! 

Place the beans in a large pot along with the garlic, bouquet garni, salt pork, and water.  Place the pot over high heat to bring to a boil.  Skim any foam and turn down the heat so the beans are on a simmer.  Cover the pot loosely, stirring occasionally.  Cook until the beans are tender, about 45 minutes to 2 hours.  At this point, you may salt the beans to taste. 

The cooking time will largely depend on what kind of soaking method you used and how long you soaked.  I soaked my beans for 2 nights and they were done in 1 hour.  If you are going to soak the beans for more than 24 hours, place them in the refrigerator.