On Tue, 01 Jul 2008 12:23:23 -0600, Christine Dabney
> wrote:

>On Tue, 01 Jul 2008 13:14:06 -0500, Janet Wilder
>>If you do them overnight at low temperature in a "decent" slow cooker
>>(not like the horrible Rival Crock Pot that I trashed when it burnt up a
>>batch of beans)the evaporation is fine. The beans caramelize to a rich,
>>dark brown and I have never been able to see or taste the difference
>>between slow-cooker and oven. The Hamilton Beech that I have has a
>>small hole in the lid for the temperature probe to go and that little
>>hole allows evaporation.
>
>I was wondering about this. I have my mother's recipe that I
>occasionally use. It cooks for a good 8-12 hours in the oven, but I
>am disinclined to use the oven during the summer, unless I absolutely
>have to.
>
>However, I do want to fix some baked beans for the 4th...so I had been
>wondering about the slow cooker. I do have a Rival though.....

I don't do BB beans, but I do pintos all the time in a slow-cooker. I
have a pretty decent farberware that works great, but I've done them
in a crap slow-cooker and just adjusted the lid to control the heat.
In the summer I put it in the garage so there is no heat added to the
house. I never do beans in the oven anymore.

Lou