I this one has evolved over the years, but I think now it is just about perfect. Everyone raves about them.

BAKED BEANS

1 Pound Dried Great Northern Beans
1 Pound Bacon, chopped
1 Large Onion, chopped
3 Cloves Fresh Garlic, minced
2 Jalapeno Peppers, seeded and finely minced
1 Cup BBQ Sauce
½ Teaspoon Black Pepper
2 Teaspoons Kosher Salt

Heat the oven to 250 degrees F.

Soak the Beans over night covered with just enough water to submerge completely.

In a Dutch Oven, sauté the Bacon until the fat has rendered and the Bacon is just starting to color. Drain off most of the fat, add the Onion, Garlic and Jalapeno Peppers and sauté until the Onion is just clear. Add the BBQ Sauce and stir to combine.

Drain the Beans and reserve the soaking liquid. Add the drained Beans to the Dutch Oven and add the soaking liquid and enough Chicken Stock to bring the total up to 4 cups of liquid. Bring the pot up to a boil and stir to combine.

Cover the Dutch Oven and place in the preheated oven for about 4 hours, check after 3 hours, taste for tenderness. You may need to add more water if Beans are still hard but pot is dry, or remove the lid if beans are too saucy but are cooked through.
Steve

Sandy

Too funny -- I was going to post something very similar -- get out of my head! LOL

I made baked beans for a party this weekend that my husband loved, but his family didn't. The reason? The type of beans. I used small red beans -- which are firmer and chewier. The inlaws like mushier, softer beans. I never liked baked beans until I used a firmer bean -- I have a real thing about textures and mushy is one reason I could never eat baked beans in the past. I am by no means a bean aficionado, so I would like to hear what others like in their baked beans. What makes it great?

I use this recipe for basic baked beans.

BAKED BEANS

1 lb. Great Northern or navy beans, soaked overnight in cold water
1 cup chopped onions
4 slices bacon, diced
2 Tbs. white sugar
1 Tbs. dry mustard
1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper
2/3 cup molasses
2 Tbs. cider vinegar
1 1/2 cups tomato juice
1 cup water
Salt to taste

Drain beans and add fresh water. Simmer until beans are almost tender. Drain. Combine remaining ingredients and add to beans. Bake uncovered in bean pot or deep casserole at 250 degrees for 4 hours or until very tender. Check them every once in a while and add more water to keep them from drying out.

I made a pot of beans recently and posted about it on the What's For Dinner thread.

Moe loved these beans and had them for dinner and breakfast.

This recipe calls for simmering on the stove but would have been just as good baked in a low oven for a few hours. Would be just as wonderful made with a ham bone.

White Beans and Sausage
Source: David Leite's - The New Portuguese Table - My Family's White Beans and Sausage

1 pound dried navy, small California white or great northern beans, washed and sorted
1/2 pound bacon
1 large onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
Bay leaf
olive oil
3/4 pound Chourico, Linguica or Dry-Cured Smoked Spanish Chorizo cut into 1/4-inch slices
1/2 teaspoon dried red pepper flakes, or more to taste
1 tablespoon sweet paprika
water ( I used chicken broth)
Salt
Freshly ground pepper
3 tablespoons tomato paste (squeeze tube)
Fresh chopped flat leaf parsley

Heat a large pot over medium low heat. Add the bacon and cook, stirring often, until the fat has rendered and the meaty bits are crisp, about 15 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer to paper towels.

Bump up the heat to medium, add the chourico and sear until lightly browned, 7 to 10 minutes. Transfer the chourico to paper towels.

Pour off all but 3 tablespoons of fat from the pot. Or, if the pot is dry , drizzle in some oil. Add the onions and bay leaf and cook, stirring frequently, until deeply golden brown, 20 to 25 minutes, adjust the heat as necessary to prevent the onions from burning.

Add the garlic and paprika and cook for 1 minute more. Drain the beans and dump them into the pot, along with the chourico and red pepper flakes, and 3 1/2 cups of water (I used chicken broth). Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to low, cover and let burble gently. Stirring occasionally, until the beans are tender. Begin checking at 45 minutes, but it may take as long as 1 1/2 hours , depending on your beans' add more water (chicken broth) if needed.

Fish out and toss the bay leaf. Stir in the tomato paste and bacon and simmer for 10 minutes to thicken the cooking liquid. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Let the beans sit uncovered for 10 minutes to absorb and excess liquid.

