Bean Chowder

This is an old family stand-by that we all have memorized but over time has changed slightly because we just get the recipe wrong in our heads. 

Referencing the original recipe, there are a few key things to note:

1. Use Owen's Hot Sausage (it's not really hot just has more flavor) or purchase the store brand sausage from HEB/Central Market.  Don't use Jimmy Dean's because it is far too oily and will throw off the consistency of the chowder even if you drain off the fat after you've browned the sausage.

2. My mother uses seasoned salt while I use salt.  The main thing to remember with either ingredient is to not use too much or it will be too salty to eat.

3. The original recipe calls for tomatoes that you break up after you add the ingredients but that's too much work and a can of diced tomatoes is perfect so I've altered the list of ingredients below.

4. The recipe calls for 1/2 of a green bell pepper but I use a whole green bell pepper because I like green bell peppers and I think it's the perfect amount.  I feel like 1/2 would be too little.  Also the receipe calls for 1 cup diced potatoe but I use 1 whole diced (skinned of course) russet potatoe of average size.

5. The final alteration is I simmer the chowder after adding the potatoes and green bell pepper for 30 minutes but the original recipe says 15-20 minutes.  After 30 minutes the potatoes are perfectly cooked and at 15 they're not.  I've adjusted the directions below to accommodate this change.

I've noted all of the above in case someone wants to try the original recipe which I believe comes from my mother's Better Homes and Garden cookbook from 1961 which she received as a wedding present. The final paragraph is a note that my mother added to the receipe when she emailed it to me because while discussing it we both realized we had different ideas about how to make it.  She pulled the original recipe (it had been years since either of us had referenced it) and noted all the things we were doing "wrong." 

Whichever version someone makes, we all LOVE this dish and have continued to share it down the generations!

Bean Chowder

Ingredients:

1 lb bulk pork sausage

2 cans (16 oz each) kidney beans

1 can (1 lb, 13 oz) diced tomatoes

1 qt water (4 cups)

1 large onion

1 bay leaf

1 /1/2 teaspoons seasoned salt

1/2 teaspoon garlic salt

1/2 teaspoon thyme

1/8 teaspoon pepper

1 diced russet potato

1 green bell pepper, chopped

Directions:

In a skillet, cook pork sausage until brown.  Pour off fat then add kidney beans, tomatoes, water, onion, bay leaf, seasoned salt, garlic salt, thyme and pepper.  Simmer, covered, 1 hour.  Add potatoes and green peppe then cook, covered 30 minutes, until potatoes are tender.  Remove bay leaf.  

Yield: 8 generous portions.

Every once in a while I go back to reflect on this original recipe, and I have been surprised a time or two that I had been making it wrong.  I always confuse the amt of tomatoes and beans because it calls for 1 can tomatoes and 2 cans of beans.  Had to pay attention to size of cans.