And this is a still life of a bacon hock and an onion with a can of tomatoes and some barbecue sauce in the background.

Why it’s got to be the annual SSG slow cooker baked beans lovefest. Where I pay homage to the delicious smokey aroma emanating from my slow cooker that greet me in the morning after setting it to cook overnight.

Except that it didn’t quite go to plan this year.

My bacon hock wouldn’t fit into my new slow cooker.

There was no turning back though. Those baked beans had to be made. The beans were soaked, the hock unwrapped. The question was how to cook them? Baking was tempting but out of the question – that darn hock was to big for my roasting tray too. After a frantic google, I decided to start off cooking them on the stove and then slow cook for the final couple of hours after I’d taken the meat off the hock. Just to get the beans really soft.

I’m happy to report that my multiple cooking vessel technique worked. This year’s beans were probably the best I’ve made. Not too mushy, not too salty. They were Goldilocks grade ‘just right’.