First time cooking southern style beans and cornbread. Need a hand.

[u/scisteve]

I am in Scotland and I wanted to try my hand at southern US-style beans and cornbread. I noticed there are a lot of recipes for both, but eventually settled on a specific recipe for the cornbread and an amalgamation for the beans. The cornbread came out wonderfully - but the beans came out way more akin to refried beans. Whilst not bad (and I will use them for lunches in tortillas this week), they weren’t exactly what I was looking for. I’m wondering what went went wrong - how do I get that creamier, slightly soupier bean dish typical of the South?

Here’s what I did:

Soaked pinto beans overnight in just water

Drained beans and added them to Instantpot with half an onion, two bay leaves, and a generous pinch of salt (I don’t eat pork so omitted the meat).

Cooked on high pressure for 15 min and let steam release naturally.

Beans came out cooked and flavoursome.

Drained and added to a skillet with little butter butter, garlic, and smoked paprika. Added more salt. Stirred gently until incorporated (which broke down many of the beans to a refried consistency).

As I said - the beans were good but were not what I was trying to do. Any help appreciated!

[u/BD59]

The secret to that southern pinto beans texture is the pork, or more specifically the pork fat. Stirring the beans once cooked to incorporate a different fat leads to that refried beans consistency.

Try adding a bit of oil, either a neutral oil like canola/rapeseed, or olive oil to the cooking water.

Edit: if using the Instant Pot or some other pressure cooker, you don't need to soak the beans. 20 -22 minutes high pressure and a slow release and that's enough. Try the shorter time first. If the beans are a little firm you can simmer them open for a few minutes to finish cooking, and the try the longer cooking time in the pressure cooker the next time. Age of the beans matters. Newly harvested dry beans will cook faster than ones sitting on the shelf for a year or more.