Pork-to-beans ratio?

[Mosca]

I finally got around to smoking up all my trimmings from turning full spares into St Louis racks, and after separating the cartilage and bone from the tips, I have a little over a pound and a half of nice meat, mostly burnt ends, and not dried out:



This is going to be classic bbq baked beans, the kind with molasses and onions and ketchup etc. But I never have this much pork to add; it’s usually a flap or a skirt, or both, and I just mince it up and toss it into beans at the end.

So figuring onions, peppers, garlic, etc., how many pounds of beans is the right ratio here?

1) What if I went with dried beans?
2) How about if I cut corners and went with canned?

I’m comfortable with doing either. I figure after tossing all that other stuff in, there won’t be much difference, but there is a purity to starting with dried beans.

[Panhead John]

I always prefer dried beans to canned, but for BBQ Baked beans, canned [Bush’s] would probably be just as good! Myself, I’d just make as much beans as you want and eyeball the meat amount. Freeze any leftover meat for the next time.

[Mosca]

That’s where I usually start, too, but I could also begin with great northerns or cannellini beans, or pintos. How many cans do you think would give the right ratio?

[ecowper]

It seems from most of what I see looking at internet recipes, that 3 cans (48 ounces) of beans with 1 1/2 lbs of pork.

[Mosca]

I saw it all over the map, and most of them were measuring the pork in cups (wtf?). I’ll probably just get 5 or 6 cans of different kinds of beans and add them until it looks right.

[ecowper]

Mosca I don't make traditional pork and beans. For Texas style beans, I do 8 oz dry beans to 6-8 oz meat. That would work out to about 2 cans of beans to 1/2 pound of meat.

[Starsky]

According to Vandekamps it's two rubbery pieces of bacon fat the size of a penny per can

[Mosca]

Hey, I have that can in my pantry!

When I was one of 6 kids we used to get really competitive over that piece of pork.

[WillTravelForFood]

one bean per oz of rib.

So 16 beans per lb of rib meat.

[Mosca]

I decided to make the sauce, dump in five cans of beans, then add the pork and see what I thought. I decided to dump in another can. It looks about right.

[Panhead John]

6 cans total?! How big was each can?

[Mosca]

16 oz cans.

[Mosca]

This is about right. It’s still mostly beans, but it’s also really meaty. And pretty good, too!

[mrichie1229]

Looks delicious!

[FireMan]

39 to one, yessir, that way you avoid the farty one.