Red beans & rice tips

Smash a bunch of dem beans up w/ the back of your spoon.

I always put pickled pork in mine to help flavor them...or a ham bone is always good.

bring your simmer to a rolling boil for longer after you add the sausage onin, bellpepper, and GARLIC. It'll bring the water down. Smush some of the beans at this time, don't overdoe it though, you can do more as the water goes down to check consistency. Add chicken stock. If it's not down enough at the end add some corn starch and rolling boil again with lots of stirring. Don't cover it. You wan the water to evaporate. It takes me about 3 hours to cook my redbeans.

For extra flavor:
0.5-1.0 can of chicken stock
2 tablespoons of savoie's roux in a seperate pan with some water added cooked down till it is mixed in well. Stir, smush it, and stir. Don't want to burn it. Sometimes I mix the dried chicken stock (or whatever its called) in with the roux pan.

tetu, your rb&r don't turn out too salty?

I saute onions, garlic, pepper, celery, etc in oil on the side, then add in.

I let everything sit uncovered on a low simmer, even after everything is done, until the beans start to get good. Then mash a bunch against the side of the pot and keep simmering until your consistency is exactly what you want.

I've let red beans simmer for hours. 3 minimum.

And toss a ham bone in there early on.

You need a smoked ham hock, and consider cranking up the spices. Find the Paul Prudhomme recipe on line and read it for ideas.

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saute onions, garlic, pepper, celery, etc in oil on the side, then add in.

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I forgot, I do this as well for about 2/3 of my onion, bpepper, etc mix. I add the other 1/3 when I add the sausage, tasso, shrimp, or whatever to the beans.

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No. From what, the chicken stock? I rarely use the whole can for a pot of beans

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yeah, just seems like with that and the roux and the seasoning it and then simmering off a lot of the water it would come out salty.

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rewash them two or three times,

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I'm no expert, but I've always been told to wash the beans first, soak them overnight and simmer the beans in the same water. Don't know why, but I've always followed that advice.