Well, I don't cook soup beans myself . But I do love them. I buy Luck's Beans in the can and they are the closest to home cooked as you can get, but I'm not used to the fatback in them. I am not an expert on beans but I have made the following observations: Soup beans to my family is October beans the bag of dry beans says Cranberry beans). Occasionally, we have white beans, Great Northern beans on the bag. Then there is Navy beans. Navy beans are smaller than Great Northern beans and Navy beans are used by my family for pork and beans and baked beans. I've enjoyed the discussions on family traditions. Searching: KENT, CLARK, TOLBERT, CATES, BOUTON, BOND & others Thanks, Angie jadds@bellatlantic.net