If Jersey Wonders are one of our most distinctive treats, Bean Crock is perhaps the closest thing Jersey has to a national dish. Known in Jèrriais as pais au fou, literally beans cooked in the oven, Bean Crock is wonderfully uncomplicated food: dried beans, pork, onions and a few simple seasonings, put into an earthenware crock and left to cook very slowly until the beans become tender and the meat begins to fall apart.

There are probably as many Bean Crock recipes as there are Jersey families who have made one. Some use only haricot beans; others use a mixture of haricots, butter beans and broad or brown beans. Some insist upon a pig's trotter, others use pork on the bone, pork belly or a hock, and beef shin sometimes finds its way into the pot too. What really defines Bean Crock isn't an exact list of ingredients. It's the crock, the beans, the meat and time.

Long before anyone had heard of a slow cooker, Jersey had developed a rather ingenious version of communal overnight cooking. Families would prepare their Bean Crock at home, cover the earthenware pot and take it to their local bakery. Once the day's bread had been baked, the crocks could sit in the residual heat of the baker's oven, slowly cooking through the night. The following morning, they were collected and for many Islanders Bean Crock became Sunday breakfast.

That isn't simply culinary folklore, Jersey writer George F. Le Feuvre recalled precisely this tradition in Jèrriais in 1978, remembering townspeople taking their pots to the baker to cook overnight and collecting them in time for Sunday morning. Marguerite Paul's 'Island Kitchen' recipe book records the same tradition, right through until the end of the Occupation: crocks were covered with brown paper, tied with string and labelled with their owner's name before being carried to the bakery in a bucket. The baker charged a penny. She also records the story of one unfortunate young boy entrusted with collecting the family Bean Crock from a bakery in Victoria Road, St Peter. On the journey home he dropped it, the crock smashed, and, with wartime food still scarce, the loss of the dinner was apparently every bit as disastrous as the loss of the pot.

The crock itself matters. Jersey Heritage holds surviving earthenware Bean Crock pots dating from the 19th century, as well as examples from the Occupation era, physical reminders that this was once an everyday part of Island domestic life rather than something invented later as a "traditional Jersey dish". The dish's importance even found its way into how Islanders themselves were described. Jersey people have long been nicknamed "Jersey Beans", traditionally associated with the Island's enthusiasm for Bean Crock!

Simple, economical and filling, it was food designed around what an Island household had available: dried beans that would keep through winter, onions, and meat from the family pig.

It is difficult to imagine something much more Jersey than that.

Traditional Jersey Bean Crock

Serves 6

There is no single "correct" Bean Crock. This Delicious Jersey version stays deliberately close to the older recipes recorded by the Jersey Women's Institute and Marguerite Paul, retaining the pig's trotter, pork on the bone, onions and bay rather than turning it into a modern casserole.

Ingredients

500g dried beans (predominantly haricot, or a traditional mixture of haricot, butter and other dried beans)
1 pig's trotter
500–750g pork on the bone (hock, leg or another slow-cooking cut)
2 large onions, quartered
3–4 bay leaves
Freshly ground black pepper
Salt
Water

Method

The night before, put the dried beans into a large bowl, cover generously with cold water and leave them to soak for around 12 hours.

The following morning, drain and rinse the beans and put them into a large earthenware crock or heavy lidded casserole.

Nestle the pig's trotter and pork down amongst the beans. Add the quartered onions, bay leaves and a generous grinding of black pepper.

Cover everything generously with water.

Put on the lid and place in a low oven, around 140–150°C, and leave it alone to cook gently for at least 5–6 hours. Better still, give it 7–8 hours or cook it slowly overnight, as generations of Jersey families did.

Check it occasionally and add a little more hot water if the beans begin to dry out. The finished crock shouldn't be soupy, but nor should it be dry. The beans should be meltingly tender and surrounded by a rich, thickened cooking liquor.

Towards the end of cooking, remove the meat and trotter. Strip away the bones, skin and any excess fat and return the good meat to the crock.

Only now season properly with salt and adjust the pepper.

Give everything a final stir and return it to the oven until rich, thick and thoroughly comforting.

Serve simply, in deep bowls, with good crusty bread and Jersey butter, and don't be surprised if it's even better reheated the following day.