Vinnie's Slow-Cooker Baked Beans
By: Vinnie Bartilucci
Published: Thursday, December 10, 2009 - 4:49pm

Ingredients




1 pound each of dried white northern beans, navy beans and black bea
Tabasco / hot sauce of choice
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
1 cup dark brown sugar
2 ounces cans (14.5  size) finely diced tomatoes
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.

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.

Comments:
Dorian Tenore-B...

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