The first thing ya gotta do is rinse the beans real well.

Then, ya gotta mix the beans and cold water in a large kettle of sorts and boil the water. After it begins to boil, cut down the heat and simmer'em for a couple of minutes. After simmerin'em take'em off the burner and put a lid on it (so to speak) and let'em sit for an hour or so. But don't drain the water off the beans.

Go ahead and add the ham hocks and onions to the beans 'n water right now and let'em soak for an hour, too. This isn't an "hour or two". It's an "hour, too". Just wanted ya to know the difference.

After the hour is up, turn the burner back on to a high setting (that's real hot if ya didn't know) and bring'em back to a boil. As soon as it boils, reduce the heat again and let'em simmer for another hour. Oh yeah, don't forget to stir'em once in awhile.

When the hour is over, remove the ham hocks and yank out the bones and then cut the ham hocks into cubes. Actually, you can cut'em any ol' way ya want as far as I'm concerned. They're gonna still taste great. One more thing, for god sakes, don't put the bones back in the beans. I know some of you will argue this point so if you wanna put the bones back in... go right on ahead.

Now, drop the ham hocks back into the beans and add the tomato paste, chili peppers, garlic 'n brown sugar.

Cover'em back up again (get's kinda old, huh) and cook'em until the beans are tender. Once again...don't forget to stir'em once in awhile. This way you can taste'em to see how they're gettin' along. This should take around 30 minutes or so. Be sure you don't eat all the beans after stirrin'.

If the water is gettin' low, just add some more water.

The End