SHUCK BEANS POPPING

Over the Thanksgiving holiday I had fixed some Shuck Beans for my brother-in-law. Here in the mountains it is a favorite during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.We sat and had a good laugh at what I had done with them in the early years of my cooking.
 Now if you don't know what Shuck Beans are, they are dried garden beans. Most of us in the mountains have gardens during the summer. We take White Half Runner, Peanut Beans and the best ones Greasy Beans and dry them. You let them get full, pick them and wash them and let them dry good. Then you string them and break them up and spread them in a thin layer  on a piece of wood or sheetrock , etc.and put a sheer curtain over them to keep the bugs out and you lay them out in the sun for around 5 days to dry. They will change color from green to light tan and dry up to hardly nothing. You put them in zip lock bags and put them in the freezer until ready to fix. If you have garden beans that have dryed on the vine pick them off and make sure they are good and dryed and add to the ziplock bags. The more lose beans the better it makes them.
Now how to fix them. You take around 5 handfuls of them and put in a kettle over night and let them soak. This brings them back to the regular size. You wash them three times then put more water in them and put on the stove to cook. Let them cook around ten minutes and take them off and rinse them and then put back in the kettle to continue cooking. This takes around 5 hours or more until done and well worth the trouble. I put a big piece of jowl meat or salt bacon in mine with some cooking oil or lard. You have to watch them and not let them dry down and have to add more water to them until they are done cooking on medium heat. Don't put salt in them or any type dryed beans until almost done or they WILL NOT get done. Trust me. lol.
Now the part of what I done when I was first married.
We were having a church homecoming and everyone loves Shuck Beans so I decieded to fix some. I did not know much about them them so I put the whole bag full in the kettle because I thought that sure was not many beans. I put the water in them and then went in the living room and sit down. In a little while I saw smoke so I went in the kitchen to see where it was coming from. There was shuck beans all over the stove, in the floor and they just kept popping over the kettle. What a mess. lol. When I got finished I had enough beans for two big kettles.They have never let me live that down. That has been around 20 years ago and we still sit and giggle about it when I fix them. So make sure you know how many to put in that kettle.........Wish I had some now with a big piece of cornbread and a big onion.