Mariner's Slow-Cooker "Baked" Beans

This time of year, many of us are looking forward to several, if not many, celebratory gatherings with family and friends. Quite often those gatherings are organized around a feast of some sort, which means food and cooking are on my mind... again.

One of my favorite sides is baked beans, but looking at the intricacies of some of the recipes that I've seen, I have always heretofore concluded that Bush's® offered the best compromise between my laziness and my palate; besides which, it isn't difficult to get My Honey to do the work, if all she has to do is add some "seasoning vegetables" in order to get that personal touch.

Anyway, it recently occurred to me that a lot of the work involved in making the beans could be avoided, if a decent recipe which uses the crock-pot could be found. A little on-line research showed me that many other people had had the same idea, but many of the recipes they came up with depended heavily on the use of ketchup. I didn't like that idea, so I did my usual thing, and combined information from many different sources, and added a few things to put my own spin on it, and I think now I have a pretty good first cut at Mariner's Slow-Cooker "Baked" Beans, to wit:

Ingredients:

Pinto beans, dry	511	g	18	oz (about 3 rounded cups)
Tomato paste	336	g	12	oz
White vinegar*	57	ml	2	fl oz
Garlic, granulated	6½	g	2	tsp
Allspice	1	g	½	tsp
Molasses	43	ml	3	Tbs
Onion flakes†	36	g	5	Tbs
Bell pepper, diced	90	g	½	cup
Dry mustard	6¼	g	1	Tbs
salt	17	g	1	Tbs
brown sugar	350	g	1¾	cup
bacon, smoked, sliced	227	g	8	oz
Water	908	ml	4	cup

* probably any vinegar would do - this is just what I had on hand!
† you can substitute 1 large fresh onion, diced, but you would need to scale back the water

Directions:

In a large bowl, soak the beans, submerged in water, for at least 12 hours. Cover with plenty of water. The beans will soak up a lot, and water is cheap! After soaking for the required time, drain the beans and place them in a slow cooker which has a capacity of at least 4 quarts.

Cut the bacon slices into pieces about an inch long, and optionally, cook them in a dry frying pan. If your bacon is extra thick cut, you might want to cut the slices into half-inch pieces. Add the bacon (and, if cooked, any rendered fat!) to the slow cooker.

Add all remaining ingredients and mix well.

Cover and cook on "low" for about 9 to ten hours, until beans are tender, stirring occasionally.

At this point, the sauce may still be too thin.  If it is, then simply remove the cover and continue cooking until the beans and sauce have the desired thickness and consistency.

Discussion:

I actually began soaking the beans fairly early on the day before I planned to eat them. I let them soak for about 12 hours, before attempting to assemble the crock pot. The beans more than doubled in weight and volume during the soaking process while incorporating most of the soak water into the beans themselves! That's why it is important to keep a watchful eye on the soaking beans, making sure that they don't run dry.

My Honey helped me out by pre-cooking the bacon, so that when the beans were ready, all I had to do was add everything to the crock.

Actual cooking began at about 10:00 PM that evening, and continued until I woke at about 7:00 AM the next morning. At that point, the beans were very tender, and the desirable flavors had fully developed, but the sauce was still a bit thin. This was easily remediated by removing the cover, and allowing the crock to continue to cook. The sauce achieved the desired consistency about 3 hours later, at which point I simply replaced the crock cover and turned the control to the "keep warm" setting.

We used the beans as one of the side dishes for our supper of pulled-pork barbecue sandwiches. I'll have to say, they were GOOD!