Baked Beans

LIne the bean pot with about four slices of salt pork. Use most of a bottle of ketcup and at least 1/2 cup of molasses and mix into the soaked beans. Submerge a halved onion into the beans. Bake at low heat most of the day--or cook in a slow cooker. Stir up the salt pork once the beans begin to soften and turn brown. You won't need any extra salt, but some fresh ground pepper is always nice. This is the way my grandmother made baked beans for many, many years.

Delicious beans! I could not, on account of being from Quebec and it being cabane a sucre time, resist adding a hint of maple syrup...Also, after everything was together, I cooked in a slow cooker on low for 5 hours after which I switched to an uncovered baking dish for about 2 hours.

I have come to the conclusion that considering the time to cook baked beans, I'd just as soon use B&M canned, with some molasses, onion, and catsup mixed in, then baked for about a half-hour. But these beans come as close to worth the time and trouble as any other recipe I've ever tried. I did add a little more molasses at the end. And I too found that more time was needed than 45 minutes to get a crusty top. (OK. What happened was that I inadvertently let it go for an hour before checking.)

I have been making this recipe for years. I alternate with maple syrup and molasses. Slab bacon is not a staple in my house but a few slices of regular style works just fine.

Omit the vegetarians. Problem solved

I made this tonight and it turned out beautifully. I added 3 tsps of maple syrup with the molasses. And to those who found the result too soupy, I offer this advice: just wait longer. After 4 hours at 250, my beans were soupy. I turned up the heat to 350 and cooked the beans for a further 60 minutes. The liquid reduced, the flavors concentrated, and all hands agreed it was a wonderful result.

Wow. So much unnecessary work. My hearty slow-cooker version is 1/10 the work. Soak beans overnight. Drain and place in slow cooker with browned pork/bacon and onion. Add water, molasses, brown sugar, dry mustard, cider vinegar, ketchup or tomato sauce, black pepper, garlic and bay leaves. Cook 8-9 hours on low, removing lid last hour to thicken sauce. Done.

Is there a vegetarian alternative to the bacon that will give good results?

I, too, have made multiple times this winter. I increase to have enough for freezer. I use 3C cannellini, 3/4C cubed salt pork, 1 lg onion, 1/2C molasses, 3t dry mustard, 1-1/2t ground pepper. I soak beans the night before, cooking as above, adding 3" piece of dried kombu (kelp) which helps with digestibility and 1/2 chopped onion. Cook as above in step #2. To get the right sauce thickness, I cooked at 250 degrees for 1 hour with the lid on and 3 to 3-1/2 hours with the lid off. Great recipe!

Canned beans pale in comparison to homemade. And, not really sure how anybody can complain about effort. Perhaps a little planning but certainly not effort. I find that the salt pork makes a huge difference. The fat melts into the beans and creates a wonderful mouth feel and rich flavor. You also need to cook these beans uncovered until the water is evaporated. Probably longer than the recipe calls for. The flavors will be muted and the texture off if you eat them too soupy

Yes, Penzey's Pork Chop Seasoning. Use it all the time for my vegans and they approve.

Caramelizing the onions lightly adds some richness, and -- entirely non-traditional -- soaking a few dried shiitakes to get a concentrated broth and adding that (just the liquid) does something good too.

When I made this, I substituted maple syrup for some of the molasses, and added about a teaspoon of tomato paste when cooking the onions. Great, easy, economical recipe.

I've made this twice just as written. Really delicious!

I made this yesterday. I soaked the beans overnight & par-cooked them in a pressure cooker for 10 minutes, reserving the bean cooking liquid. I followed Step 2, adding 2 cups of liquid from the pressure cooker. Because the beans were mostly cooked in the pressure cooker, they needed only an hour in the oven with the lid on, and 45 minutes with the lid off. Next time, I'll add less water and cook longer with the lid off so the sauce is more 'syrupy'.