Here is a link that might be useful: Thibeault's Table White Beans and Sausage

We've been trying to eat more beans and also trying to keep our intake of sodium and processed foods to a minimum, so this is the baked beans recipe I've come up with. I also used to start with the canned baked Van de Kamp baked beans and added bacon etc, but these are much healthier and we like them just as well. Having said that, they are very sweet so your family may not like them. The first time I made them I didn't cook the beans long enough initially and they were still a little chewy, so I cooked them for the full 2 hours the next time and that took care of that problem.

IMHO, it's definitely worth the time/effort to make your own - it's cheaper, healthier and tastier than the canned ones.

Becky

* Exported from MasterCook *

Baked Beans

Recipe By :
Serving Size : 0 Preparation Time :0:00
Categories :

Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
-------- ------------ --------------------------------
1 pound small white beans -- soaked overnight
1/2 pound bacon -- diced and partially cooked
1 onion -- diced
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup molasses
1/2 cup ketchup
2 teaspoons dry mustard
1 tablespoon worcestershire sauce

Drain beans and cover with fresh water. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and partially cover. Cook for 1-2 hours, adding water as necessary, until beans are tender. Combine drained beans (reserve cooking liquid) with remaining ingredients and bake covered at 250F-300F for 2-3 hours, checking frequently and adding bean cooking liquid as needed to keep moist. Remove lid for last 30 minutes to crisp top if desired.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Ann T, I'm definitely going to try that recipe, I saw it on What's For Dinner and I think Elery would love it.

Me? I like baked beans sweet, thick and sticky. Shut up, Jessica.

I usually use canned Bush's beans, some catsup and mustard, brown sugar and molasses to taste, put it in the oven covered with strips of bacon and bake it for a couple of hours. "Cheater" baked beans. Grandma would be disappointed in me.

OK, so I'm not from Boston, I'm from Michigan. We export a huge amount of dried beans and I cook with them a lot. I love baked beans and even make sandwiches out of cold leftover baked beans, sometimes for breakfast. I've tried several recipes, but so far I really like this one, but I use bacon in place of the salt pork and I don't grind it, I just finely chop some and lay the remaining strips across the top of the beans in the pot. The recipes is from the Michigan Department of Agriculture.

Michigan Baked Beans
16 ounces (2 cups) Michigan dry navy beans
2 quarts cold water
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup molasses
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon dry mustard
4 ounces salt pork
1 medium Michigan onion, chopped

Rinse beans; add to water in saucepan. Bring to boiling and simmer 2 minutes; remove from heat. Cover; let stand 1 hour. (Or add beans to cold water; soak overnight.)

Add salt to beans and water; cover and simmer till beans are tender, about 1 hour. Drain, reserving liquid. Measure 2 cups liquid, adding water if needed; mix with molasses, brown sugar, and mustard. Cut salt pork in half; score one half. Grind or thinly slice remainder.

In 2-quart bean pot or casserole, combine beans, onion and ground salt pork. Pour molasses mixture over. Top with scored pork. Cover; bake in 300 oven for 5 to 7 hours. Add more liquid if needed. Makes 8 servings.
Annie

Any good New Englander would have a fit at the thought of bacon in baked beans.

Boston Baked Beans
1 pound of small pea beans, picked over and rinsed, soaked over night.
Next morning,Drain and rinse again and put into a pot with enough water to cover a sliced onion and a piece about 1/4 pound, of salt pork and simmer until the beans are done....when a bean removed from the pot loses it's skin when you blow on it....the skin sort of wrinkles up and separates. this will take about 1 hour or a little more.

Drain beans saving liquid.
Put beans into a bean pot and stir in
1/4 cup molasses
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 rounded tsp of Coleman's mustard (no other brand will do!)
1/4 cup catsup
stir and add enough of the saved cooking water to just cover the beans.
slice up the chunk of now cooked salt pork and stir into the beans.
bake in a 300 oven for 4 to 6 hours, until dark brown and very yummy.
About once an hour, check the beans and stir and add more of the saved cooking liquid if needed.
You really need an old fashoned bean pot with a lid for this....they are sooo good...I need to make some again.
Linda C

Well, those poor people from New England, they just don't know what they're missing, LOL.

I just don't like salt pork, and it's not the same with pancetta...

Annie

Annie your "cheater" beans are exactly what I make in Texas. It's funny that being so far apart our recipes are so similar. In my opinion, if they are not sweet they are not baked beans.

