re: Any tips to level up red beans?

Try hogs head cheese.

You’re welcome.

Some things don’t really level up. Red beans and boiled crawfish come to mind.

It’s red beans. Literally rice and beans.

Just cook them right and use whatever type of meat you like. Same with crawfish. Cook it right and use the seasoning you like.

Sorry you two have never had excellent red beans

Use a pressure cooker to make a stock with ham hocks, neck bones, maybe a few trotters and your other seasonings. Then drop your beans in, preferably pre-soaked, cook as usual and adjust your salt/ other seasonings at the end.

When I'm in a hurry, I use ham base instead of salt and it makes a mean pot of beans.

I like to add a diced ham steak, thyme and bay leaf in addition to all the other stuff mentioned.

Beans
Sausage
Ham
Tasso

Low and slow

We've done the smoked ham hock forever, but I recently put in a smoked pork jowl. It added an incredible flavor.

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Where did you find the pork jowl?

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Iverstine's.. and I’m editing to say they do have smoked pork jowels and they’re excellent. The also have unsmoked pork cheeks in the freezer case. Occasionally they'll have smoked turkey wings and drumsticks. Their hamhocks are excellent.

For a pound of beans, I'll use 1/2 lb of sausage, 1 hamhock and 1/4 to 1/2 lb of tasso. Alot of the fat dissolves and the meat (except for the sausage) falls apart when it's cooked. The hamhock fat dissolves and its bone removed, so it's not too much meat. But a lot of meat in the pot isn't a bad thing.

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AlxTgr

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I was going to suggest the same thing.