Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Navy Beans / Great Northern Beans

Great Northerns and smoked ham hocks here.

We throw in some cabbage too.

I don't think I've made a batch all winter this year. I will have to get the fixins next time I'm at the supermarket.

Navy bean simmered with baking soda

My favorite way to do most dry beans is in a crock pot. Put in a ham hock, sort 1 pound of dry beans to pick out any bad ones and dump in the crock pot. Pour enough chicken broth to cover them and then some. Add in one chopped onion. Season to your taste. My taste calls for salt (careful because your hock is salted) , black pepper, garlic powder and thyme. I like to cook on low, but there's not much difference if you have to do it on high. You may need to add more broth as the beans swell. Once the hock starts getting fork tender, start raking it off the bone and removing large pieces of fatty skin. Simple and very good.

A friend of mine does pressure cooker beans. Instead of ham he uses Cajun andouille and tasso.

We like the navy beans here. I get a bag, soak them in water overnight. Get up early on one of my many trips to the bathroom; get the medium size crockpot, dice a few slices of onion, but in a hambone and pieces of leftover ham, add a dollop of bacon grease. I turn the crockpot on high, drain the navy beans, picking out the trash and bad ones. I add them to the crockpot, cover them with water, put the lid on and go back to sleep. I check them when I get up. Usually takes around 3-4 hours on high. Wife also has a great recipe for baked beans using the navy beans after they are cooked. We serve with cornbread muffins. Usually mash up some to make a thicker likker. Put hot pepper sauce over them and have pickled okra or homemade pickles with them, sometimes tomato chowchow. Fine fare. I remember as a child, my Dad, the independent trucker, made a run to Boston (home of Boston Baked Beans). He came back with a 100 lb tow sack of dried white navy beans. With 4 boys in the family, that bag produced enuff natural gas to blow up several neighborhoods.

Prefer Navys,
love beans, Great Northern sure fine too.


Hocks over ham,
Hocks from a butcher or cured yourself over store bought.
I love city ham, but it's the last choice.



Unless that loin is cured and smoked, save it for something else.
It's a flour sack dress at prom, if mixed in with good hocks/ham.

I prefer navy beans. They have more food value than most other varieties.
You can soak them overnight Pick over rinse and simmer a couple of hours. Or bring to a boil soak 2 hours, rinse then cook.

I keep a pan of water on a burner the same temp as the beans. When the beans need water, same temp water is poured in without shocking the cook & having them start over. Kent Rawlings suggested that & I'm a believer.

Great Northerns here, water, a salted ham knuckle, & some coarse ground black pepper. Salt to taste at the end of the cook. I pour them over some crumbled up fried corn bread flapjacks, douse with appropriate hot sauce & chow down with a big fork. Young green onions on the side for a treat.

A fine line keeping firm beans with a good soup without it all turning to mush is the key.

You can speed up the soak by bringing them to a boil then turning them off and leaving them covered soaking for an hour or two.

GNB's
Hocks
onion
sliced carrot
liquid smoke

anyone add a little vinegar at the table?

Soak, don’t soak…..there’s as many arguments for as against. For sure soaked beans will obviously cook quicker.


I’d fry some bacon, country ham, hock, back, or whatever you have in stock pot. Add a chopped onion and a diced carrot. After that starts to soften up I’d put in the beans and stock and bring to a simmer.

Cook until tender and add stock as necessary. I’d finish with pepper, salt, and thyme to taste. I’m a sucker for parsley as well.

If you want a bit more body to the beans, less stock and take a cup or two of the beans out to mash or hit with a burr mixer before adding the bean paste back to the pot.

It’s beans, brother. You ain’t gonna mess it up. Just taste before and as you add salt and other seasoning.

A can of Van Camp's Pork-'n-Beans is a lot easier to prepare, especially if you have an electric can opener. VCs are mighty tasty with hot dogs, hamburgers, or BBQed chicken. You can obtain BBQed chicken at your local supermarket, nice and warm and ready for the table.

Have a cold beer and watch an old western movie on teevee while your wife is fixing everything for supper.

Thank me later.

L.W.

Great Northern.

A big pot of beans is great food to have on a boat when it's cold! I brown a little bacon in the pot then cover with water and add a smoked ham hock and a bay leaf. Let that simmer overnight on the stove, maybe maybe two nights. Remove the meat from the bones when good and tender and scrape out any marrow. I add diced onion, celery and carrot with the beans. Cook until tender, I've added a diced tomato and that's nice for a change. Season with salt and pepper.

It's best cooked long and slow over a wood stove but a diesel boat stove works great too. Bon appetit!

Pinto beans are good too but I love them all. Last time I made some I dumped a can of Rotel Original Salsa in with them along with a couple of smoked ham hocks. Cooked in a crock pot after an all night soak. Start them about 8 in the morning and by mid afternoon they're done.

After 35 years breeding and growing dry bean seed I applaud those who eat beans regularly. Just like any food fresh is best, an analogy I make is if you like drinking coffee with years old coffee beans then you’ll be happy with dry beans that have sat on a shelf for years. Support your local growers.

I've used that trick with pasta [bleep] (i.e., Italian pasta with beans soup) for years.

Hey, why aren't we allowed to type the word [bleep]?? It just means beans in Italian.

You knew that.

I like pinto beans but I don't discriminate. I love fresh ones when I can get them but dried works fine. As for coffee I don't think it matters much whether you use whole beans or ground. They are both the same age.