I make the Michigan Baked Beans like Annie posted with bacon. But instead of the brown sugar and molasses, I use Grade B Maple syrup (to taste).

Time to get my bean pot out.

Nancy

If you want to try canned beans, I recommend the B&M brand. Heads above Bush's or other brands.

I rarely get to make baked beans because Tim won't eat 'em. So when I am asked to bring a pot luck dish, if beans work with the menu, I usually make them then.

I love bacon in my beans and even tho this recipe uses canned beans as a base, these are exactly how I like 'em, my extended family raves about them and they are a lot less work! LOL

JulieÂs Baked Beans

1lb ground beef, browned and drained
1/2lb bacon, cooked until crisp, crumbled
1T Worcestershire sauce
1/2c catsup
1/2c light molasses
1/2c brown sugar
2 medium onions, chopped
1 3lb7oz can B&M or BushÂs beans

Place all ingredients in casserole and bake one hour at 325F

OR
Place all ingredients in crockpot and cook 5-6 hours on low.

amazing ... LindaC's Baked Beans ... ingredients and cooking techniques are the same as the "Indiana Baked Beans" brought to Georgia by the wife of my Dad's younger brother... of course being Southerners, over the years we increased the amounts of molasses, brown sugar and catsup until I finally quit making them because they were just too sweet.

I think I'll use Linda's 1/4 cup of each and try 'em again. She is so right ... Coleman's Mustard and salt pork --cooked in the oven in a bean pot.

Now for a big of fun including bacon for Annie:

Dan's No-Fault Pork 'n Beans

Makes 8 servings
(Unfortunately the clipping saved from the Bowiem MD newspaper in the mid 80's doesn't identify Dan...but his beans are good, even if you aren't writing a novel.)

"First you go across the street to the grocer and buy two pounds of Jack Rabbit pinto or navy beans. You put them in a pot with steaming hot water for a little while. Then you start throwing things in.
"I slice up four big red onions and put them in. I mash up three of four garlic pods and put them in. I dash in Tabasco every time I remember to.
"I cook a pound of bacon and slice it up and throw it in also with the grease, as much grease as possible. I throw in a ham bone if I have one. I cover all of it over with as much pepper as I can find -- and somewhat less salt.
"I bring the pot to a boil, then I let it simmer for three hours. You have to add more hot water if you're really alert and aren't in the middle of a brillint scene in the novel.
"After three hours, I start eating the beans -- and I continue eating them two or three days -- until I finish the chapter."

Okay, I'd like to take this discussion in a different direction, because some of these recipes are quite different.

There are white beans with pork, very tomato-y saucy, There are what I call cowboy beans with ground beef. There are New England style, which I consider to be a dark bean, baked down quite thick. A southern-style bean that I grew up with is also thick and baked, but more BBQ-ier. Some beans are soupy, others are stand-up thick. So when Sandy asked for a baked bean recipe, we all come up with quite different recipes and styles.

Any comments? What are "baked beans" anyway?

Baked beans are what you think they are......
We all have our own ideas.....but of course my way is the only "real" way to make baked beans!!
....grin....

I use my leftover baked beans, same recipe as Annie's, as a dip for potatoe chips. There's that sweet/salt goodness.

Tamara, I always associate true Boston Baked Beans with the firmer small red bean, not the great northerns and not bbq'd.

There's no recipe with what I do, just add ketchup, mustard, brown sugar, worcestershire, etc to taste and topping with bacon is a must. Letting the bacon get crispy makes it special.

The CF has influenced me to buy some more dried beans and get more familiar with using them. Too many of you have commented on how good they are in comparison to canned.

Beth

As someone who practially lives on beans, and eats them almost every day, I find this post very interesting because of what Sushipup wrote, all the different ways you can cook them. I like all of them, BTW. My main issue is trying to find the right blance between sweet and savory and smokey. I like a sweetish, tomatoey baked bean for a traditional cookout type meal, but the other types are good for an accompaniment to some other types of meals. The last batch of baked beans I used I started with my homeade picalili relish, because it is made with a sugar cider vinegar syrup and includes mustard seeds. But it was too sweet for my taste. I had to really doctor it up to get it toned down (read add more beans, fake bacon and tomato paste). The best baked beans, IMHO, have just the right balance and it is hard to find and also different people will like it at different points. What is "too sweet" to some will be just right for others, and vice versa.

