I used to feel pretty smug when I'd find canned refried beans on sale for a dollar a can, one pound. That was before the recession hit and I discovered bulk pinto beans for 74 cents a pound, 50 cents on sale. I knew there would be a big savings cooking dry beans from scratch, but until today I didn't have access to a food scale to do the math. Right before we left Tucson, I bought a large bag of bulk beans -- six pounds -- at 50 cents a pound. I should have bought twice that, or more. Today I made up a batch of frijoles de olla, using exactly a pound of dried beans. They cooked up to just shy of three and a quarter pounds, which comes out to 16 cents a pound, and they taste much better than the canned beans.
I was curious to see whether "water" is the largest ingredient in canned beans. It is and it isn't. To avoid listing "water" as the first ingredient, they describe the main ingredient as "cooked beans." And what do you suppose those beans are cooked IN?
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