Stovetop Cajun White Beans

When you wanna season a pot of white beans in one fell swoop, rely on our White Bean Flavor Infusion. Whether you prefer Great Northerns, Navy Beans, Limas, or Cannellinis, you’ll be good to go.

Stovetop Creole Red Beans

Our Red Bean Flavor Infusion is a tried-and-true blend of authentic Creole spices and vegetables that’ll season a pot of red beans to perfection. You won’t believe how easy it is to get great flavor — just add beans!

Instant Pot Red Bean Soup

Enjoy the traditional flavor of red beans and rice, but in soup form! This recipe involves sautéing vegetables and sausage, then pressure-cooking with red beans, ham hock, and flavorful seasonings. After cooking, the soup is served over rice for a hearty and satisfying meal.

Slow Cooker Beef & Black Bean Chili

This slow cooker beef and black-bean chili is easy, hearty & flavorful, and it’s certain to become a gameday favorite.

Instant Pot White Bean Chili

A fast, comforting, and delicious Instant Pot white chicken chili recipe that’s great for weeknights as well as game day get-togethers.

Mosquito Supper Club in New Orleans. Photo excerpted from Mosquito Supper Club by Melissa Martin (Artisan Books). Copyright © 2020. Photographs by Denny Culbert.

Authentic Cajun cooking in Uptown New Orleans

The Cajun cuisine of Louisiana is many things. The central Louisiana “Cajun prairie” area is known for its boudin (a spicy sausage typically containing ground pork, rice, onion, parsley, green peppers, and plenty of Cajun spices) and smoked meats, among other inland delicacies.

Coastal South Louisiana Cajun communities, however, are known for their seafood – briny oysters, fat jumbo shrimp, tender soft-shell crab, flavorful redfish. But according to New Orleans chef and restaurateur Melissa Martin’s experience (she grew up in a South Louisiana fishing village) those seafood delights weren’t typically the main course in coastal Cajun homes – they were more like sides, albeit spectacular ones. The main course was, more often than not, a large plate of beans and rice seasoned with salt pork. And lucky for us, just such a plate of Cajun beans and rice is often featured on the menu at Mosquito Supper Club, Martin’s cosy, family-style New Orleans restaurant.

Chasing a flavor…

Housed in a charming, circa 1898 Victorian house on Dryades Street in the Milan neighborhood of Uptown New Orleans, Mosquito Supper Club is a casual, homespun showcase for the exquisite coastal Cajun cooking that Martin learned “by osmosis” from the elder women in her family. Says Martin in her beautifully photographed book of coastal Cajun recipes entitled Mosquito Supper Club: Cajun Recipes From A Disappearing Bayou, “I was inspired by the food that I grew up eating in the tiny fishing village of Chauvin, Louisiana. Women cooked the food and recipes and techniques were passed down as if through an apprenticeship; by watching, learning and doing, and by chasing a flavor. I wanted to share that food with anyone who wanted to take a seat at our tables.” As for chasing a flavor, she explains, “When you have memories from your childhood, of certain tastes and smells, and you try it out and adjust it until it matches your memory and gives you the feeling that those memories bring, and you know it’s right – that’s chasing a flavor.”

Mosquito Supper Club White Beans & Rice. Recipe and photo are excerpted from Mosquito Supper Club by Melissa Martin (Artisan Books). Copyright © 2020. Photographs by Denny Culbert.

White beans the Cajun way

The menu changes daily at Mosquito Supper Club, and it’s always memorable. Guests are seated family style (right next to strangers who soon become friends), at long tables of handcrafted reclaimed wood, as Martin and her staff bring out wine, fresh-baked biscuits, and platters and bowls of authentic coastal Cajun food made with incredibly fresh seafood, meat and produce. Expect to dive into lots of delicious, with menu items like duck gumbo, oyster bisque, crab claws marinated in cane vinegar, fried soft-shell crabs, shrimp jambalaya, stuffed crawfish heads, and, of course, Martin’s Mosquito Supper Club White Beans. Martin uses Camellia Navy Beans and seasons them “the way Cajuns do” with salt pork and both black and cayenne pepper. Martin graciously shares her family’s Monday Red Beans & Rice recipe, too, although it’s not featured on her restaurant’s menu.

