Rice:

1 unit of rice to two of water. 1 cup of rice is roughly three servings of cooked rice, depending on the type of rice and how big you want the servings.

Bring the water to a boil, salt moderately. Add in rice, stir gently. Cover, reduce to simmer.

Depending on the rice, cool for 15-20 minutes, then remove from heat and let stand until all water is absorbed and rice is tender. Sadly, there’s no way to be more precise because there’s so much variance between varieties of rice, humidity, and elevation. It’s one of those things that you’ll have to figure out what works for what you have, and then you’ll know what to do exactly after that.

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Beans:

Even more variable. The type of bean determines the details because some kinds of beans have to be boiled for at least a half hour, or you can die. But if you just do that for all types, others will fall apart and be unpleasant.

However, there’s a few basics that apply across the board. Salt the water for cooking. It improves the overall texture, and keeps the beans from splitting or otherwise not reaching the right internal state before the outside splits. But even that depends on the type of bean.

Soaking isn’t actually mandatory for all beans, though it is for kidney beans for sure. So always, always know what you’re cooking and follow safety procedures for that type of bean.

The process, however, is basically the same. You boil for the recommended time, then reduce the heat. Generally, any spices will be added at that point. Any meat such as a ham hock would be added at this point as well.

All beans are going to benefit from black pepper, garlic and onion. Powdered garlic and onion are not only acceptable, but can be better because the flavor they provide in that form is different. White beans can handle herbs better than darker beans, whereas darker beans tend to take well to spices like paprika, cumin, and coriander. Bay leaves work well with pretty much all of them, as do “hot” spices like cayenne, if you enjoy the heat at all.

But go easy at first. Add the seasonings in, get a brief taste of the water, and let them go for a while, until there’s some color to the water from the beans. Add more if needed, then check again ay the end of the recommended cook time.

My personal favorite is pintos, cooked with a smoked ham hock. I use sage, black pepper, paprika, garlic and onion powder, a hint of cumin, and let them cook until very soft. If you want to stay vegetarian/vegan, skip the ham hock and use smoked paprika instead. But that smokiness is bomb with pintos.

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Po’ boy’s chowchow

1 onion, 1 small head of cabbage, 1 red bell pepper. Vinegar and a bout a quarter to half cup of sugar are mandatory. allspice, and mustard seeds are highly recommended. Cayenne or paprika are optional. The sugar levels are largely preference based, but a bare minimum is necessary for the pickling, so you can’t skip it entirely. Allspice is going to be just a pinch or two for this amount, and maybe a tablespoon of mustard seed.

Cut the cabbage in two, save one for cooking on its own.

Finely chop the cabbage. Pieces should be close to minced, well under a quarter inch.

Do the same with the onion and pepper.

Place in a non reactive container and salt well. Then sit it in the fridge overnight, or about 6 to 8 hours.

After that, drain the mix, rinse it, then drain thoroughly again. Taste, the ensure the flavor isn’t too salty.

Put all of that into a pot and boil it. Once it gets to a boil, cut the heat to a simmer and cook for about ten minutes.

As this is going on, prepare your container/s. a batch this size will usually fit in a quart jar with a little room left over. You don’t have to use a jar for such a small batch, but if you aren’t going to eat it a lot fairly fast, you really need to follow proper canning procedures, and that’s going to use a jar, so that’s how it’s usually done. It’s a pickled product, but can still spoil eventually, and you want the storage container sterile if possible.

So, if you’re going to be consuming it slowly, you’ll move the mix into jars for canning by boiling. Which is a whole processing thing that isn’t going to fit here, but it’s very standardized and easy to find instructions on.

But, if you’ll be chowing down on the chowchow fast enough, any clean container will do, just make sure it’s sealed well. It is edible immediately after cooking, but it’s better chilled and allowed to rest overnight.

It’s important to note that the amount of cabbage involved varies by the size of the head of cabbage. You may need to adjust how much you cut off of the head so that it’s the right amount after the salting and draining. A small head cut in half is usually going to end up under a quart, once it’s been salted. But small is a vague term, and I’ve never bothered to measure one; I just grab the right size and adjust on the fly.

Also, this is po’ boy’s chowchow. It’s the bare bones version of things. The recipe my family uses adds in tomato, more bell peppers, and more spices. My own version of that uses three colors of bell peppers, red, yellow, and orange. I do one white onion and one Vidalia. I also make an extra hot version that adds jalapenos to the mix, plus a healthy dash of cayenne. Chowchow is a southern staple with as many variations as there are families, and there’s commercial brands out there.

You may also notice that none of that is really a recipe at all. That’s because it’s more about the process than any specific ingredients or steps. Even the chowchow, which is pickled, I don’t really measure much because it’s going to vary depending on the produce. You can’t have precise sized of vegetables usually, so you adjust things to the central ingredient, which is cabbage. But the bare minimum batch is going to end up being governed more by the onion and pepper sizes since you can’t really get much smaller with those. You get a feel for it over time. You start cutting the onion in half for a smaller batch size, and you fuck up the spices because they don’t scale down very well past the batch size of this guide. That’s extra true if you’re using cinnamon, nutmeg, and/or clove (which some recipes do use all of those, on top of the allspice).

Ahhh, yeah, give me a bit. I’m not able to really do it up right now, but I’ll be settled in soonish. I’ll do it as a response to your comment here.