People with ovens use bean pots. The problem comes that some of the old bean pots have lead glaze, so they've been abandoned. Otherwise, there's nothing like a good ceramic bean pot to make great beans. Though my Breville Fast Slow (like Instant Pot) makes really good beans....

Yes, I know that's a possible problem, especially in the brightly colored pottery. Since I use various stoneware crocks for things like pickles and sauerkraut, I bought a lead testing kit, one that was advertised as suitable for testing dishes. Fortunately, my bean pot is safe. Good thing, I have about 25 pounds of shelled beans in the freezer and we both know that Elery is going to plant more, LOL.

Annie

OK confession here: I've only made pork&beans from a can. We just don't eat them but maybe 3 or 4 times a year. I might have to get some real beans and try these. Would have to be in the crockpot, would that change the cooking time any?

edie, when I was still working, I always made beans in the crockpot. I put them on low and cooked them all day while I was at work. If I didn't soak the beans first, like when I forgot (ahem), I'd cook them all day on high and they were still perfect when I got home. The crockpot actually makes some darned good beans.

Don't get "locked into" a recipe. Beans are very forgiving, so if you make the basic recipe and know you like something else, just add things, like I did with the bacon and the maple syrup. I like mine thick and sticky and kind of sweet, so having both maple syrup and molasses was good for me, but Elery thought they were a little sweet. Everything is better with bacon, of course, and I didn't have a chunk of salt pork rind, LOL, so bacon it was. I did chop it and cook it before adding to the beans because I like the bacon more done, it tends to stay too soft for me just cooking in the beans themselves.

So, add what you like. If you like the pork and beans, you'll want the extra sugar or syrup. Taste and adjust, it just beans.

Annie

Thanks Annie!

I had 2 bean pots....one big enough for a whole pound of pea beans, the other smaller and would hold most of a pound with enough left over to just eat.
The small one seems to be missing....probably lent it and it didn't come home....or a kid copped it!

Haven't made real baked beans in years....I use pretty much the recipe on your bean pot, but always add about a teaspoon of Colemans dry mustard and use brown sugar not white and easily 2 tablespoons of molasses. And I don't want my beans smokey, so I never use bacon....and only 1/4 to 1/2 pound of salt pork.
I don't worry about lead content in anything but brightly colored newish ceramic stuff. After all I grew up when gasoline contained lead and lived in a high traffic area.....and often went to new York city and parked at the Port Authority Bus garage.....and that place was so thick with leaded gas fumes it would choke you. Figure if I am not crazy by now, eating beans from a much used 2nd hand bean pot is not going to make a difference.

And speaking of baked beans....at church we always serve "home made" baked beans for a certain fund raiser where we feed at least 300. Often doctored up from canned.
One time someone who happens to be a registered dietitian, decided to save money and cut some corners and mixed up about 8 pounds of dry beans a measured amount of water, ketchup, prepared mustard about 5 pounds of bacon salt pepper molasses and brown sugar, mix in a huge electric roaster and cook on low all night.
Well all night and all day never got those beans cooked....what she didn't know it seems is that dry beans cooked in an acedic medium will never soften.....and that bottle of ketchup did the trick.
Sooo.....always cook your beans before you mix them up.

I've lived in the South all my life. The only people who make and eat "baked beans" are from the North. Don't get me wrong, I've had them and liked them OK. But when a Southerner says they are bringing baked beans they aren't referring to those. They are referring to what I call BBQ beans. It can be home-cooked dry beans but usually is canned and then all the other stuff is added and baked to make what we refer to as "baked beans". I do it the Southern way, canned beans then lots of stuff added such as BBQ sauce, mustard, garlic, onion, molasses or brown sugar, chili powder. More bacon can be added but I don't. And then there are those who don't know how to cook at all who just open up a can of "baked beans" and heat it up. Northern baked beans are boring IMO.

Re crockpots, the guy who invented them was looking for a nice way to make beans. Specifically, cholent, which is a traditional Jewish bean stew, usually with beef, slow cooked on the Sabbath. In the old villages, on their way to the Friday evening service at the start of the Sabbath, the men would take the bean pot to the bakery or communal town ovens, where the fire had been banked since one can't add fuel on the Sabbath. After the morning service on Saturday, they'd pick up their pots and take them home, so they could all have a hot meal on a day when no cooking is allowed.