“My mother swore by Camellia Beans”

“White beans, red beans, lima beans – beans are a staple in the Cajun pantry,” says Martin. And she adds, “My mother swore by Camellia beans.” From her mother, Martin learned how to measure the quality of a pack of dried beans: “She taught me that when you go to soak beans, if they’re fresh they will wrinkle quickly.”

Prepping for a busy shift at Mosquito Supper Club. Photo is excerpted from Mosquito Supper Club by Melissa Martin (Artisan Books). Copyright © 2020. Photographs by Denny Culbert.

Five-plus courses of authentic Cajun delicious

Mosquito Supper Club offers a five (or more) course meal plus wine and cocktails for dinner several nights a week, plus a Sunday brunch with the added delight of extra baked goods, brunch menu items such as raw oysters and eggs topped with caviar, and being able to bask in the warm sunlight that filters into the charming, slightly rustic dining area of this 19th century former residence. While the menus change, one thing remains the same: each dish is prepared thoughtfully, with the best and freshest ingredients, inspired by generations of home cooking in the coastal fishing villages of South Louisiana.

Salt pork, ready to season a pot of Cajun-style beans. Photo is excerpted from Mosquito Supper Club by Melissa Martin (Artisan Books). Copyright © 2020. Photographs by Denny Culbert.

Mosquito Supper Club Shrimp Jambalaya, courtesy of Chef Melissa Martin. Recipe can be found in her cookbook, Mosquito Supper Club: Cajun Recipes From a Disappearing Bayou. Copyright © 2020. Photograph by Denny Culbert.

There are certain types of cookware that inspire an almost religious devotion among people for whom the kitchen is a sacred space. There are the believers in the magic of copper pots and pans. There are those who swear up and down by ceramic cooking vessels. There are the collectors of cast-iron cookware. And then there are perhaps the most devoted of all: the disciples of Magnalite® professional cookware.

The Magnalite History

Magnalite fandom has been an American tradition for more than 85 years. The Wagner Manufacturing Company of Sidney, Ohio, poured the first cast for WagnerWare Magnalite (Magnalite, for short) in 1934. Made of a unique, durable aluminum and magnesium alloy, these shiny silver kitchen tools have a denser base and thinner sides than most of their cookware counterparts. This allows the pots and pans to first heat more evenly, then distribute that heat faster during the cooking process. (“A cast as thick as two silver dollars!” claims an original Magnalite instruction manual.)

Magnalite lids also sport a vapor-tight seal, ensuring that the utmost amount of moisture is retained. Plus, Magnalite cookware can go from stovetop to oven – and refrigerator to stovetop – without missing a beat. Perhaps the most iconic of all the Magnalite pieces is the oval-shaped roaster. A pot that resembles a very stout rocket ship or chunky UFO is the preferred gumbo-making vessel for many a grand-mère (that’s grandma, Cajun style) across South Louisiana.

A Beloved Connection to South Louisiana

Home cooks across the South – and in particular, Louisiana’s Cajun country – have a soft spot for Magnalite. Sets of the cookware are treasured family heirlooms passed down through generations. Chatty praise of Magnalite can be found everywhere in the South Louisiana online orbit. From local Facebook trading groups in Lafayette to Louisiana State University football message boards. One poster recently gushed, “What a great cooking utensil! By far the best overall pots ever!”

In an interview with Serious Eats about the “everyday sacred” ritual of making gumbo, Cajun cook and photographer Pableaux Johnson describes the comforting scene in his kitchen – one that is typical across Louisiana – featuring Pableaux’s own Turkey Bone Gumbo recipe simmering on the stove in “the oversize Magnalite roaster that’s gingerly straddling two pulsing blue gas jets.”

