basiscraft: Crock Pot Boston Baked Beans

http://southernfood.about.com/od/crockpotbeans/r/bl15c11.htm

There are many such recipes. I picked the linked one from about.com as a starting point because food.about.com has served me very well for several years now.

Diana Rattray is credited with the gist of this recipe which I have not quite faithfully copied here (blame me, praise her).

• 1 pound dried small white beans, rinsed and soaked overnight
• water to cover
• 1/3 cup molasses
• 1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 1/4 pound salt pork, rinsed and cut into 1/2-inch cubes, or diced bacon
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste

She says 12+ hours on low so I'm going to assume 8 hours much of which is on high.

This recipe nicely resembles the really traditional ones, the main difference being that you put all the liquid in up front rather than a little bit at a time over the course of a day.

Traditional recipes often say not to dice the onion but, rather, to stick it in whole (and discard it after cooking). That's more my style for this dish.

Traditional recipes also say not to dice the pork for inclusion but, rather, to score it a bunch, put it in whole, and discard after cooking (or nosh on separately, you peasant). That's also more correct, in my book.

The grocery store seems to have stopped selling the (pre-packaged) salt pork they used to sell but, in its place … some nice slab bacon which is the right idea.

Also, the call for "dijon" mustard is pretty funny in this context.

Heck, the gist of these things is simple: beans slow-cooked with some salty-savory, some tang, and some sweet. Flavors should be puritanically muted and deeply rich rather than flairy and show-offy. Yum!