YY – The reason the barley was cooked but not the beans was because you need to cook a stove top cholent BEFORE Shabbos comes in and then put it on the blech to sort of finish it off and keep it warm. I put up my cholent about 1 1/2 – 2 hours before I light candles and let it come to a good boil and make sure that it’s not burning. Usually I turn down the heat a little, but it’s on a big flame, so it’s still pretty hot. I leave it this way until it’s time to put on the blech. We have one small flame on our stove, so we put the food to be kept hottest on that spot on the blech. We put it on the highest and then the soup goes over that. Once the soup is served, we move the cholent over on top to stay in that spot the rest of the night until it is served (but if I smell that it is burning I will move it over to a less hot spot on the blech to make sure I still have something to serve the next day). Water contents mentioned above are probably accurate. I rarely check my water level but my pot starts out filled to the brim and boils out during the initial cooking process, so I’m not always sure what is left in the pot when the blech goes on. I’m not usually the one putting the blech on so I don’t know how heavy it feels at that point. It does take a little playing around with the heat level, but I’m pretty happy with what I said above. I do have one son who likes his cholent less well done than this, so that the soupy part is only light brown and the potatoes stay white, but I feel like all of the flavors are absorbed more when I do it my way. It turns out a beautiful dark brown and the potatoes melt in the mouth. Ummmm….
Hope your cholent turned out terrific this week.