Bean Pots for Your Kitchen

Bean pots are great for cooking beans, soups, stews, and sauces, or anything that requires slow cooking. It is a wonderful choice to accompany any dinnerware set, and chances are you can find one that matches. What is really great is that the selection of these pots can do double duty as cookware and a serving accessory.

A bean pot, as defined, is actually a vessel that is generally made of ceramic or cast iron. It has a unique shape with a wide belly, a short neck and a narrow mouth. This design is supposed to minimize evaporation and retain heat so that the beans can be slow-cooked for a long time.

Selection of Pots Designed for Cooking Beans

I remember a Ceramic Bean Pot that was in a cabin that we stayed in at Buchanan Lake. It was two-tone brown and it had bowls that matched. My family never used these, except when we stayed at the cabin, but later in life, I had a set that was a lot like this.

Nowadays, there are Stoneware Bean Pots that are attractive and can be matched to just about any kitchen décor. I like them because they are ideal to use as cookware and for serving.

When my boys were younger, they went camping a lot with the Royal Rangers. They learned to cook in cast Iron Dutch ovensover the campfire. In that environment, a Dutch oven pot is ideal for cooking beans and stews. They even used the cast iron pot to cook cobbler.

Family Heirloom

There is a famous pot in my family that is used for cooking beans. It belonged to my Grandpa who cooked the best pinto beans ever known. It is actually a Dutch oven that has a vent in the lid. I don't know for sure if it is stainless steel or aluminum cookware, but I do know that the beans taste different when they are cooked in that pot. We also use it to cook taco meat and chicken and dumplings, and Grandpa used to cook home-grown apples in it to make amazing apple sauce for breakfast.

It's not a pretty pot that would be ideal for serving, but my informal family leaves it on the stove and we serve from there. What is really great about it, is it carry on family traditions and brings back good memories from the past.