Judión beans, burnt butter, far too much pepper

The pot everyone writes to me about. Six hours, mostly unattended, and a lot of black pepper ground at the very end.

Rcp beans 1
Category Slow pots
Time 6 h, mostly alone
Serves 6 at a squeeze
Season November to March
Card No. 214
All Recipes

Eleven attempts and four ruined cards before this one worked. The beans have to be the big flat ones and they have to soak overnight; the quick soak makes them split and you get soup instead of beans.

Burn the butter properly. Not brown, burnt, until the solids are the colour of a chestnut and the kitchen smells slightly alarming. That is the whole dish.

What goes wrong

Salting early. Do it in the last twenty minutes or the skins stay tough no matter how long you leave the pot on.