Now that I fed your mind a few tasty tidbits, it's time to sit back, relax, smoke a doobie, grab a beer and a spoon, and enjoy the bean that won the west. This dish is cheap, easy to make, will feed all of your hungriest friends including your Eager Eater, and is spicy, hot and dee-licious, what more could you ask for from a meal. (If you want to feed less folks, half this, more folks then double it. George always made at least this much because he loved the leftovers. He would have a tasty breakfast waiting for him when he woke up with even some leftover for lunch and dinner.)
Take a pound of dry pinto beans. Sort them, throwing away all the small, deformed and broken ones and any small rocks too. Put them in to a big pot then rinse them a few times. Cover them with double the amount of water, throwing out any floaters and skins. Let soak over night. Next day about 3 or 4 hours before you want to eat them, dump out the water and rinse them again. Then fill the pot back up with fresh water to about 2 inches over the top of the beans. Bring to a boil then turn down to a simmer. Add the following all coarsely chopped; 1 entire head of garlic. 2 large white or yellow onions. A dozen fresh or pickled jalapinos (I seed mine, George never did. Also, Wimps add half as many, machos a habenero or three) 2 carrots, 4 or 5 bay leafs. A good pinch of oregano and cumino's. One of the following; A quarter pound of either bacon or bacon ends, smoked ham (any kind will do), salt pork or 1 ham hock (Veggie’s leave the meat out and add some salt. It won’t be as good but it will still be tasty) Bring the beans back to boil, cover, then turn down your fire to it's lowest setting until the beans are just barely bubbling.
Sit around with your friends, smoke a joint, drink a beer, and stir them beans at least once every 15 minutes (you cannot over cook beans but you can burn them if you don't stir them regularly. If you do burn them then do not stir up the ones on the bottom of the pot or it will ruin the whole batch). Sit and stir them suckers for a good 2 hours. Then, fish out the salty pork pieces and put them aside. You can either re-add them later, eat them now or feed them to your dog. Add more water if necessary, it should always cover the beans by at least an inch. The pintos should now be close to done, so add the following;
A fresh never been frozen pork butt, pork shoulder, pork roast, pork chops or country style pork ribs (make sure they have never been frozen by ringing the butcher and asking him, because if the pork is fresh the meat will just fall off the bones when it's done. If it has been frozen you will have to cut the meat off the bones. Also, I trim most of the fat off of my piece of pork, George never did "The flavor's in the fat, dummy!") Simmer still stirring every 15 minutes for another hour or so until the meat does fall of the bones or you know it's done and you have to cut it off. Now dig the meat, skin and bones out of the pot. Cut or shred the pork meat into chunks then put the meat, and if you want, the salty pork pieces, back into the pot.
Test a pinto. It should be as tender as a baby's butt when you bite into it. If it is, bring the beans back to a boil, stirring constantly. Then cut off the heat and let them puppies sit for about 15 minutes to rest and cool.
While the beans are resting, grade up some cheddar, jack, colby, longhorn or any other cheese that suits you. Finally chop up another onion, some cilantro and a few more jalapinos. Serve the pintos with some salsa, warm flour tortillas or sourdough French bread with real butter and lots of cold beer.
A tasty treat that can't be beat! Enjoy, and don't worry about offending any of your friends with that annoying gas, because George guarantees you, "There's not a fart in the carload!"