Chuckwagon Beans

Here's something from the archives as I'm betting ready to head to Pleasanton. This is from Leonard "WagonCook" Sanders, who lives a couple hours north of me.

I cook beans as a side dish at the chuckwagon. We cook mostly pinto beans in #10 stove type Dutch ovens using only bottom heat. A #10 stove-type Dutch oven is close in volume to a #12 camp Dutch oven. Three pounds of beans with ham or bacon and onions added will feed 50 people.

Chuckwagon bean math: 2 cups dry pinto beans equal 1-pound. So put 6 cups or 3 pounds of pinto beans into a #12 camp Dutch oven. Add bacon or ham or other meat and onions, etc., and it will feed 50 people. If you have no other side dishes, you may want to make extra beans.

At the cattleman's dinner I cooked 100 pounds of red beans for 1,000 people because it was the only side dish. As a wagon cook, 'Beans is my forte.' Email me with any questions. Our 'Gossippin' Bean' recipe is famous. The beans are pleasant to your face but talk behind your back.

Happy Cookin' Wagoncook, Palermo, Calif.

Sometimes WagonCook uses high-tech methods to cook his beans. This shot is from his 50th birthday bash as few years ago.