My father used to make navy beans and ham hocks when I was a kid, which I recall fondly. I probably haven’t had that in about 45 years. I’m going to give it a try on the stove.

I have several questions, and I would appreciate any helpful feedback.

FIRST: Which are better: Navy Beans or Great Northern Beans

SECOND: How long do I simmer the beans on the stove top after boiling?
I looked up quite a number of recipes, and it varies from 1 hour to 7 hours. What is correct?
I think I recall my parents simmering them for a very long time.

THIRD: Here is my plan. Many thanks in advance if you can let me know if I could improve it by doing something different:

Soak 16 ounces of beans overnight.

Drain the beans in a colander.

Put the following into a pot: the soaked beans; 32 ounces of chicken stock; 1/2 cup olive oil; and some salt and seasoning.
Bring to a boil.
Simmer for __ hours (see above).
Add more broth or water as needed.

About 90-120 minutes before finished, add in the following:
- two or three blended tomatoes;
- some blended arugula;
- one chopped red onion; and
- about a 1-1/2 lbs of diced pork loin.
Note: I could put those items in from the beginning, but I assume that that might be too long, but perhaps I'm overthinking that.

Anything wrong with that plan?

I soak the beans over night. Pick out the floaters, drain and rinse. Leave a little water and add chicken or beef stock to cover beans and the smoked ham hocks, shank, or neck bones. No salt, the smoked pork is salty. Little black pepper and cook on a low boil or simmer for about 2 hours, check water level, add as needed. Cook longer and you'll know it's done when the meat falls off the bone and the beans are tender.

Cornbread in a cast iron pan. So good make you wanna slap yer grandma.

As a reference, I use the "quick cook" method on the package.

Cover your beans with at least a inch of water and bring to a rolling boil. Boil for a minute or two then kill the heat, cover and let stand for an hour. Drain, put all your fixins in and simmer. After about an hour (stirring about every 10 minutes) start sampling. Somewhere between an hour to an hour and a half they'll be good.

I favor great northerns.

I cook mine in a crock pot. About 24 hours. Cooked down almost to soup. Ladle it out over jalapeno cornbread. With a tall glass of Maker's.

I’d go with the smoked ham hocks and skip the pork loin. How long you cook the beans is dependent on how old (dry) the beans are to start with, how long you soak them, whether they were soaked in cold water or started in boiled water, etc. The last beans I cooked that had been in my food storage for a few years took 6 or 7 hours to get tender. Beans from the store might take half that time if they are fresh.
As far as Great Northerns vs Navy they pretty much taste the same to me, GN’s are larger and will take a little longer to cook.

Thank you all for the helpful comments.

great northern

hated 'em as a kid, the old man loved them. Now I eat them once a week

No salt until beans are tender.

GNB's when I get to simmer stage I chop half an onion and some baby carrots. I like ham in mine..mb

One pound navy beans, in a pressure cooker, qt chicken broth,2 cups chopped ham, teaspoon mustard powder, couple of bay leaves, teaspoon pepper. Cook one hour after up to pressure, cool down pressure cooker under water, Ready to eat, better next day.

Mike

I would replace the pork loin with ham hocks or even smoked, thick cut bacon cooked down a bit before adding in. Pork loin will add nothing to the mix unless you brown it up pretty well before adding it.

Dump em in a pot, add water, salt, and a hunk of country ham hock, jowl bacon, etc. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer covered for a couple of hours. If they aren’t soft enough, simmer longer. White beans don’t take as long to cook as pintos, and if you cook them too hot or too long, they turn into mush.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I always thought Navy and Great Northern beans were the same thing.

They’re delicious.

Dump em in a pot, add water, salt, and a hunk of country ham hock, jowl bacon, etc. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer covered for a couple of hours. If they aren’t soft enough, simmer longer. Remove lid and turn the heat up to medium and cook water out to desired consistency. White beans don’t take as long to cook as pintos, and if you cook them too hot or too long, they turn into mush.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I always thought Navy and Great Northern beans were the same thing.

Great northern are larger than navy beans.

No salt at all.

Don't need salt.

They do if I’m gonna eat em.

Taste and salt as needed.

Yelloweyes are the choice of bean he re.

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.

Cabbage in beans, never heard of that...

Does the cabbage break down or is it in noticeable "chunks" in the beans?

Jacques Pepin says to NEVER soak dry beans overnight. They ferment and start to spoil. Food poisoning

Thanks to all of you for all of the helpful comments.

I am in the process of making this now. I will report back later with method and results.

I prefer navy over great northern, but both are great. I use a pressure cooker these days, no soak, less than an hour later they're done.

Bingo, takes advantage of Fick's first law of diffusion. Best way also when making a favorite bean dish the family likes.

I read that in a lot of recipes. Logically then, can you just cook the beans for an extra two hours, and avoid the soaking altogether?

Some people throw out the soak water.

Thanks.

UPDATE:

This is what I ended up doing:

I went with the pork loin, just because that was all I had on hand.

Soak 16 ounces of Navy Beans overnight (14 hours).

Drain the beans in a colander. I didn’t see any rocks, bad beans, or floaters.

Put the following into an 8-quart pot:

- the 16 ounces of soaked Navy Beans;
- 48 ounces of chicken stock;
- 1/2 cup olive oil;
- 2 tablespoons of liquid smoke;
- three Roma tomatoes and 5 oz arugula blended in a blender;
- one large chopped red onion;
- 2 tablespoons of minced garlic;
- 4 tablespoons of liquid smoke;
- 2 tablespoons of horseradish mustard;
- 2 tablespoons Weber Chicago Steak seasoning; and
- 2 lbs of diced pork loin.

This is what that looked like:



Place covered pot on a gas burner on the lowest setting.

Stir occasionally.

Took about 90 minutes to slowly get simmering hot.

2-1/2 hours in, removed pot lid (I did this to keep it at a very-low boil; and to allow some of the excess moisture to evaporate).

About 5 hours in, I realized that, perhaps, I should have used about 12 fewer ounces of broth.

5-1/2 hours in, I added 5 oz of finely diced baby bella mushrooms (just because I had them, and also to soak up a bit of the moisture).

Served at 6-1/2 hours.

It was really good to me.

No way dry beans soaking overnight ferment. Jacques Pepin is full of merde.

What could he possibly know about cooking?