I'm a pretty good cook, but I have never cooked dried beans.

I plan to cook some sort of dried beans this weekend in a cast iron dutch oven over charcoal.

I'd love to hear your tips and recipes.

Crock pot Bourbon Baked beans: or dutch oven
1 pound dry navy beans
10 slices thick cut bacon cut into pieces
1 medium sweet onion,chopped
1 garlic glove, minced
3/4 cup your favorite BB sauce
2 cups water
1 cup loosely packed brown sugar
1/4 cup ketchup
4 tbs molasses
1/2 cup bourbon (or more)
1 1/2 tbs ground mustard
1 bay leaf
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
2 tbs worcestershire sauce

The night before add beans to a large pot and cover with water. Drain next morning.
Bring beans to a boil in a large pot of water, let simmer 30-40 minutes, then drain.
While beans are cooking heat large skillet over medium heat add bacon.
cook until crispy and fat is rendered.
Remove bacon with slotted spoon and add onioncook for 8-10 minutes.
Add garlic cook 30 seconds.turn off heat.
Add water bourbon,brown sugar, bbq sauce,ketchup ground mustard, vinegar,molasses and worcestershire sauce to crock pot or dutch oven.
whisk to combine.
Add beans, onions, all of the bacon fat! and bacon to the pot cover and cook on low for 10-12 houres stirring occasionally.
After 10-12 hours turn crock pot or dutch oven to warm and let sit between 30-min to 2 hrs
Let the beans sit for a while to thicken
It is imperative to let the beans sit for a while on the lower  or off setting so they become thick and syrupy like traditional baked beans  

Pressure cooker.

Best invention for cooking beans. If you soak them, they can be cooked in about 10 minutes. Unsoaked in about 15. Soaking helps prevent them from breaking open as much.

In a real survival situation a pressure cooker can be a life saver. You will save a lot of fuel (everything cooks much much faster). They are also great for sterilizing things, an autoclave basically.

Pintos are one of the most useful all around

Throw them in that bad boy with some water and ham hocks and let them simmer as long as you want.

Soak them in water the night before in the fridge.
My recipe is a couple cans of diced tomatoes and a bottle of BBQ sauce with some bacon. There are better recipes, but soak them over night before.

Level 88 of AWESOME!


Never made them in a dutch oven before.

You'll have to tend to your coals for quite a while. One go round won't get them done.