Photo by Chris Granger. Pableaux Johnson of New Orleans makes gumbo for Serious Eats.

Professional chefs in Louisiana swear by the cookware, particularly a line of sturdy, professional-grade Magnalite introduced in the 1970s. Cajun Chef John Folse’s cookbooks and recipes mention it repeatedly by name. A Magnalite pot used by legendary New Orleans chef Leah Chase is now on permanent display at the National Museum of African American Heritage and Culture in Washington, D.C.

And Brenda Placide – the beloved chef-owner of Brenda’s Diner in New Iberia, Louisiana – in an interview with The New Iberian, recalls when actor Tommy Lee Jones asked her to come cook for him in Dallas. “I told him ‘Tommy Lee, I’d need to cook with my Magnalite pot, but I’m not driving and it is too heavy to carry on the plane. They won’t let me on with all my pots.’ He told he was going to send his chauffeur to pick me up.” Now that’s devotion to Magnalite.

A Cajun Heirloom in Uptown New Orleans

This devotion is endearingly evident in the kitchen of New Orleans Chef Melissa Martin, a native of Terrebonne Parish who regularly uses her inherited and beloved Magnalite soup pot. In her cookbook, Mosquito Supper Club: Cajun Recipes From a Disappearing Bayou, she explains that she kept this pot sitting on her stove for years. “As a bit of comfort and a beautiful reminder of so many delicious meals” – and, we might add, many more meals to come.

She shares the Cajun culinary traditions she learned from the women of her family at her restaurant. The Mosquito Supper Club is where she serves up platters of fresh Cajun food family-style to small groups of diners in a repurposed historic home in Uptown New Orleans. She uses her Magnalite pot to make her Monday’s Red Beans and Mosquito Supper Club White Beans recipes. Both of which can be found in her cookbook.

Chef Melissa’s Magnalite soup pot, inherited from her grandmother. Excerpted from Mosquito Supper Club by Melissa Martin (Artisan Books). Copyright © 2020. Photograph by Denny Culbert.

Cooking Gumbo and Beyond

Although a big gumbo might be the first dish you think of when someone whips out a Magnalite roaster, these kitchen tools can cook just about anything. Pinto beans with ham hock, catfish sauce piquante, shrimp jambalaya and red beans and rice, just to name a few. Magnalite is well known for its ability to both sear meat and help ingredients and flavors naturally mingle. This makes it a natural for dishes like white beans with sausage, smothered pork chops and a big pot of jambalaya. Some would argue that there are few things that a Magnalite vessel can’t do.

How to Clean Magnalite Pots

Like any beloved kitchen tool, Magnalite also has a legendary list of “best practices” to keep the pots in tip-top, shiny shape. One Magnalite owner’s grandmother swore by cleaning the pots first with a healthy rinse of Coca-Cola, then scrubbing with lemons. Another Magnalite fan agrees that the Coke-and-lemon process works, but also to add in an overnight soak in water to keep the cookware looking like new.

An instructional YouTube video for how to properly “season” a Magnalite pot uses tissue paper to spread oil around as a conditioner. Using paper towels can leave small fibers behind. “I love my Magnalite pot, and I can’t wait to get a second,” the YouTube instructor professes. The attention to detail when caring for Magnalite is almost reverent.

Today, new Wagner Magnalite cookware is no longer produced or manufactured in the United States. If you weren’t lucky enough to inherit a set of Magnalite tools, you can join the many Magnalite purists who seek out the original (and, in their minds, better) versions at flea markets, garage sales and trade shows. Etsy and eBay also offer a treasure trove of old-school Magnalite items for sale. Prices ranging somewhere between $60 and $150 depending on the item.

Mcware vs Magnalite

There’s also a Mamou, Louisiana-based company, McWare, which produces cooking vessels that are decidedly similar to Magnalite. Same aluminum build, comparable oval roaster shape, for a similar price point. Are they all worth it? That’s for each individual cook to decide. One thing is for sure: a perfect pot of red beans is priceless.