In the United States, 20th C., people cooked their beans at home. There are all kinds of ways of setting up an old fashioned range to hold things warm on Sabbath, but there are restrictions about opening ovens and actual cooking. So the crockpot man invented a device to easily cook low and slow--and the original crockpots had a temperature lower than the official line declared by the rabbis of where "cooking" starts.

There's nothing more ideal to make in a crockpot than beans!

Re: the canned baked beans. Bush's are awful. Best ones are B&M brand, which I doctor up.

That's a nice collector's item - I like vintage cookware!

I loved baked beans as a kid, but haven't made or eaten them in many years because I no longer care for such sweet dishes.

I use my stainless steel Martha Stewart brand chili pot for everything these days, including as a Dutch oven. And I make chili beans, or Mexican, Southwestern seasoned beans in it. Pinto beans are my favorite.

My kitchen is very small, so I have limited space for specialized cookware.

Rita, I've often said that taste is subjective and not objective. My Grandmother made baked beans and she was taught to cook by her Stepmother, who was from Kentucky. Elery is from Tennessee and they just eat "a pot of beans", which I think can be pretty boring. I'm so tired of a pot of beans with nothing but onion/carrot/celery and salt and pepper that I hope to never see another one. but Elery wants them two or three times a week. I used to love them, but now.....I'm just tired of them, even if I have a ham bone to add.

My baked beans aren't as boring as those beans are! They have molasses, tomato sauce, mustard, onion, bacon, maple syrup. Elery doesn't care much for them but that's fine, it just leaves more for me!

When I was a kid, I used to eat cold baked bean sandwiches for breakfast, just cold beans smeared on a slice of homemade bread, which was then folded over and consumed. Even my family shook their heads, LOL.

LindaC, mine does have mustard, and I take the directions to mean dried mustard, so that's what I use.

Annie

Annie your Macomb Bean Pot was made in Macomb Illinois, just 40 miles north of us. Been there many times. Link to A bit of pottery history.

Your Macomb Bean Pot later became part of the Western Stoneware pottery family. A while back I bought at Goodwill 4 soup mugs. While washing I notice a WS mark on bottom, googled and found the history. In the 60s thru 90s, Haegar Pottery (part of the WS family) had a factory and store in Macomb. My Mother loved that place and when she came to visit we always had to visit. She was such a pretty dish lover and I too have her love of pretty dishes.

Bake beans themselves......I have never made from scratch....I always doctor up Campbell’s pork n beans.....at our house we called ‘Cowboy Beans’. Kids googled them up. LOL

Editing to say...Real bake beans is on my To Do List. Don’t you just love the CF for ideas. You got a real treasure!!

My mother makes bean soup from dried beans when she has a ham bone, but I've never cooked dried beans. Like Sushipup1, I like B&M canned baked beans. They're a company in Maine and have been making their beans since 1867. Their "Original" baked beans are perfect for our house. I don't doctor them at all.

I prefer beans from scratch. They always come out better than canned, IMO, and I often make a large amount and freeze them unseasoned for later.

ritaweeda....that's why we call them "Boston Baked Beans"....grin!

I have this McCoy. The picture is from a sale site and it's apparently worth $45.

Yes, good beans come out of that "Mid Century Vintage" pot. I don't know if the long slow baking makes better beans than the instant pot or if it's psychological, lol. My mom was from Boston....baked beans (had to be B&M), brown bread from a can and hot dogs most Saturday nights.

Pretty pot!

Just an FIY. If you forget to soak your beans overnight, you can bring to a boil, hard boil for 2 minutes, then let sit covered for an hour for a
"quick soak", then rinse and cook as usual. I usually let them sit for a couple of hours.

Grrrr! All this talk about beans finally reminded me that I still hadn't done anything with the black eyed peas that had been soaked but not cooked for New Year's. No funk, no mold, no nothin' wrong with them, so I put off starting the big pot of spaghetti sauce in my "bean pot" (what Le Creuset informally calls their 9 qt. Dutch oven). Here I am, happily dumping stuff that needs using into the Fast Slow (Breville Instant Pot), I'm using the sear setting on some shaved beef, and the saute setting on a chopped onion, then in with the BEPs and some baby bell peppers, cauliflower, a big box of cherry tomatoes and even blueberries that were shockingly fine but wouldn't be for long. Feeling whimsical, I put in a few glugs of TJ's enchilada sauce and another couple of chili sauce. Thinking this is going to be really good! Until I went to set the slow cook beans setting, which is accurate enough, though sometimes needs another couple of hours, and it finally it me. The beans were soaked, not cooked! It was too far gone to undo the damage. Who knows? The long damp sit didn't sprout them, at least maybe a "belly button" if the ridge on the eye is that, but no tails. I don't have high hopes. Maybe put them through the food processor and fry them refritos style. That could be good. I have some duck fat which needs using if it's still good...

