A can of B&M baked beans (no other brand) doctored up with sauteed onion, garlic plus BBQ sauce.

• Sweet and Sour
  Baked Beans

  1 pound bacon diced and cooked crisp remove from pan

  3 large onions sliced and browned in the bacon grease

  When onions are tender add and cook until sugar is dissolved

  1 t dry mustard

  ½ c white vinegar

  ½ brown sugar

  Add: 1 15oz can
  kidney beans

  1 15 oz can
  black beans

  1 15 oz can
  butter beans

  1 15oz can
  white beans

  1 30 oz can
  plain baked beans (I use Van Kamps)

  Mix all together and bake in oven 45 minutes at 350

Boca Boys Baked Beans with Peaches

• 1 package bacon
• 2 large yellow onions, chopped
• 1 50 ounce can of baked beans (recommended: Bush's)
• 1 can peach pie filling
• 1/2 cup barbecue sauce
• 4 tablespoons Boca Boys BBQ Rub, recipe follows

• Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.
• Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Add the bacon and cook,
  stirring, until somewhat crispy and its fat has been rendered. Using a
  slotted spoon, transfer the bacon to a paper towel-lined plate to drain,
  leaving the fat in the skillet.
• Empty the can of beans into a large baking pan.
• Puree the peach pie filling, barbecue sauce, and dry rub then add it to the pan and mix by hand.
• Add the onions to the skillet and cook, stirring, until softened, about 6 minutes. Transfer them to the baking pan.
• Crumble the bacon and add it as well. Mix to combine and bake,
  uncovered, until hot and bubbly, about 1 hour.

Boca Boys Dry Rub

• 6 tablespoons Granulated Garlic Powder
• 2 tablespoons Chili Powder
• 2 tablespoons Paprika (I use Szeged Hot Hungarian)
• 1 tablespoon Garam Masala - an Indian spice blend, made by McCormicks and others
• 1 tablespoon Cayenne Pepper
• 2 tablespoons Turbinado Sugar

I am not at home. I use the c.1980 Fannie Farmer recipe. This recipe looks about right (from Christian Science Monitor- 1984- and cites Fannie Farmer.) I use a little extra dry mustard. This recipe is almost as simple as buying ready made :-)

Boston Baked Beans

2 cups yellow eye, navy, or small white beans 1/4 pound salt pork, cut in half 1 small onion, peeled 1 to 2 teaspoons dry mustard 4 tablespoons molasses 3 tablespoons brown sugar

Soak beans overnight or for 10 to 12 hours in water to cover. Bring to boiling point and simmer gently until skins burst, about 1 hour. Drain, saving water.

Put one piece of salt pork and onion in bottom of a 2-quart, or larger, bean pot. Cover with beans to within an inch of the top.

Combine remaining ingredients with bean liquid and add to pot. Score remaining salt pork with several gashes and place on top.

Cover and bake about 6 hours in oven that has been preheated to 325 degrees F.

Do not stir while baking, but add water as needed to keep beans covered. Remove bean-pot cover for final hour of cooking, so pork and beans will be brown and crisp.

After 3 to 4 hours baking time, taste to see if flavor is sweet enough to your taste. If not, add more brown sugar or molasses.

Serves 6 to 8.

great minds......real baked beans!!

I make doctored up baked beans just like Sushipup. I like to add some diced green pepper, if I remember and a bit of heat. Serrano peppers, usually.

Some things are great made from scratch, but sometimes it can be a lot of extra work. Do what you have time/energy/inclination for.

Here is some history on baked beans in New England, from the website, Celebrate Boston.

The early Pilgrims and Puritans of Massachusetts also strictly observed the Sabbath, and did not work or even cook hot meals on Sundays. To circumvent this religious rule, they would bake beans on Saturdays in a bean pot, and leave them in the hot brick ovens overnight. On Sundays, the baked beans would still be hot when served. Due to the Sabbath, baked beans and brown bread eventually became a traditional Sunday meal, which lasted until the early 1900s.

Molasses is a byproduct of processing cane sugar, and is used as an ingredient in the distillation of rum. Boston became a manufacturer and exporter of rum in the late-1700s. Boston Baked Beans, or baked beans with molasses and salt pork, likely evolved into this new recipe at that time.

Related, Boston was then part of the Triangle Trade, an international trading system involving slaves, rum, fish, raw materials, and other finished goods. Slaves and molasses (or sugar) were imported into Boston from the West Indies, with the molasses used for the production of rum. Raw materials and rum from Boston were exported to Europe, with finished goods imported in return. Europe traded goods with the Slave Coast of Africa. Captured slaves were then sent to the British Sugar Colonies in the West Indies, thereby creating what resembles an upside down triangle on a map of the Atlantic Ocean. Boston accumulated great wealth from the Triangle Trade.

As for difficulty, honestly this dish cooks itself (my mother would say it's not like you are in the pot doing any work) and it is far superior to its canned relative. The hardest thing about making this is having to smell the aroma in the house for hours on end ... really and truly I am not someone who makes complicated things and when I do I want full credit :-)

Ricky that recipe looks awesome - I need to try it. I honestly don't care for traditional Boston Baked Beans. To me they are tasteless and boring but that's just me. I cheat and make BBQ baked beans using canned beans. I combine canned beans with BBQ sauce, mustard, garlic powder, chili powder, molasses or brown sugar, (molasses is better), onion. I bake it until it's thick and bubbly.

Here on the prairie of Kansas, baked beans means a can of pork and beans baked with the addition of molasses, brown sugar, mustard, ketchup, etc. Is that what you mean or do you mean baked beans starting with dried beans baked?

Many thanks for all suggestions and recipes.

This is my go to covered dish:

CATHY'S BOURBON BAKED BEANS

2 - 28 ounce canS baked beans -
drained

1 lb bacon

1/2 cup Heinz chili sauce

1 cup bourbon

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 large onion

4 tbls molasses

4 tbls balsamic vinegar

Cook bacon crisp. Remove bacon and sauté diced onion in
drippings until tender.

Add ketchup, sugar, molasses, and
bourbon. Simmer until thick.

While sauce is cooking, pour beans
into 10X14 baking dish.

Add sauce and crumbled bacon to
beans; mix well.

Bake in preheated oven at 350 degrees
for 45 minutes

http://www.canadianliving.com/food/recipe/comfy-baked-beans

These are so good. I use. Whole pound of salt pork or a mix of salt pork and bacon. The tomatoes are 1 28 oz can of diced.