Taco Bell Refried Beans . Secret (REQ. from April 14, 2009)
Jonadab the Unsightly One
The secret you are looking for is probably either the lard, or the amount of processing.
The beans themselves are pintos, and they arrive at the restaurant dry, in bags, having been cooked, cooled, dried, and ground at a food processing
plant. At the restaurant they add boiling-hot water and a scoop of lard, stir, and let them stand (on the heated food-prep table) about five minutes
before they're ready. That's it. One bag makes about 2 quarts of refried bean product, maybe 3 quarts (I'm going from memory here), and the lard
scoop holds I think about a third of a cup of lard, give or take a bit.
Unlike meats and most vegetables, refried beans are good more or less indefinitely, as long as you don't inadvertently contaminate them (e.g., by
dishing them up using a scoop that was previously in meat).
If they get too dry, you just add more hot water and stir, and they're fine. If you add too much water, you just let them stand a few extra minutes
(on the hot table; it's a hot-water-under-the-pans type of arrangement, not entirely dissimilar from a double boiler), and they thicken right up. You
can store what's left at the end of the night in a refrigerator overnight, and the next day all they have to do is heat them up again and they're fine.
So, like I said, the secret you're looking for is probably either the amount of processing, or the lard.
As far as the pre-processing that's done at the factory, that does make them nice and smooth, but you can simulate essentially the same effect by
repeated mashing, reheating, and adding water when they get dry. There's no such thing as overdone refried beans, so start them first thing, before
you prepare the rest of the meal, and then leave them on low heat the whole time you're in the kitchen and just look in on them briefly from time to
time as you go. Stir in some more water whenever they start to get dry. Heat until thick, stir, add water, heat until thick, stir, add water, as best
I can tell the more times you repeat this cycle the smoother they get until they asymptotically approach the consistency of a nice homogeneous paste.
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