American · Appalachian · side

Leather Britches (Dried Shuck Beans) with Streaked Meat

Name: Leather Britches (Dried Shuck Beans) with Streaked Meat
Prep time: 3 h 3 min
Total time: 11 h 3 min
Cuisine: American · Appalachian
Ingredients: dried shuck beans — 225 g; water — 2000 g; salt pork — 170 g; water — 1500 g; yellow onion — 200 g; salt — 5 g; black pepper — 5 g; bacon grease — 27 g; apple cider vinegar — 15 g

Leather Britches (Dried Shuck Beans) with Streaked Meat reads umami 8.9, salinity 8.6 and richness 8.1 on Palate's 0–10 flavor X-ray — a American · Appalachian side, about 11 hr 3 min. Measured from the recipe itself: ingredients and technique.

The flavor X-ray — six axes, 0–10

Umami & Savory — 9.9 / 10
Sweet & Fruity — 3.0 / 10
Sour & Bright — 4.1 / 10
Bitter & Earthy — 2.8 / 10
Rich & Fat — 8.1 / 10
Aromatic & Spice — 4.6 / 10

The measured notes (of 18)

Umami 8.9 · Salinity 8.6 · Richness 8.1 · Allium 4.3 · Sourness 4.1 · Sweetness 3.0 · Smoke 2.4 · Earthy 2.0 · Warm Spice 1.7 · Funk & Ferment 1.4 · Heat 1.0 · Bitterness 0.9 · Herbaceous 0.6 · Floral 0.6

What's in it (9)

dried shuck beans — 225 g
water — 2000 g
salt pork — 170 g
water — 1500 g
yellow onion — 200 g
salt — 5 g
black pepper — 5 g
bacon grease — 27 g
apple cider vinegar — 15 g

Time & effort: about 11 hr 3 min (3 hr 3 min active) · effort: involved

Nutrition (per 100 g, engine-estimated): 39 kcal, 0.3 g protein, 4 g fat, 0.6 g carbs

Dietary: Contains meat — engine-derived; double-check anything allergy-critical.

How it's cooked (7 steps)

Leather britches are green beans preserved by drying, and the preservation is the flavour — not a fallback for a season without a freezer but a deliberate transformation. Whole green beans are threaded on a length of cotton string with a needle, hung in a dry, airy place out of the sun for two to three weeks until they are shrivelled, leathery and rattle, and stored in a sack. What comes back out is not a green bean. It is darker, chewier, faintly smoky and mushroomy, with a concentration that fresh beans do not have.
Half-runner and greasy beans are the traditional varieties because their pods dry without going papery. You can make your own in September or buy them from an Appalachian seed keeper or farmers' market; several mail-order growers in western North Carolina and east Tennessee sell them by the bag.
Soak the dried beans in the warm water for at least 8 hours, or overnight. They will swell back to nearly their original size and the water will go brown. Drain them and pick out any stems.
Render the streaked meat in a heavy pot over medium heat, 10 minutes, turning, until the fat has run out and the slices are browning at the edges. Streaked meat is salt-cured pork side belly, sold as streak-o-lean or white bacon at Southern counters; unsmoked salt pork is the nearest thing and smoked bacon is not, because smoke will bury the bean.
Add the drained beans, the fresh water and the quartered onion. Bring to a boil, then simmer covered 2½ hours, until the beans are completely tender and have gone a soft khaki-brown. They will never look bright and they are not supposed to.
Uncover for the last 20 minutes so the liquid reduces to a few spoonfuls around the beans. Season with the salt and black pepper — taste first, because the streaked meat carries a lot of salt.
Stir in the bacon grease and the cider vinegar off the heat and serve them hot, with cornbread.

Dishes with a similar flavor shape

Loaded Baked Potato Soup — American
Loaded Baked Potato Soup with Crispy Bacon — American
Smothered Turkey Wings with Onion Gravy — Southern
Beef Wellington — British
Smothered Pork Neck Bones and Rice — Soul Food

Keep reading: what umami, salinity, richness mean in the flavor lexicon · the world's cuisines, by flavor.

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Every number above is Palate's engine-measured estimate, computed from this recipe's ingredients and techniques — not human-tasted ratings or reviews.