Dried Vs Canned: What's The Best Choice For Refried Beans

Canned beans are a marvel of modernity, cutting down on the hours it takes to make beans from scratch. That said, most chefs and traditional purists will always opt for dried beans over canned. In an interview with Tasting Table, private chef and media personality Ronaldo Linares makes a compelling argument for using dried beans to make refried beans.

While there's no way to tell how old dried beans are, once you've soaked and cooked them, they'll taste much fresher than any canned variety. Linares says, "Fresh is always better, using dried beans allows you to control what you put in it." This is especially important for refried beans since they rely on the cooking liquid and additional aromatics for seasoning and texture. Using fresh garlic, onions, and dried chilis in the cooking liquid will already give your beans an advantage, but you'll also use fresh ingredients and your choice of cooking fat when you fry and smash the beans.

When you control what you put into your refried beans, you can make them as spicy, aromatic, or savory as you'd like. You also have more control over the nutritional content of refried beans. Linares points out, "Canned refried beans tend to have a high content of salt and other ingredients to prolong the shelf life." Dried beans are whole ingredients with no chemical preservatives or sodium, giving you a pure, all-natural foundation to work with.

An overnight soak, hour-long boil, and at least a ten minute saute and mash place scratch-made refried beans as one of the most time-consuming recipes. Chef Linares can appreciate the time constraints of our busy modern lives. He says, "If you don't have the time, source out refried beans using good for you ingredients."

To follow Linares' advice, you can look for cans of refried bean brands with low-sodium content; many will be labeled as light or low sodium. You can also check the percent daily value of sodium on the nutrition information. A sodium content of 20% or higher of your daily value is very high. You can also check the list of ingredients to see if there are any chemical preservatives, which will usually follow the last real food ingredient.

Of course, nutrition isn't the only important aspect of canned refried beans. You want them to taste good right out of the can so that you don't have to resort to adding more flavors yourself. Since lard is a common ingredient in traditional refried beans and is often what makes them restaurant-worthy, it might be a good sign to see lard as opposed to oil on the ingredients list. You should also look for seasoning ingredients that you might find in homemade refried bean recipes, like garlic, onions, chilis, and spices like cumin, bay leaves, and oregano.