My Own Crock Pot New England Baked Beans - cooking recipe

Ingredients

2 lbs dried white pea beans (small white beans) or 2 lbs navy beans (small white beans)
2 medium onions, whole
4 -6 ounces salt pork, meaty cut into chunks (optional)
1 cup molasses
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
2 tablespoons sweet pickle juice or 2 tablespoons vinegar
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
2 teaspoons dry mustard
1/16 teaspoon cinnamon
2 cups water
water

Preparation

Soak beans over night or do a quick soak method. If soaking, drain soaking water, replace with new and boil the beans 30 minutes. I know what crock pots say about beans and sorry companies, this works!
Place onions and salt pork in bottom of pot.
Pour in beans drained of water.
Mix the next 7 ingredients in a saucepan and bring just to the boil stirring occasionally. Pour over beans in pot.
Add water to cover beans and cook on low 10-12 hours (or more) topping with water if necessary.
Stir every 2 hours and cook with lid off for final 2 hours to thicken. I usually find that I need to stop adding water at this point and stir occasionally as beans will \"appear\" dried out on top; this is how they should look. Just stir.
These should be saucy rather than liquidy or dry. a thick sauce. Unfortunately this is not a crock pot recipe which can be left unattended for more than 2-3 hours.
Eating the onions is one of the best parts! I used to only use 1 until my mother began screaming give me an onion!
These freeze very well. Freeze in plastic containers or bags and thaw at room temperature. Re-heat adding a bit of water if necessary as they *can* thicken upon freezing.