Dear Eric: I thought I would combine the “year of the pulse” with concerns over high vegetable prices and make baked beans. My husband, who prefers vegetarian meals, is not fond of dried-bean dishes in general, but I thought I would try.
I made baked beans years ago in a heavy bean pot, baking them for many hours in a low oven. The bean pot is gone, but I have a small slow cooker. Sounded perfect and I looked up a recipe on the Internet.
I used white navy beans, poured hot water over them and let them soak overnight. I followed the recipe, which said to cook six hours on high or low. Four hours in, the beans were far from being cooked. I put a heavy towel over the slow cooker, which heats it up more. The beans got soft enough, but we found the skins not quite soft enough. Did I just not cook them enough, or did I get the slow cooker too hot? Any tips? A decent recipe?
Kathleen
Kathleen, it sounds as if a few missteps in how you handled the beans and operated your slow cooker, plus a suspect recipe, kept your beans from turning out as desired.
According to the Pulse Canada website, pulsecanada.com, acidic ingredients, such as tomatoes, vinegar and vinegar-flavoured sauces, things that you flavour baked beans with, should be added only when the beans are already tender. That’s because the acids and salt in those ingredients slow down the cooking process.
That’s why after soaking and slightly softening the beans, most baked-bean recipes then ask you to par-cook them before mixing them with the other ingredients and baking them in a pot in the oven, or in a slow cooker. Simmering the beans in a generous amount of water until tender, but still slightly firm to the bite, is how that is done.
If you didn’t par-cook them, and simply put the soaked beans in the slow cooker, they would take much longer to cook. Also, the acidic/salt-flavoured ingredients might cause the skin on the not-par-cooked beans to toughen during cooking and soften only in the middle.
Many baked-bean recipes cooked in the oven are cooked at 300 F, which in culinary terms is considered a low or slow oven. But it’s still a higher temperature than a slow cooker uses. In other words, beans cooked in a slow cooker should take as long as or longer than beans cooked in the oven.
As noted in my book, Everyone Can Cook Slow Cooker Meals, as food warms in a slow cooker, it rises to a food-safe cooking temperature of about 185 F (85 C) for the low setting, and about 280 F (138 C) for the high setting.
The recipe you used said to cook the beans six hours, using either the low or high setting. Those are odd cooking instructions, because of the temperature variation noted above; foods cooked on the high setting cook about twice as fast as they do on the low setting.
For example, my slow cooker, meat-free bean recipe below cooks for eight hours on low setting, but only four hours on the high setting. I prefer the low setting for beans, as they cook very gently and take in a lot of flavour as they do.
Kathleen, I’m guessing you used the low setting, too, as you noted not much was stirring in the pot after four hours of cooking. I can understand you wanting to check them at that point, as with any kind of cooking. It’s difficult to resist taking the lid off to see how things are progressing.
With a slow cooker, though, you should check to see how the food is doing only near or at the end of the suggested cooking time, which your recipe said was six hours. If you remove the lid too early in the cooking process, it can take 15 to 20 minutes or even more to return to the proper cooking temperature, which means the food will take longer to cook.
You also said you used a small slow cooker to cook the beans and I’m guessing, as most baked bean recipes yield a generous amount, you might have over-filled it. If you fill a slow cooker too close to the rim, it will take the food forever to start simmering and cooking. That’s why it’s best to fill a slow cooker no more than half to two-thirds full. Especially with beans, which will expand when simmered in a slow cooker.
I used my five-litre-capacity slow cooker to make my bean recipe, which yields about two litres (about eight cups). If that’s too much for you, once cooled to room temperature, any leftover beans will freeze well, at the ready to enjoy another time.
Slow Cooker Baked Beans
These meat-free beans are not baked, but the slow cooking makes them taste as if they were. Serve the beans as a main course with crusty rolls or cornbread. Or serve them as side dish for eggs, ham, ribs, sausages or chicken.
Preparation time: 20 minutes, plus soaking time
Cooking time: 30 to 45 minutes
Slow cooker time: Eight hours on low setting; four on high setting
Makes: Six to eight servings
1 (450 gram) bag dried small white (navy) beans
1 1/4 cups ketchup
1 1/4 cups regular barbecue sauce
1 cup vegetable stock
1 cup water or beer
1/4 cup cooking molasses
1/4 cup golden brown sugar, packed
1 large onion, diced
1 Tbsp Dijon mustard
• splash or two Worcestershire sauce or balsamic vinegar
• pinch dried sage leaves
1 bay leaf
• salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Place the beans in a large bowl. Cover with at least four inches of cold water and let soak at least eight hours, or overnight.
Drain the beans well, and then place in a large pot and cover with at least four inches of fresh cold water. Bring to a boil, and then reduce heat until beans gently simmer. Cover and cook until tender, but still slightly firm to the bite, about 30 to 45 minutes. More water might need to be added during cooking. When the beans are cooked, drain them well.
Combine the remaining ingredients, except salt and pepper, in your slow cooker. Mix in the beans. Cover and cook on the low setting for eight hours, or four hours on the high setting. Taste the beans and season with salt and pepper, if needed, and then enjoy.
Eric Akis is the author of The Great Rotisserie Chicken Cookbook (Appetite by Random House). His columns appear in the Life section Wednesday and Sunday.
