Beans, beans good for your heart...

how to cook beans

1lb beans
1 onion
spices like bay leaf, dried garlic or garlic clove, salt and pepper.
Optional: celery, carrot  (for soup)

You will need
large 6 qt crock pot for cooking and large stock pot for soaking

1lb bag of beans (any type), pick beans so no rocks, sticks or leaves are left. Rinse beans by placing beans in stock pot and rinsing with warm tap water, fill and swish, drain and repeat until water runs clear. This is important even with pre washed beans.

fill pot with clean water to cover beans by 2" and place on stove, heat to boiling and turn off heat, cover and let sit for a few hours or overnight. Water will be cloudy, Drain and rinse beans a few times again

Transfer beans to crock pot, tuck 2 smoked ham hocks or ham bone or ham trimmings down into beans, add 1 large diced onion or onion powder, 1 tsp black pepper, bay leaf (a few if they are small) about 1 teaspoon salt, and either a clove of crushed garlic or 1/2 tsp garlic granules or powder. Fill with water to second knuckle, about 1 1/2 inch and give a good stir to mix all the ingredients. Set crock pot to high until mixture comes to a simmer then turn down to low. Cook overnight.

By this time the beans will be tender but have a soupy runny consistency and onions will be dissolved and ham hocks will be falling apart or meat will fall off hambones, taste the beans and see if it need any more salt, pepper or garlic. If thicker beans are wanted leave to cook another day on low. Beans do require a lot of salt but most of the flavor and salt will come from the ham, a hambone will probably need more seasoning, ham hocks probably not. Country ham is very salty so no added salt is needed. Unfortunately this varies wildly so I can't give a precise measurement.

From this you have many choices, this mixture freezes well and reheats in the microwave, and can be flavored with BBQ sauce, brown sugar, maple syrup, or eaten as is with some crusty bread to sop up the broth (my favorite).

Avoid mixing or stirring beans other than a few times each day, stirring tends to mush them up and you will end up with refries.

You can also make refried beans with the leftovers of this too, add lard and mushed up beans to cast iron skillet, heat until warm.

To make a bean soup do all the above using great northern beans, cook beans only 8 hours and add carrots, celery, and potatoes at last 3 hours cooking time. (this is also how to make split pea and lentil soups)