I just knew this last Saturday, that Sunday morning I’d fire up the smoker and get that 5 pound picnic portion of a pork roast in there. I wanted a pull-apart roast with my go-to rub. This grass fed fancy roast needed the best and I was just the Biggles for the job.
Yeah well, after 8 hours of smoking, I’d had enough and pulled it. I could tell it wasn’t ready, it needed another 4 hous in there. I got a late start in the day and it was time. That was okay, I’d figure it out tomorrow. There’s always tomorrow.
And figure it out I did, all in about 10 minutes.

Back around the beginning of October, Cookiecrumb of I’m Mad and I Eat, posted a soupy bean recipe using some of my smoked pork. That combined with email buddy Scott’s version, I knew it was my turn.

It wasn’t until I got home from work that I realized where the pork roasty was going. I had to make do with what I had on hand. Plus I had to figure out this “crock pot” thing. I don’t think I’ve ever used one and only eaten food out of one probably once a year. I don’t get it. It has a setting of Low and High. What the hell is that? Low & High. What’s low? 10?, 200? 225? 250? 300? 9,000,000? And if I don’t know what low is, then I sure as hell don’t know what High is.
Mama said Low is for cooking all night. Okay, that I can deal with.
In went about 3 pounds of small cubed pork roast. Damned it was good, even if it wasn’t pull apart like. The rub was 4 parts paprika, 2 parts onion powder, a little more than 1 part salt, 1 part cayenne, 1 part chile powder, 1 part different chile powder, 1 part oregano and some fresh ground black pepper. Slather pork roast with extra virgin, apply tons of rub and smoke for 8 hours.

1.5 cups of dried black eyed peas or a few cans, who cares. Dice up a few small yeller onions or 1 large one. Smoosh a heads worth of fresh garlic, 2 cups of good chicken broth and I had a jar of Trader Joe’s Fire Roasted Red Peppers to add, diced up nice. I think tomatoes would be a great addition as well, but didn’t have any.
Here’s an important point, as near as I can tell. Add a tablespoon of the leftover dry rub you made. It’ll compliment the meat flavors. Simmer 12 hours or more.

And that’s pretty much how that goes. I’m not sure about this whole crock pot thing. One of the downsides is that you gotta smell the damned thing simmering all night. It was like I was ‘cooking’ all night long. I would wake up every few hours and smell a different stage. I could smell the freshness of the beans as they came up, smell the fresh broth age and then the meat kick in and add the spicy side. By 6am I said to myself, (while I was attempting to sleep) “That smells done to me.” So, I shut it off and went back to bed.
This is what I found after getting ready for the day. When I stirred it, the color was not that dark. In fact, the beans were quite light and the broth really hadn’t reduced much. But everything was done and forked up just as it should. The broth seemed a little watery to me. But I think my mowf wasn’t awake yet, cause after a few bites it came around. It needed some salt (I didn’t add any except for the rub). And after finishing a bowl full, a lump of butter would be divine.
I’m not quite sure what to call it other than, Smoked Pork N Bean Soup. And it was pretty darned okay too! Take note though, the cayenne did make it a little hot. So, if any of you are tenderfeets don’t add that.
Cheers everyone!
Biggles
Update: Went home for lunch today and warmed some up, 28 hours after it came out of the pot. It’s about the same as I remember, thought maybe the heat would increase. It’s still lacking a dimension of flavor, even with the lump of butter. Since it does have a lot of chile powder and smoky flavor, I thinking we should go south of the border and do up some tomatoes in there next time and finish it with a squeeze of fresh lime juice.