Ranch Style Beans...

A few weeks ago, my daughter gave me challenge to go through my music library and find as many songs about or from Texas, I could find. I came up with 36 songs, which mentioned Texas or a Texas town. One of my favorites is by George Strait, titled Texas Cookin.

Now I know everyone place has their own food and flavors but there is nothing like Ranch Style Beans, Texas BBQ and fried okra, yum!

Ranch Style Beans is a staple in my house. I have to make sure, I have plenty on hand. My daughter will eat them cold out of the can for breakfast, if I would let her. I usually have to make three cans at a time. One for the daughter, one for the husband, my son and I enjoy them, we usually eat the equivalent of one can between us. I guess they stand in good company since it is said that Humphrey Bogart used to buy ten cases at a time. Grace Kelly and Elizabeth Taylor were among the few who used to special order them.

“The sad thing about Ranch Style Beans is they will never taste the same way again. In 2009, ConAgra foods move the plant from just outside downtown Fort Worth to Ohio and Tennessee. To Texans this is like the Pace Salsa commercial about people getting their salsa from New York City. It just is unheard of! To quote Jim Lane a Fort Worth City Council Member “I can't get myself to eat beans from Ohio. I guess a lot of us in Fort Worth will be cooking our own beans."

 

According to Con Agra's history, Sam Hanna and a partner, Joe Owens, set up a thriving commissary to provide munitions on the outskirts of Denison to the hunters and ranchers with their much-needed ammo. Their wares included food for the workers on the railroad and travelers coming across Red River at Chickasaw Ben Colbert's ferry landing

The commissary was stocked with bags of coffee beans, a cracker barrel, bulk sugar and barrels of lard.

Then after Pat Tobin brought the first Katy train into the depot in downtown Denison, Hanna and Owens moved on, into town, and built a 25 by 80 foot permanent structure across the street south from the depot. That business later became Waples-Platter Grocery at 100 E. Main.

The goods were shipped in on the train, then groceries were sent out in wagons. Delivery wasn't simple, according to a 1995 article in the Denison Herald written by Calvin Mauldin. The wagons had to travel on narrow trails into Indian Territory and other locations nearby in the new frontier.

Almost overnight, according to Mauldin, Denison became the shipping point for the cattle brought in. Denison soon became the Dodge City of the southwest, resulting in a need for munitions.

Then in 1878 A.F. Platter joined the company and seven years later E.B. Waples and his sons, Paul and John, came into the business. The men had progressive ideas and it wasn't long before the company was known as Waples Platter, a wholesale grocery company with a coffee roasting plant housed in the 100 block of South Houston, just behind where a large brick Waples-Platter Grocery Co., had been built. The grocery building housed MK&T offices for many years and now is the Katy Antique Station operated by Paulette Hyatt.

The aroma of freshly brewed coffee drifted around the depot where trains came and went. In May 1959 the doors of the coffee roasting plant were closed, leaving eight tasters without jobs.

In 1914 Waples-Platter purchased Blanke & Co., in Dallas. The company established a reputation of providing pure foods in cans instead of in the then-common bulky bags that were exposed to the elements or possibly bugs and other varmints.

 While those beans started out near Denison at the commissary near Red River, it was 1935 before they were introduced to the public after three years of extensive research.”

Want to try Ranch Style Beans? If you can’t find them at your local grocery store, below is a knock off recipe. Granted unless you use water from Fort Worth, Texas they will never taste like the original but it is as close as you can get!

The recipe is from the Homesick Texan

Ranch style beans
Ingredients:
16 oz. of dried pinto beans
6 ancho chiles, stems and seeds removed
6 cloves of garlic, minced
1 onion, diced
1 15 oz. can of tomatoes (or 2 medium-sized tomatoes, peeled)
1 teaspoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1 cup of water
6 cups of beef broth
Salt and black pepper to taste

Method:
Soak the beans covered in water—either overnight or the quick soak method in which you place the beans in a pot, cover with water, bring to a boil, cover and remove from heat and let sit for one hour.

Drain the soaked beans.

In a cast-iron skillet heated up to medium high, cook the anchos on each side for a couple of minutes (or until they start to bubble and pop), turn off the heat and fill the skillet with warm water. Let them sit until soft and rehydrated, which should happen after half an hour or so.

In the pot you’ll be cooking your beans, heat up a teaspoon of canola oil and cook the onions for ten minutes on medium. Add the garlic and cook for another minute. Throw the cooked onions and garlic in a blender and add the tomatoes, brown sugar, apple cider vinegar, paprika, cumin, oregano, water and hydrated ancho chiles. Puree until smooth.

Add the pinto beans and beef broth to the pot and stir in the chile puree. On high, bring the pot to a boil and then cover; turn the heat down to low and simmer for two and a half hours, stirring occasionally. At this point, I check my beans for tenderness as depending on the freshness of the beans I find that the cooking time can be as short as two and a half hours and as long as four hours. When you're satisfied that the beans are done, salt and pepper to taste.

Feeds four to six.

Notes: If you can’t find dried ancho chiles, you can substitute either ancho chile powder or regular chili powder. I’d use 1/4 of a cup. These are not fiery beans, but if you want a bit more heat I'd throw in a bit of Cayenne. And I always add a pinch of baking soda to my soaking beans to help with digestion issues. You may do the same.