Sluggish Cooker Ham and Beans

This recipe for Sluggish Cooker Ham and Beans is cooked low and sluggish with onions, celery, carrots, and ham making for a scrumptious bowl of creamy beans full of savory, smoky taste.

For me, there’s not rather more comforting than a giant bowl of white beans with a bit of cornbread and a few diced recent onion. And it’s a bonus if that bowl of beans is full of chunks of ham and smoky ham taste.

However a number of of us are intimidated by cooking dried beans. That’s why this technique of utilizing the sluggish cooker is so good. It makes the method nearly arms off and leads to tender, creamy, smoky Nice Northern beans that simply style like house.

And whereas this recipe is amazingly simple, there are some things I’d wish to run via. Your success is my final aim, so let’s stroll via a couple of issues…

Elements

Nice Northern Beans – I take advantage of common dried Nice Northern Beans – I feel I even used the generic model this time. I don’t soak them for this recipe. Make sure you see my FAQ beneath on soaking beans for more information.

Celery – Nothing fancy right here – simply celery.

Carrot – Similar goes for the carrots. I used one massive carrot. Be happy to make use of roughly.

Onion – I choose a white or yellow onion right here, however any onion ought to work.

Water – You might go for broth, however I’d suggest unsalted to manage the salt content material. I feel water works simply nice and it’s cheaper. Whereas I don’t suggest soaking your beans, in the event you do, you’ll want to regulate your water quantity. See the FAQ beneath for more information on soaking beans.

Ham – I used leftover items of spiral sliced smoke ham as a result of I wished bigger items of meat within the beans. You might use a big leftover ham bone, a couple of smoked ham hocks, and even smoked turkey items.

Salt – The quantity of salt you’ll want depends upon the quantity of salt within the meat you’re utilizing, so I like to recommend solely including salt after cooking and after you’ve added the ham seasoning.

Ham Seasoning – That is an optionally available ingredient, however one which I extremely suggest. Ham seasoning is a good way so as to add much more smoky ham taste to a number of dishes, specifically these beans. I’ve included a photograph of the one I take advantage of beneath, however there are different choices. For those who’re going to make use of this, add it earlier than salt as there may be some sodium on this. Then you may add salt to style.

Methodology

The sluggish cooker/Crock Pot is the right approach to prepare dinner beans. The low and sluggish technique makes for tender, creamy beans with tons of taste.

With that being mentioned, the sluggish cooker does current a couple of challenges – all of that are simple to cope with if you already know about them.

The principle difficulty is with prepare dinner time. There are large variations in prepare dinner time with many sluggish cooker recipes – and for good purpose. Each sluggish cooker cooks otherwise. The truth is, in testing this recipe I used two sluggish cookers of the identical measurement and even identical model they usually produced totally different outcomes.

One sluggish cooker had the beans tender in about 5 hours on excessive. The opposite took a bit of over 6 hours on excessive. The rationale was temperature. The one which completed first was cooking at about 208°F whereas the opposite was cooking at about 194°F. That’s a 14° distinction between the very same sluggish cookers.

So simply take into account that the time can differ a bit based mostly in your particular sluggish cooker.