Recipe: Boston Baked Beans

I wanted to make Boston Baked Beans and wasn’t satisfied with the few recipes I had for it… so I went searching… I found a recipe that sounded like the one I had years ago and lost… a basic and simple recipe.

I changed very little on this recipe… only the recommended cooking times… I recommend a little shorter cooking times. The recipe comes from Allrecipes… and was submitted by AJRHODES3… according to the intro… this recipe has been in their family 29 years …. and with good reason… it is very good.

Although the entire cooking time is long… there is very little needed on the part of the cook (a very good thing… as Martha would say)… it is well worth the time and effort… a delicious side dish… perfect for that backyard barbeque… and with the grill season upon us… a great time to add another terrific recipe to your file.

TIPS


I used thick sliced smoked bacon… it gave the beans a wonderful flavor. I chopped it... the recipe didn't specify... some cooks lay whole slices on the beans.. I have always chopped it... so that's what I did.

I chopped the onion in my mini chopper… I wanted it to be very fine… a few pulses was all it needed.

I used dried beans and did the whole soaking the night before thing… dried beans are so inexpensive and healthy… well worth the little bit of effort in not using canned beans.

I will write the recipe as they have it on their site… BUT… please note… I soaked the beans overnight… simmered them … (the time range given for simmering was 1-2 hours or until beans are tender)… I think the time should be closer to an hour.. then baked them (the baking time range given was 3-4 hours)… I baked mine for 3 ½ hours….

When I soaked the beans… the next morning the beans had absorbed almost all the water… that hasn’t happened to me before… so I simply added more water and let them soak for about an hour before simmering them in the water.

I didn’t have my bean pot ..like many things I go to reach for… it’s in New York… so I used a covered casserole dish and it worked just fine.

This dish is the perfect dish to bring to a cookout… it goes with virtually everything and is just so good… I’m sure everyone will love it.






Recipe: Boston Baked Beans

All you need:

2 cups dried navy beans
½ pound bacon
1 onion, finely chopped
3 tablespoons molasses
2 teaspoons salt
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
¼ teaspoon dry mustard
½ cup ketchup
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
¼ cup brown sugar

All you need to do:



Soak the beans overnight in cold water.







Simmer the beans in the same water you soaked them in until tender, approximately 1-2 hours (see tips above).

Drain the beans and reserve the water.


Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.


I divided the beans into thirds… layered a third of the beans in the bottom of a casserole… then layered a third of the bacon and onions on top of it and repeated the layers until it was all layered.



In a saucepan, combine the molasses, salt, pepper, dry mustard, brown sugar, ketchup and Worcestershire sauce … bring mixture to a boil over medium heat… this will boil rapidly so watch the saucepan. Stir well.

Pour the mixture over the beans.


Then pour the reserved water over the beans…just enough to cover them… you will probably have some left over… keep it …you may need to add it later on if your beans dry out too much in the oven.

Cover with a lid or aluminum foil.

Bake for 3-4 hours (see tip above)at 325 degrees F. until beans are tender. Remove the lid or foil about halfway through baking, add more liquid if necessary to prevent the beans from getting too dry (I did not have to do this).