Pintos with Cornbread Dumplings

A variation on soup beans — instead of eating cornbread on the side, small cornbread dumplings were cooked directly in the pot of simmering pinto beans. The dumplings absorbed the bean broth and pork fat, and swelled into soft, porky, intensely flavored cornmeal nuggets. An all-in-one pot meal that needed nothing else. Carried in a mason jar to the field.

Ingredients

• 1 lb dried pinto beans, soaked and cooked with fatback until tender (see Soup Beans in Mason Jars)
• Cornbread dumplings: 1 cup stone-ground cornmeal, ½ tsp salt, ½ tsp baking powder, enough buttermilk to form a stiff dropping batter (about ½ cup)

Directions

1. Cook pinto beans with fatback until completely tender and swimming in thick, starchy broth.

Bring beans to an active simmer.

1. Make cornbread dumpling batter: mix cornmeal, salt, and baking powder. Add buttermilk gradually until you have a thick, stiff batter that holds a mound.
2. Drop batter by rounded tablespoons directly into the simmering beans.

Do not stir after adding dumplings.

1. Cover pot tightly and cook 15–18 minutes without lifting the lid.
2. Dumplings will have puffed and absorbed the bean broth.
3. Season with salt and pepper. Ladle beans and dumplings together into mason jars.

Notes

Do not lift the lid while the dumplings cook — the steam is what makes them puff. This one-pot preparation eliminated the need to bake cornbread separately and created a more substantial dish. The dumplings absorb bean flavor more thoroughly than any side cornbread ever could.