The Ingredients That Can Make Or Break Your Black Beans

Cooking legend Rick Bayless, who recently partnered with hot sauce brand El Yucateco, has a lot of opinions on cooking black beans. And of course he does, because in Mexican cuisine — his specialty — beans are not just a supporting player to other dishes, they are a food that can hold their own if only given the right treatment. A few ingredients that Bayless insists on when it comes to black beans are pork lard, an addition that provides a savory richness that oil alone simply can't mimic, and epazote, a Mexican herb that looks like a wild weed but changes everything once it hits the pot thanks to its aromatic flavor. He also recommends onion and garlic.

Of the first two ingredients, Bayless underscores pork lard's importance in particular. "Pork lard is a really essential flavor in the cooking of beans," he notes to us exclusively. Bayless also makes it clear that dried epazote isn't what you want to add to your black beans. "Dried is not for culinary uses," he says. "When you find dried epazote, it is just the stems. It's to make into it herbal tea that is for stomach problems. So go for fresh epazote, and in addition to incredible flavor you may find it reduces bloating too.

Of course, beans aren't always cooked from scratch so even if your pantry is stocked with cans only, there are still plenty of ways to season canned black beans — think cumin, chili powder, or even jalapeños. And whatever you do, don't forget to keep the liquid inside the can as that thick, starchy liquid helps add flavor and bring a smooth body to the final dish. 

So if pork lard and epazote are the big flavorsome players to simmering a perfect pot of black beans, then onions and garlic are the quiet but essential workers behind the scenes. Rick Bayless gives the latter two ingredients their dues because while they may not dominate in a major way, they are just as important to setting the stage. Giving them a fry at the start is all you need to do to bring these aromatics to life, cooking them down until the onion brings a soft sweetness and garlic brings a warm fragrance.

There are actually cooking techniques that can shift how these flavors show up. Cooking onions down slowly brings out their natural sugars, which will round out other flavors, whereas with a shorter and quick fry or saute, they will stay more pungent. The same is true of garlic. By adding it in early, it will blend in with other flavors, but if you stir some raw garlic in towards the end, you'll find it is much sharper in taste. 

Black beans built on a strong onion-and-garlic base can then be served with roasted vegetables, folded into tacos, or simmered down for a quick soup that tastes like it took hours but in reality, just had the right foundation. Just don't leave out the salt or you might make the mistake of making bitter black bean soup. Skip these other essential ingredients and the pot may lose its balance — yes, the beans will taste fine but they will lack that sense of tasting complete and being a full meal all on their own.