My turn for a pot of beans

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DougE

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Apr 13, 2010
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Richmond,KY
beans.jpg


In goes beans, and the ham flavor packet that came with them, chopped onion from my garden, trimmed country ham pieces, minced garlic, a healthy dose of Tony's More Spice, and some fresh ground black pepper. I don't add any additional salt since the country ham and Tony's has enough, and no, I didn't add sugar, the canister just happens to be in the background. For the beans, I prefer straight pintos, but the wife prefers the 15 bean mix. Some things are not worth arguing about :emoji_sunglasses:.
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Into the crockpot, added enough water so that there is enough liquid after the dry beans absorb as much as they are going to. I've done this so many times that I don't bother measuring anything. I know what the right amount of everything looks like.
beans2.jpg


Plated and ready to eat. I will confess, I didn't have time today to make corn bread, so I picked up a pan of it from the bakery department at Meijer. It's actually pretty dang good, too.
beans3.jpg
 
Looks great, really like Clifty farm ham, I just cant get my cornbread to hold together like I want . we like the 15 bean, I love white beans and will do a 50/50 mix of them and pinto's
 
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.................... I just cant get my cornbread to hold together like I want ........................

Try this. Get a bag of Aunt Jemima or Martha White white cornmeal mix. Do not use the yellow mix. Follow the recipe on the bag with the following changes.

Do not use regular milk. Use buttermilk only. Do not use any sugar. Omit the egg. Add a little more oil to make up for the egg. Preheat your oven and your pan with the oil in it. Use only a good seasoned cast iron or carbon steel pan. You want the batter and oil to sizzle when you pour the batter into the pan, Cook til done with a light golden top. If it doesn't brown to your satisfaction a quick trip under the broiler will fix that. This will come out with a nice moist interior and a bottom crunchy crust like a good heavy thick bark.
 
nice see that's the kinda pork I was lookin for for my pork and beans
Country ham is the best meat I've found when it comes to beans.

Looks great, really like Clifty farm ham, I just cant get my cornbread to hold together like I want . we like the 15 bean, I love white beans and will do a 50/50 mix of them and pinto's
If using a box mix cornbread like jiffy, etc, I usually go with 2 boxes in the same size pan as they say to use for one. If I do it the way it says to on the box, it ends up dry and crumbly.

Looks great . I'm over due for a pot .
If you see the Famous Dave's corn bread mix at the store , try a box .
Funny, my backup plan if they didn't have any corn bread in the bakery department was to pick up a couple boxes of Famous Dave's and give it a try. I will pick up a couple boxes to keep in the pantry for next time I make it, though.

One of my favorite meals!
Have been eating a big pot of it for the last 3 days.
And yours looks excellent!
Al
Thanks, Al. I fix a pot at least a couple times a month, if not more during the winter.

Try this. Get a bag of Aunt Jemima or Martha White white cornmeal mix. Do not use the yellow mix. Follow the recipe on the bag with the following changes.

Do not use regular milk. Use buttermilk only. Do not use any sugar. Omit the egg. Add a little more oil to make up for the egg. Preheat your oven and your pan with the oil in it. Use only a good seasoned cast iron or carbon steel pan. You want the batter and oil to sizzle when you pour the batter into the pan, Cook til done with a light golden top. If it doesn't brown to your satisfaction a quick trip under the broiler will fix that. This will come out with a nice moist interior and a bottom crunchy crust like a good heavy thick bark.
Sounds like something I will try even though my corn bread usually comes out fine.

Looks great. Hard to beat food bean soup. I agree with you on your beam choice lol, happy wife happy life.

Yeah, I know what side my corn bread is buttered on. lol
 
Wow! Looks killer! I can’t wait to make a pot. Thank you for sharing.
Thanks. Hope you like them as well as we do. I would have liked to have given an exact recipe, but I've been just doing it by eye for years. I usually use about half a pack of country ham pieces per pot( one bag of beans), depending on how much waste is in the pack. I trim the bulk of the fat off, and dice up the meat. I got enough usable meat for another pot out of the package in the picture. A nice big handful and a half, or two of chopped onion ( we like a lot of onion in ours), a couple heaping teaspoons of minced garlic (not measuring teaspoons, the ones you eat off of). The Tony's and black pepper I do by eye since I know how much we like.
 
Nice job! I like Beans in anything. But I'm the only one. My Wife will eat Boston style Baked Bean but that's it. No such thing as Country Ham in my area...JJ
 
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Nice job! I like Beans in anything. But I'm the only one. My Wife will eat Boston style Baked Bean but that's it. No such thing as Country Ham in my area...JJ
Yeah, country ham is a regional thing.

My granny on mom's side was raised in Fall River Mass. so I've had my share of Boston style made with salt pork, as she did, but I prefer the southern style "soup" beans as we call them around here.
 
yeah most of the ham we got here's thin lunch meat or half and whole hams. i do see diced ham in the stores but compared to country ham it's kinda eww
 
yeah most of the ham we got here's thin lunch meat or half and whole hams. i do see diced ham in the stores but compared to country ham it's kinda eww
I've used diced ham in a pinch, but it's like night and day compared to country ham. I know a few people who cure their own hams, but they are kind of hoggish (pun intended) when it comes to sharing. It's a long process to cure hams this way. You could always try your hand at it. ASC-213: How to Make a Country Ham (uky.edu)

video: How to Cure a Country Ham | Boone County (uky.edu)
 
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Good looking pot o' beans. I like em in a big bowl with a dash of pepper sauce and cornbread.
Jim
Thanks, Jim.

The Tony's extra bold I put in gives them a little spice kick. My wife is fond of adding some hot chow chow to her bowl. I add some now and then, but I kinda feel like the chow chow takes something away from the flavor of the beans.
 
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