Whew, good luck with those, plllog, maybe the soak softened them enough, but I dunno...

KatieC, like you I just think beans taste better from the bean pot. I like baked beans pretty much any which way, so I'll eat the doctored up variety starting with canned pork and beans, and I'll eat the grocery store baked beans, and I'll make my own from scratch and happily eat those too. I just like baked beans, extra bonus points if they come with cornbread. That's a really pretty beanpot. Mine is much plainer, but does have that lovely metal holder for serving at the table, LOL. I think there's only so many things you can do to dress up a beanpot. (grin)

Thanks for that history, shirl. I knew that Macomb was bought by Western Stoneware, but I thought it was Indiana, and not Illinois. It's a really nice piece of pottery, so it's nice to know the history, at least a little. I can't find another one like it, even on eBay or Etsy, or any of the google images, so information is a little hard to come by.

Annie

I snuck a taste and there's hope. The whimsical flavor is very good, and the bean was on its way to being cooked. As it was, it wasn't unpleasant.

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ETA: The Beans of Whimsy came out completely cooke after the requisite 8 hrs. Slow cooked on "lo", and optional hour and a half on keep warm, Joke's on me. They're really good, but just a bit too sweet! They could really use a little acid for balance! 😁

plllog, you can always add some mustard, or something that's compatible with the rest of the flavors. It'll be hard to cook them much longer to meld the flavors, without having bean mush, but it would probably mix in OK.

Annie

Thanks, Annie! I'm not too worried about it. Just having a laugh because I'd figured between the sauces, tomatoes and peppers--I forgot to mention, I'd also dumped in some tiny pickled peppers complete with liquid--I figured they'd be hard forever. I've had that happen from just a little wine, and learned my lesson. Mustard is a good idea. I had been thinking lemon juice. It's really fine as is. I'll either amend while reheating, or let everyone fix their own at the table, if they want.

My Mom would buy the cheapest cans she could get - and then drain as much of the sauce off as she could then mix up the beans with catsup, mustard & brown sugar or maple syrup, put in a baking dish with a few strips of bacon on top. She said she just didn't have the patience to do all the soaking etc with dry beans. DH actually likes Bush's right out of the can the rare times we have BB's so that works for me. But I still am going to try from scratch and see if he likes them, because I can make them with the good brown sugar substitute I have so it won't mess so much with his blood sugar (one of the reasons we don't have them very often.)

I have a stoneware bean pot that I've never cooked with. It's a repository for coins. Homemade beans are great, but a bit much for only 2 people. I made them once for a potluck.

Haven't had B&M beans in years. Will look for that familiar glass jar next time I'm shopping. I like to add bacon and onions to my baked beans.

Katie, I have that same pot. I have never cooked in it, not sure my mom did. I tried making baked beans from scratch once. Being used to the southern style of "baked bean", we did not like them at all.

B&M no longer come in a glass jar, just cans. And not every store carries the brand.

My stores here in town do not carry B&M brand, only Bush's, Campbell's Pork and Beans and the store brands. With Amanda being celiac, I have to be careful, as some brands are not gluten free, like VanCamp's, Campbell's, even Trader Joe's Organic are not listed as being gluten free. And not all Worchestershire sauce is gluten free either, so if I make my own, I can control the ingredients.

The other reason I made/make beans from scratch is because we grow so many beans, Elery loves them, and I was defrosting the freezer. 27 pounds of shelled beans in the freezer, a mix of Italian Horticultural, Kebarika and Mayacoba. I'm tired of just "plain beans", and so made baked beans. I made some more today, Amanda and Dave and the kids were over for supper as a result of that above mentioned freezer defrost job. BBQ ribs, baked beans, blueberry crisp, au gratin potatoes, home canned green beans, sauteed cabbage. Ribs, beans and blueberries from the freezer, potatoes from storage and green beans from the pantry. I had to buy a cabbage, though....

Annie

My mother used to serve B&M beans with hot dogs, so they seem "right" to me for sweet beans. She also made proper homemade baked beans from scratch in the big electric roaster. They weren't as sweet and had a lot more flavor. I've only made baked beans a couple of times. I'm much more likely to make chili or some other kind of bean stew.

