ISO advice on baking some beans

[Katie H]

Okay, my friends here at DC, I need some feedback.

In about 20 minutes I'm going to put a big piece of piggie in the oven to complete a smoking process. The oven is set at 275F and the covered pan of meat will enjoy the oven for a minimum of 4 hours.

Here's were I need some guidance.

I have just mixed up a recipe of baked beans (all beans are from cans) that also includes minced and fried bacon and onions and garlic sauteed in the bacon grease. All that is mixed with a molasses-type sauce. I've made this recipe a gazillion times but always baked by themselves at the prescribed temperature of 375F for 1 hour.

I thought, as long as the oven is on, why not add the beans in to cook, too. Just longer. Both the meat and beans are covered tightly.

What say ye?!

 

[Chef Munky]

I'd do it.
The temp is low enough so that will decrease the chance of the beans burning.
When the piglet is done you could shred it and stir it in with the now smoked beans.
It should all be done at the same time.

 

[Katie H]

That's what I thought. I'll check them after a couple of hours and see how they are faring. I think the real purpose for baking them is to heat-blend all the flavors together. This'll just take a little longer.

The pork is in preparation for pulled pork sandwiches on Saturday. We're having a work crew here to do some things Glenn can't do by himself. I plan to feed them well to encourage good work results.

I'll make some cookie bars tomorrow for a sweet.

 

[Chef Munky]

If you want to play it a little safer. Give the pan a spray of Pam before you start.
The condensation from it being wrapped will help keeping the beans from sticking.

You could also crockpot those bad boys.

Feeding the crew scores brownie points, and you don't get charged extra for labor. That's just been from my experience with them.

Good luck!

 

[Sir_Loin_of_Beef]

If the beans are from cans they are already cooked. All you are doing is reheating them and adding some flavors to them. You can heat them up at any temperature, and at 275F they should be safe for however long you leave them in the oven.

 

[PrincessFiona60]

Yup, just heating and melding flavors, they could stay in the oven for the 4 hours your chunk o'pig is cooking.

 

[Katie H]

Checked the beans about halfway through. They were doing fine and set them to go back to finish with the piggy. They were a little soupy but I expect they'll thicken up as the time goes. If they're not to my liking, I'll hike the temp and give the a little goose.

 

[Cheryl J]

Sounds like a delish bean and piggy soup, Katie. I like a thicker soup too, so I often take a cup or so of the beans out, mash them, and return to the.pot. Works great.

 

[Katie H]

Sounds like a delish bean and piggy soup, Katie. I like a thicker soup too, so I often take a cup or so of the beans out, mash them, and return to the.pot. Works great.

Not exactly soup, Cheryl. The pork is in the stovetop smoker getting its oven treatment and I decided that since the oven was on I'd put in my bean pot of beans. It's still too hot here to consider soup, but I am looking forward to soup season.

 

[Cheryl J]

Oops, sorry Katie. I should.know better than to try to read and post from my phone - laptop probs. Grrr.

Looking forward to reading about the results!

 

[Katie H]

Follow up on today's baked beans.

After checking on them at the midpoint I decided to let them continue cooking until the pork was done. Good decision.

They came out just as nice as if they'd been cooked at the higher temp for an hour. Win, win all across the board because the pork came out perfectly. Fell right off the bone and shredded with no effort at all.

Yeah! Stovetop smoker!!!!!!!