Janet Wilder > wrote in
:

> 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.....
>>
>> Christine
>
> I'd make sure there was a lot of liquid in it. I'd also do it during
> the day, rather than overnight so you can watch it. You may have a
> better Rival than mine. Mine was the new-fangled one with the digital
> read out. I had an early Rival with just a knob and that one was fine.
>
> I was stupid enough to trust the Rival on "warm." I don't often throw
> kitchen tantrums, but that Rival went into the trash with the beans
> still in it and I still cuss it whenever the subject comes up.
>
> Inadequate and/or non-performing kitchen stuff makes me angry.
>

I was going to say crockpotting requires less liquid as there is less
evaporation action going on. That and avoid removing the lid as every lid
lift adds about 20 minutes to the cooking time. Are beans in the smoker
looking better now?

--

The house of the burning beet-Alan