The Pork and The Beans

Baked Beans. My favourite accompaniment to Baked Potatoes, Egg and Chips, Fish Fingers or a Fat-Saturated Fry-Up. I love the sweet, tomato-y sauce and the way that they taste just as good straight out of the can, standing next to the sink at midnight.
And of course, I particularly revelled in the Baked Bean Renaissance of 1992, when the humble saucy bean was placed on top of a pizza. I have always been advocate of baked beans with pizza anyway, so this was an affirmation of my slightly odd tastes.
However, I knew that whilst tinned beans are great, homemade beans must be greater still so I set to work on finding a recipe that could put their canned cousins to shame.
The first thing I considered was what bean to use. The traditional British Baked Bean is made with Haricot (Navy) Beans, which is a small, firm white bean with a slightly mealy texture. I didn’t have Haricot Beans in the cupboard so opted for a larger bean, the Cannellini bean which is creamier, although Butter Beans would also be particularly good (and in fact, any bean really, providing it’s dried).
The second thing to consider is what you’re going to add to the beans to add substance. Pork is traditional, and in virtually any cut: belly pork, bacon, gammon, chorizo or black pudding (we added a Spanish Morcilla as an experiment). Fatty, salted cuts give the best flavour, and the spiced sausages add a delectable smoky taste to the final dish. I decided to use a smoked Gammon joint that we recently procured from a local organic farm. I left the joint to soak in clean, cold water over the course of a few hours to soften the strong cured flavour – you want all the flavours to work together and not be overwhelmed by any one ingredient.
The final element is the sauce itself. Do you want a darkly coloured but fairly thin broth like Boston Baked Beans or a rich, full-bodied tomato sauce? Since I had already made Boston Baked Beans some weeks ago, I decided sweet and tomato-y was the way to go. I achieved this flavour by adding the cooking liquor from the beans (which also adds a starchy, thickening element), a can of tomatoes, some maple syrup and a good slug of hot pepper sauce. Long slow cooking is the only way to achieve a thick, unctuous sauce and you want it to simmer in the oven until the meat falls apart into lusciously pink, moist chunks.
Our Baked Beans had a double cooking session, 2 hours on Wednesday Night, and then another 2 hours last night. The halting of the cooking procedure had no inadvertent affects on the dish and in fact, I think this helps the flavours to meld more deeply.
We served it very simply, in large bowls with the leftover Cornbread (which reheats quite well, by the way) and brown bread rolls, thickly buttered. A delicious, non-pretentious one pot meal that could be served on a Wintery day or as a side for a Summertime barbeque.
If you want to make Pork and Beans, Freya style, here's the recipe, but remember that many of the ingredients are interchangeable, for example honey or molasses instead of maple syrup, paprika instead of pepper sauce, belly pork instead of gammon. Less sweet and more savoury. You build the beans!

FREYAS PORK AND BEANS, serves 2 with leftovers for tomorrow
Ingredients:
250g Dried Cannellini (or Haricot) Beans (soaked overnight)
1kg Piece of Cured Pork, belly pork, gammon, bacon or several links of chorizo, soaked in water for a few hours if the cure is particularly strong.
2 Bay Leaves
6 Black Peppercorns
1 Tin Chopped Tomatoes
2 Onions, one peeled but left whole, the other peeled and thinly sliced
Salt
Brown Sugar to taste (I used Demerara but any brown sugar will suffice)
Good Slug of Maple Syrup to taste (again, honey or molasses will also do, depending on preference)
Dash of Hot Pepper Sauce (you could add some whole dried chilis or Paprika instead)
Freshly Ground Black Pepper
METHOD:
Preheat Oven to 140c.
Drain the soaked beans. Place in a large saucepan with the whole onion and one of the bay leaves, cover and bring to the boil. DO NOT SALT AT THIS STAGE!
Cook, uncovered, for about 40 minutes.
In an ovenproof stockpot, gently heat some butter and cook the sliced onion until golden brown and soft.
If the Pork was soaked, drain and rinse a couple of times, then pat dry with some kitchen roll.
Place the pork in the stockpot on top of the onions. Pour over the beans AND the cooking liquor, and all the other ingredients excluding the salt.
Cover tightly and place in the oven for four hours.
After two hours, remove the lid, stir well and taste for seasoning. Add some salt if you feel it needs it. Return beans to the oven.
Half an hour before the end of cooking time, remove the lid so allow the sauce to thicken.
After this time, your pork and beans will be mingling with a thick, sweet sauce. Taste again for seasoning. Pull the pork into thick chunks and serve in large bowls with brown bread.
Enjoy!