Vinnie's Slow-Cooker Baked Beans

Ingredients

4 teaspoons salt
1/2 pound salt pork (preferably slab)
1/4 cup each red and vidalia onions, diced
1 tablespoon diced garlic in oil (+ 1 tbsp oil)
1 1/2 cups molasses
4 tablespoons barbeque sauce
1 teaspoon cumin

Preparation

1
Soak beans overnight in large pot of water plus 5-6 squirts of hot sauce. Next morning, drain beans, refill pot with fresh water and salt, and simmer at gentle boil for one hour.
2
Cut off (and discard) skin from salt pork (if included), dice pork into 1-inch cubes (or 2-inch slices if pre-sliced) and cook / render in frying pan. Remove from pan with slotted spoon and set aside. Cook garlic and onions in remaining pork fat. Set aside.
3
Drain beans, reserving bean water.
4
In a (cold) 5-quart slow cooker, mix tomatoes, molasses, brown sugar, BBQ sauce cumin, and another 4-5 shakes of hot sauce until sugar is dissolved.
5
Add pork, onions/garlic and mix.
6
Add beans (to about 1 1/2 inch under rim) and mix thoroughly. (See notes below)
7
Add bean water to fill cooker and mix.
8
Cook at high for as long as you can stand it (7 hours min), stirring infrequently, about once an hour.
9
NOTES - three pounds of soaked and boiled beans results in about three cups of beans more than a 5-qt cooker can handle. Save the remaining now-cooked beans for other recipes or dishes - about two snack-sized zippy-bags full. Great for minestrone or salad
10
Near end of cooking process when it's at a solid boil, makes a great medium for cooking hot dogs.

Tools

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Comments

Dorian Tenore-Bartilucci's picture

Scrumptious--sweet yet tangy, with a rich mix of flavors and textures! This is already one of my favorite recipes.

About

After a prolonged search for a recipe that didn't start from pre-made cans of baked beans, I cobbled this recipe together from the best bits of three or four that I found online.

Yield:

5 quarts - divide by the bean capacity of your family to determine number of servings

Added:

Thursday, December 10, 2009 - 4:49pm

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