BTW, my suggestion for getting softer beans from dried beans is to soak them overnight. It isn't necessary, but it shortens the required cooking time, and since baked beans need a lot of cooking time to begin with, every little bit helps. I make different kinds of dried beans up ahead of time in my crockpot, and then freeze them in pint jars to use when I want instant beans. Saves a lot of money but still give the convenience of canned beans. They can be nuked in a pinch to thaw them out and use them right away.

These have different spices than many baked bean recipes but we really like this recipe. My cousin worked with our grandmother to measure out the ingredients for our family cookbook and I have left the story that's included in there with the recipe.
---------

In her early teens, my grandmother was being courted by a handsome boy who lived on his familyÂs farm. Once his parents had determined that the young couple "was serious", his mother began teaching Nana to prepare their favorite family recipes. But alas, soon my grandfather came along and her beau was out of the picture but not his motherÂs recipe for these sweet and spicy brown beans, which have always been known in our family as:

FARM BOY BEANS

1 pound dried great northern or navy beans
3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/4 cup molasses
1/4 cup finely chopped celery leaves
1 onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
1 1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/8 tsp. ground allspice
1 bay leaf, crushed (center spine removed)
1/2 pound ham or salt pork or 7 strips bacon

Wash and sort beans. Place beans and 3 cups of water in large bean pot. In bowl, mix all remaining ingredients except meat. Pour over beans in pot; stir well. Refrigerate 48 hours. Stir and add meat before cooking. Bake covered in 300 degree over for 6 hours. Uncover; add 1/2 cup hot water if needed. Bake one hour longer.

Note: This was her original recipe but I have modified the cooking technique a bit: Soak the beans overnight, then change the water and parcook them by cooking over medium heat for 45 minutes. Then drain them, saving the cooking water. Mix as directed with other ingredients but substitute 1 1/2 cups of the bean cooking water for the 3 cups of water. Marinate in the refrigerator for 24 - 36 hours, then add meat and reduce cooking time to 3 hours. Uncover and bake another hour or until done. Add extra water if needed.

I make "cheaters" sweet, thick, sticky, but soft, too. With lots of bacon - I ain't no New Englander! I can rarely get the beans to just the right consistency for baked beans when I start with dry (and it nearly kills me to buy beans in a can), but I'm a master at Pinto beans and bean soups from dry. Gosh, I wish I had some Great Northerns in the cupboard right about now, I'd give one of these recipes a try.

Sherry

I make my baked beans just as Annie described, bacon and all. But for a variation, if I have real maple syrup on hand, I'm with Nancy. Another vote for Michigan Baked Beans.

And although no one specifically mentioned it here, the pot you use for the beans really makes a difference, especially in the beans' texture. A true bean pot or cast iron dutch oven is essential IMHO.

Ann

Ann, I agree, the pot you use does make a big difference. I have an old bean pot that I use, and I also have a Lodge cast iron dutch oven which does a great job.

The crockpot on low all day while I'm at work does a passable job too, though.

Annie

Oh wow! What a great group of bean recipes!

becky ca, that is pretty much the recipe that I used. Maybe I put in too much molasses, as my family doesn't use molasses in recipes very often and the flavor was powerful.

ruthanna's Farm Boy Beans have such a cute story to go along with them that I might try them first. And then ann t's White Beans and Sausage. And then I'm excited to try skeip's savory recipe, as I think my family will really like that.

I grew up in Minnesota, so maybe it's a regional thing that I like my beans less sweet than some others do. Although I married a Hoosier and he thought they were too sweet, as well.

Great responses, everyone. Thank you all so much!

Sandy

Just wanted to say that I asked for a baked bean recipe several years ago and LindaC gave me hers.

We love them and make them several times a year.

I also like to use several kinds of beans mixed together like Northern beans, navy beans and pea beans.

I use Campbell's pork n beans, add ketchup, mustard, BBQ sauce, and brown sugar (or honey or maple syrup, or mollassas) Bacon if I have it, or sausage. They usually go in a sauce pan on the stove top, cause I decide about the same time what meat we're having, usually about 4 pm! DH would rather I made them from dried, but I haven't been able to make them taste the way I want them, and he does like the way they usually get done. I do have a couple of bean pots that I use when I think about it early enough for them to go in the oven. Tonight they got spoiled. They went it the oven! I have saved a few of these to try. I'd rather do something quick, than take all day to make something. I'm lazy!

Tami