Beans with eggs

I am disappointed in these beans. I thought I had it nailed by adding tomato paste to leftover beans but they are still insufficiently hearty.

The ham hock veritably dissolved under pressure and left behind very little meat. It seems watery.

It has a lot of bay, some garlic, black pepper, and clove, and now egg and butter, and still it seems too diluted. 

A chef might say insufficient umami.  

Conclusion: do not cook these beans in water.

I think I'll just return to basics, mirepoix, butter, wine. And that was a weird ham hock, so maybe that's it. It was smokey and sticky and better than the bacon was, it's just not as hearty as I wanted. 

But it's delicious. Am I being too picky? I wanted ideal beans, and it's not.

Back to the drawing board as it were.  

Molasses!