Rheinischer Schnippelbohneneintopf

Schnippelbohneneintopf belongs to the Rhineland and the old preserving larder, strongest in autumn and winter when the fresh bean season is shut and the crock has done its work. The beans are sliced, salted, and soured by lactic fermentation, then cooked with potato, bacon, and smoked sausage until the pot tastes sharp, smoky, and plain in the right way. This is weekday food that can sit on a Sunday table without dressing itself up.

The regions disagree the way they should. In the Rhineland and the Ruhrgebiet, the sour bean is the point, often with Mettenden, smoked pork sausage, and a little bacon fat. Westphalian pots run darker and smokier. Further south, green beans are more often cooked fresh with savory and potato, and the sour crock has less to say. Im Norden anders, im Süden anders. German food is not one plate.

The technique is simple and it decides the stew: rinse the sour beans, then add them only after the potatoes have started to soften. Acid tightens potato starch and keeps it stubborn; put the beans in too early and the potatoes stay hard at the edges while the sausage gives up all its smoke. Rinse too long and you've thrown away the dish. Taste, rinse briefly, and keep a spoon of the bean brine for the end if the pot needs its bite back.

Weggeworfen wird nichts. The bacon rind, if you've got it, goes into the pot and comes out before serving, because it gives body where a packet would give salt and dust. Nicht aus dem Glas, unless the glass is your own preserving jar of beans. There is a difference.