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One-Pot Meals

Bean Hole Beans (Slow-Cooked in the Coals)

One-Pot Mealsmedium8 servings· Prep Overnight soak + 30 min· Cook 6-8 hours
Bean Hole Beans (Slow-Cooked in the Coals)

This is old camp cooking at its best. Bean hole beans go back to loggers and woodsmen who buried a cast-iron pot of beans in a pit of coals and let it cook all day while they worked. You start them in the morning, the fire does the rest, and by evening you've got deep, molasses-rich beans that taste like a hundred years of camp. The best part: leftovers are breakfast the next morning. And unlike chili, beans have no acid — so this is exactly the slow, low cook cast iron was made for.

Ingredients

  • 1 lb dried navy or Great Northern beans
  • 1/2 lb salt pork or thick-cut bacon, diced
  • 1 large onion, diced
  • 1/2 cup molasses
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1 tbsp dry mustard
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp black pepper
  • Water, to cover

Steps

  1. The night before: soak the dried beans in plenty of water overnight.
  2. In the morning: drain, cover with fresh water, and parboil for 30 to 60 minutes until the beans are just tender but not falling apart. Drain, saving the cooking water.
  3. Layer the beans, salt pork, and onion in a cast-iron Dutch oven. Mix the molasses, brown sugar, mustard, salt, and pepper into a couple cups of the hot bean water and pour it over until the beans are just covered. Put the lid on.
  4. The traditional way: dig a hole, line it with a bed of hot coals, lower in the lidded pot, pack more coals around and over it, then bury the whole thing with dirt. Leave it 6 to 8 hours.
  5. The easy way: nestle the lidded Dutch oven into banked coals at the edge of your fire, low and slow, for 6 to 8 hours. Check it every couple hours and add a little water if it looks dry.
  6. Dig it out (or pull it off) at dinner. Save what's left — reheated with eggs, bean hole beans are breakfast the next morning.

Tips & variations

What are bean hole beans?

Bean hole beans are the original slow cooker. Loggers and woodsmen would dig a pit, fill it with hardwood coals, bury a cast-iron pot of beans, molasses, and salt pork, and leave it all day while they worked — coming back to a finished dinner with no tending at all. It's a New England and old-camp tradition, and it's about as hands-off as cooking gets.

Two ways to cook them

  • The real bean hole. Dig a hole a little bigger than your pot, line it with a thick bed of hot coals, lower in the lidded Dutch oven, pack coals around and over it, and bury the lot with dirt. Six to eight hours later you dig up dinner. It's a project, and it's a blast to do with kids.
  • The easy way. Nestle the lidded pot into banked coals at the edge of your fire and let it go low and slow, checking the liquid every couple hours. Same beans, no shovel. Our Dutch oven temperature guide helps you keep the heat gentle and steady.

Why cast iron is perfect here

Remember the warning on our camp chili about acid and bare cast iron? Beans are the opposite. There's no acid to fight — just beans, pork, and molasses — so the slow, even, all-day heat of a cast-iron Dutch oven is exactly right, and it only builds the seasoning. Here's how to keep that iron in shape for the next trip.

Dinner tonight, breakfast tomorrow

Start them in the morning and they're dinner by the fire that night. Whatever's left reheats beautifully — beans and eggs is a classic camp breakfast, and you already did the work yesterday. One pot, two meals, almost no effort.

Common questions

What are bean hole beans?
A traditional camp dish where beans, salt pork, and molasses slow-cook all day in a cast-iron Dutch oven buried in a pit of hot coals. Loggers and woodsmen used the method so dinner cooked itself while they worked.
How long do bean hole beans take to cook?
About 6 to 8 hours of slow, gentle heat — whether buried in a coal-lined pit or nestled in banked coals at the edge of the fire. You start them in the morning for a dinner that night.
Can you cook beans in cast iron?
Yes, and it's ideal. Unlike acidic tomato dishes, beans have no acid to react with the iron, so the slow even heat of a cast-iron Dutch oven is perfect and only improves the seasoning.
Do you have to dig a hole for bean hole beans?
No. The buried-pit method is traditional and fun, but you get the same result by nestling the lidded Dutch oven into banked coals at the edge of your fire for 6 to 8 hours, checking the liquid now and then.

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