It was an impulse purchase of a kilo of dried black eyed beans (black eyed peas to Americans) that inspired me to make my own baked beans. And since the very first batch not a single can or jar or snap pot of Heinz has been seen at Braybourne House. My recipe has been through several iterations and I am confident in calling it ‘my own’.

I’m not waging war on convenience food -it is essential in a busy life. But understand what you exchange for convenience; it’s not just money, it’s taste and quality as well.

There I was staring at that kilo of dried beans thinking – what was I thinking? What should I do with these? An hour or so spent browsing the internet resulted in me rejecting many many recipes. I was astonished at how many American recipes for ‘slow cooked beans’ or ‘crockpot baked beans’ used tinned baked beans. Basically, the recipes just sexed up the canned beans.

This recipe starts with the true basic ingredients; a pork hock and dried beans. You can cut out steps by using a ham hock and tinned beans. My version has you cooking the pork and soaking the beans overnight – so starting from scratch doesn’t add much if any prep time.

If you want to make beans on Saturday, you need to have your ingredients and start your prep on Friday night. A slow cooker works well but you can also put these in a cast iron Dutch oven (big heavy stock pot) and put them in the oven. Instructions for both methods are below. You could cook them on hob, but then you’d need to be around to stir them regularly. Nobody has that much time on their hands.

Elapsed time is long but actual time spent prepping etc is very low. It’s a recipe that makes a lot of beans but they freeze beautifully. I freeze lots of containers with two servings. So that’s for two with breakfast but only one for the Davinator with a jacket potato or on toast.

You could do this as a vegetarian dish. Omit the bacon and the pork hock, use a couple of vegetable stock cubes to add some flavour during the slow cooking process. Add these midway through the cooking process. Salt and beans are not friends until after the beans have fully absorbed liquid.

Ingredients

One pork hock (it’s the ‘shank’ part of the leg, sometimes described as a pork knuckle). Or a ham hock. If using the ham hock, do not roast it)
600 grams of dried beans
100 grams of bacon lardons
2 small onions
3 cans of tomatoes (400 grams each)
3 tablespoons of black treacle, molasses or brown sugar
2 teaspoons dried mustard powder
2 teaspoons black pepper
1 teaspoon celery salt
1 teaspoon chili flakes

Salt to taste but only when cooking is finished.

Instructions

1. The night before prep your beans and pork.
2. Put the oven on about 125C. Place the pork joint in a roasting tin. Score the skin deeply in a number of places. Use a small rack if you have one to put the pork on. The pork can cook for 8 to 10 hours but a minimum of 6 hours. So put it in the oven when you go to bed and take it out the next morning.
3. Now the beans. I use the ‘hot soak’ method for my beans. There are three ways to prep dried beans and they tend to divide otherwise mild mannered cooks. Hot soak gets rid of the most sulphur and its sulphur that gives beans a bad reputation for shall we say digestive effects. Hot soak also works nicely overnight. Here’s a link to an assessment and detailed description of the various methods from the Bean Institute.
4. Put the beans in a big deep pot, cover with twice as much cold water as there are beans. Bring to a simmer. Simmer for about 3 minutes. Turn them off and leave them overnight.
5. Now you can go to bed and try to get over the knowledge that there is a Bean Institute. And they care a lot about beans.

Next day…….

• 

• 

• 

1. Get out your slow cooker or Dutch oven. If using the oven method, preheat your oven to 150C.
2. Put the lardons in the bottom of the pot.
3. Peel the onions, halve and place in the pot.
4. Drain the beans, rinse, pick out any bad ones. Add the rinsed beans to the pot.
5. Add the tomatoes, molasses and spices. Stir into the beans. Adjust the amount of water so the mixture is covered with about 3 cms of liquid on top. I usually rinse out the tomato tins and use that water.
6. Take your roasted pork shank and nestle it in among the beans. If you’re feeling decadent, deglaze the pork roasting pan with hot water and add the juices and pork fat the beans.
7. If using a slow cooker or crock pot; put the lid on it, turn it to high and leave it for 3 to 4 hours. Likewise with the oven method; cover it and put it on the bottom shelf of the oven for 3 to 4 hours.
8. Check the beans for ‘doneness’ after the initial cooking time. The meat should be falling off the bone and the beans soft, approaching creamy. Turn the heat to low and cook for another hour. Leave the lid off if it seems like there is too much liquid.
9. Your beans are nearly ready to eat now. Carefully remove the pork shank, remove the skin, bone and cartilage and shred the meat. Return the meat to the beans and stir it in. I usually find and remove the onions as well. Add salt to taste at this point.

Enjoy! Thank you to my Twitter friend Anne (@anneforensics) who noticed the hand crafted baked beans in my cooked breakfast tweet and asked for the recipe.