Speaking of which, the Whimsical black eyed pea stew went over very well for dinner tonight. The squeeze of lemon juice at the table was perfect. I was going to serve it with sourdough but didn't have time to bake it, so thought I'd make biscuits, but I didn't have any buttermilk, so I thought I'd buy a nice sourdough boule but they were out and none of the bread looked like a good pair, so I bought a pound of flour, small can of BP, and quart of buttermilk (trusting they'd have butter, baking soda and salt there). The stew was good, but the biscuits stole the show. Sigh. One guest ate, and claimed to like, a dish of the bean stew, then got out the PB&J to adorn her biscuit. :) I used mine to sop up the stew broth. It was really good.

Plllog, I'd like peanut butter and jelly on a biscuit, although my favorite is actually butter and honey or sorghum. I also am more likely to make some kind of bean soup or stew than baked beans, but only because Elery says baked beans have too much sugar and so he won't eat them.

We have chili regularly because he does like that, and many times it's beans and vegetables with no meat because that uses the beans from the freezer and any vegetables that need to be used up. I don't dry many beans, they cook much more quickly if I just shell them and freeze them fresh.

Annie

B&M no longer come in a glass jar, just cans. And not every store carries the brand.

Well that's disappointing. Why did they stop using the glass jars?

ETA: looks like the jar still exists.

https://www.bmbeans.com/product/original-baked-beans-glass-jar

I've only ever seen the cans....

I make them with VanCamps canned beans and doctor them up with brown sugar, ketchup and bacon. I used to make them a few times a year when the kids were home but not anymore. I get hungry for them every few years and make some for me. I also like the bush ads, so once I bought them to use. they were horrible. never again.

I have followed this site for several years and truly enjoyed all of your cooking adventures. My name is
Dee and I live in the northern suburbs of Atlanta and have for over 30 yeas. however at one time my husband worked for Underwood F
oods in Boston. They were the company that processed and sold BandM beans, our personal favorite. I still search them out and use them. I am also lucky enough to own two traditional bean pots and although with just two of us I really use them I keep them for old times sake. Enjoy all your cooking adventures

You’ve stirred some fine memories, Annie.

About every Saturday, my father would bake a pot of beans. Slow oven and we’d have to bring the fluid level up a few times a day. All those fragrant seasonings — about like your recipe. Salt pork, onion at the bottom, bay leaf, some molasses, brown sugar, dry mustard powder, Heinz ketchup, a bit of Heinz 57 sauce, a tablespoon or two of ground horseradish (from jarred), boiling water. The seasoning sauce mix got combined in a Pyrex 2 cup measure.

After the soak in water of the previous night in ample spring water, the beans were drained and rinsed. Then the beans were gently simmered, parboiled until the skin peel back when a spoonful was removed and blown upon. This indicated beans were ready to place in the bean pot — an old timer of ample sized hard fired ironstone. The lid was missing or broken, so he used a saucer from an old Blue Willow pattern. Looked great and fit perfectly.

I think the oven temp was something like 150 deg F.. They are best when baked slow, all day, but not over cooked. In the summers, some areas of our scattered town would hold bean hole suppers — beans slow cooked in a hole in the ground, over warm coals. I never attended these fundraisers as my fathers were the absolute best. I still use his recipe and have my own large ironstone bean pot from the early 1900s or earlier.

Navy or pea beans, kidney beans and Jacob’s Cattle Beans were baked throughout the years. The JC beans are gorgeous, my favorite. They’re great in soups too. You can grow you own. EASY. Just plant whole dried beans. Harvest after the shell becomes dried. Dry. Husk. Separate out stems, pebbles, soil. Keep dry. Store.

Annie probably can tell us how to do this. My father did for a few summers on a farm. I tried one year as an adult (with limited space). There is something wonderful about the experience, that’s for sure. Smiling.

PS often served with corn bread and a toss salad. Dessert was always home made, often pie. My mom made the absolute best and prettiest pies — apple, wild blueberry, deep satin custard, cooked just to perfection and with grated nutmeg baked on top. Heaven. Worth doing the dishes and cleaning the kitchen!

PPS Oh, and some brown sugar! Thanks Lindac!

“When I was a kid, I used to eat cold baked bean sandwiches for breakfast, just cold beans smeared on a slice of homemade bread, which was then folded over and consumed. Even my family shook their heads, LOL.”

That’s exactly as my father used to do. No one shook heads, however. I’ve eaten the beans cold, pretty good ;-) if home baked.