Nana’s Kitchen: Crock Pot Baked Beans

Nana’s Kitchen: Crock Pot Baked Beans

Greetings, home cooks, welcome to Nana’s kitchen,

This week I am trying to figure out what is wrong with my hibiscus plant. The blooms from this plant are my favorite. Last few days the leaves are turning yellow and falling off. Have to figure out if it is too much or too little water, drainage, or needs plant food. A work in progress. Even with its illness there have been a few lovely yellow blossoms. I hope it can be saved.

As the summer continues so do the gatherings and picnics and the need for a dish to share with those around you. Enter the good old crock pot. One of the handiest things in the kitchen if you like using it.

This week baked beans were on the menu. This recipe is easy and the beans very tasty. This is a Boston style recipe as it calls for molasses. Molasses and beans were made for each other.

Molasses is a thick syrup resulting from refining sugarcane or sugar beets into sugar. The amount of sugar varies depending on method of extraction and age of the plant. Sugarcane molasses is primarily used to sweeten and flavor foods. 

Mollases has been around since 500 BCE in India. In the seventeenth century it was used in trade and in America was turned into rum. In some parts of the U.S. molasses is referred to as sorghum molasses. It comes from the juice of the sorghum plant, a cereal grain that is grown specifically for molasses, rather than refined sugar.

Treacle is the term used primarily in Great Britain. There are two types of treacle, a dark treacle, interchangeable with the term molasses, and light treacle, a golden syrup. In the middle east molasses is made from different plants, including grapes, pomegranates, mulberries, carob trees and dates.

Crock Pot Baked Beans

Ingredients:
3 cups dry navy beans
1 medium onion, chopped
1 cup ketchup
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup water
2 teaspoon dry mustard
2 tablespoons molasses
1 tablespoon salt
1/4 pound salt pork, ground or diced or one ham bone with some meat

In a sauce pan, simmer the beans in 6 cups water for 30 minutes.
Let stand, covered, for for 1 1/2 hours or until soft.
Drain beans and place in slow cooker.
Add the remaining ingredients.
Stir. Cover and cook on low setting for 10 to 12 hours, or on high for 4-6 hours.
Serve and enjoy!

Hints:
I cooked these for a little over 10 hours on low and was pleased with the result.
I had a ham bone in the freezer and used it instead of the salt pork.
The molasses adds a nice rich flavor.

Have a blessed Sunday.