Slow Cooker Ham and Beans

Those simple slow-cooker recipes are irresistible, and get pinned a lot. This ham and beans recipe from Plain Chicken looks so easy: just throw some dried beans in the slow cooker with ham, water, and seasonings.

I made it with the chopped ham option instead of ham bone, hocks, or shanks. I also added some fully-cooked pork sausage I had on hand. We had it with cornbread muffins and salad on the side.

I tasted it before serving, and found it both a bit bland, and strangely bitter. So I added about a cup of pureed sweet potato. That improved things, but it was still met with frowns at the table. Everybody ate it, but nobody really loved it.

Maybe if you used the ham hocks or shanks it would be better. But with the chopped ham, it's just a bland bowl of beans. I don't think I'll go through the effort to find hocks/shanks. Slow cooker recipes are really hit-or-miss, and I think this one's a miss.

Verdict: Pass on this one.

Crock Pot Beef Carnitas

The charming blog Eat, Live, Run offers a beef carnitas recipe for the crock pot. I'm learning that very few things really work in the crock pot - most things turn mushy, with muddy, bland flavors. Your house smells great, but dinner tastes like boiled socks. But some things really work, mostly dishes that you would otherwise cook for hours in the oven.

Carnitas are traditionally braised slowly, so I thought this yummy-looking recipe was a good bet:

It's a simple recipe. Rub the meat with spices, add the veggies, and cook. Serve with cilantro, lime, salsa, avocado.

Here's what mine looked like at the end of the cooking time:

I shredded the meat, mixed in some of the veggies, and added the toppings:

They looked fantastic. Unfortunately, they suffered from crock pot syndrome - very bland and mushy. It tasted like there was too much liquid, and the flavors weren't concentrated enough. I was expecting taco-truck deliciousness, but was disappointed. Maybe there's a spectacular slow-cooker carnitas recipe out there, but this one didn't work for me.

Verdict: Blah and mushy is the opposite of what Mexican food should be.

Double Recipe Test: Brisket and Yeast Rolls

The 30-minute yeast roll recipe from Your Homebased Mom gets a lot of repins, and crock pot brisket is a perennial favorite too. I used this food.com recipe. I tried them together, with slaw to make a sandwich.

Here are the pinned images I used:

I also used Bobby Flay's Creamy Coleslaw recipe (not from a pin).

The yeast rolls came together easily in the mixer, a great recipe if you have a small "helper". I made a half recipe - we don't eat much white bread-type stuff, so I knew a whole recipe would go to waste. Due to all the enthusiastic "helping," my rolls were unevenly sized.

The brisket was a very easy crock pot recipe, just put a spice rub on the meat, throw it all in there and cook. This is how it looked right when I took it out.

The ingredients for the sandwiches:

And the finished product:

These were a HUGE hit.

The rolls are light and soft. Probably too cake-y for my taste most of the time, but great in this particular sandwich. And you can't beat it for only taking 30 min. If I make them again, I may do a punch-down-and-second-rise to get them a little bread-ier/chewier.

The brisket is delicious. I think the liquid smoke really makes it. It wasn't something I had on hand, but I wouldn't skip it. Often crock pot recipes are bland and mushy, but this dish is really well-suited to slow cooking. With a little hot sauce, it was divine.

The coleslaw was yummy too. Usually I do vinaigrette dressing for coleslaw rather than mayo-based, but you have to have the mayo kind for brisket sandwiches. I followed the recipe as written, except I used a teaspoon instead of a tablespoon of dried mustard (was that a typo? a tablespoon of dried mustard?).

The verdict: YUM. Good enough for company, for sure. Must have beer to accompany.