Great, just great answers from all of you! I cooked another pot of beans in
the crock pot today. This morning I dropped off two water samples at a
environmental lab, got a friend. I will report back the results.

No time at the moment.

Thank you all!

doc

"David Wright" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 22 Oct 2003 19:32:51 -0500, "William Jennings"
wrote:

Expert advice/opinions and pontification will be much appreaciated. I
want
to be able to consistently do this. Yes,
I make good/o.k Frijoles a la Charra often but what made them so great
this
time?

Thanks,
doc

doc,

I enjoyed and agreed with what both Wayne and Misschef said. I can add
only two things.

First, maybe the long, slow cooking helped bring out the flavors of
all those wonderful and compatible ingredients, something that may not
happen when you (the collective "you") cook beans rapidly on the stove
to get them done as soon as possible. That might account for why beans
and soup often taste better the next day. (I'm going to test that
hypothesis with my next pot of beans.)

Also, if you're like I used to be when I was doing lots of field work
and camping, all that fresh air and strenuous activity just makes food
taste better. I still think back to how good some of the simplest
meals tasted when I was out of the kitchen and in camp.

Do you do much dutch oven cooking? I used to be friends in Idaho with
a couple who took people on float trips on the Salmon River. The "she"
of the couple was a good and versatile cook with dutch ovens, and used
them for breakfast and dinner every day on the river.

David