Boston Baked Beans With Bacon Recipes

BOSTON BAKED BEANS

Steps:

• Soak beans overnight in cold water. Simmer the beans in the same water until tender, approximately 1 to 2 hours. Drain and reserve the liquid.
• Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
• Arrange the beans in a 2 quart bean pot or casserole dish by placing a portion of the beans in the bottom of dish, and layering them with bacon and onion.
• In a saucepan, combine molasses, salt, pepper, dry mustard, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce and brown sugar. Bring the mixture to a boil and pour over beans. Pour in just enough of the reserved bean water to cover the beans. Cover the dish with a lid or aluminum foil.
• Bake for 3 to 4 hours in the preheated oven, until beans are tender. Remove the lid about halfway through cooking, and add more liquid if necessary to prevent the beans from getting too dry.

CHEF JOHN'S BOSTON BAKED BEANS

Steps:

• Soak navy beans overnight in a large bowl with enough water by several inches. Drain and place beans into a large Dutch oven or heavy pot with 6 cups water, baking soda, and bay leaf. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium, and boil for 10 minutes. Drain, saving bean-cooking liquid.
• Preheat oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C).
• Transfer beans into clean Dutch oven and stir bacon, onion, molasses, brown sugar, dry mustard, salt, and black pepper into beans. Pour enough of the hot reserved bean liquid in to cover beans; stir.
• Cover Dutch oven and bake in preheated oven for 1 hour. Check liquid level and add more of the reserved bean liquid to bring liquid up to cover beans. Return to oven and continue baking until beans are tender and almost all the liquid has been absorbed, about 1 hour.
• Raise oven heat to 350; bake beans uncovered in oven until top develops a flavorful crust, 20 to 30 more minutes.

BOSTON BAKED BEANS

Steps:

• Sort beans and rinse in cold water. Place beans in a 3- or 4-qt. slow cooker; add 4 cups water. Cover and let stand overnight., Drain and rinse beans, discarding liquid. Return beans to slow cooker; add salt pork., In a small bowl, combine the onion, brown sugar, molasses, sugar, mustard, salt, cloves, pepper and remaining water. Pour mixture over beans; stir to combine., Cover and cook on low for 10-12 hours or until beans are tender.

BOSTON BAKED BEANS WITH BACON

Steps:

• Do this a day before: place the beans in a large bowl.
• Add enough cold water to cover the beans by 3 inches.
• Let stand at room temperature overnight.
• The next day drain the beans very well in a colander; set aside.
• Set oven to 350 degrees.
• In a large oven-proof Dutch oven cook the bacon pieces until crisp (about 7-8 minutes).
• Add in well-drained beans and all the remaining ingredients; mix well to combine and bring to a boil on top of the stove.
• Transfer the pot to the oven.
• Bake uncovered until beans are tender and the liquid thickens, stirring occasionally (about 3-1/2 - 4 hours).
• *NOTE* this can be made a day ahead (even better as the flavors blend!) cover and refrigerate, just bring the beans to a simmer before serving.

BOSTON BAKED BEANS

Steps:

• Wash the beans and pick out any bad ones.
• Put beans in a 3- or 4-quart pot and cover well with water.
• Simmer (NOT boil) for about an hour; check occasionally to be sure water doesn't cook away.
• Drain beans and rinse.
• Return to pot.
• Mix together remaining ingredients (except the salt pork) and stir into beans, together with enough water to cover beans well.
• Put beans into a stoneware pot of some kind. A real beanpot, the kind with the two little handles and the narrow neck, is best. Otherwise, any stoneware pot that holds about 3 quarts and has a well-fitting cover will do. They will not taste as good baked in metal, or even pyrex.
• Cut the salt pork into two or three pieces and add to the pot; push pieces down into the beans somewhat.
• Bake at 300 degrees for 6 to 8 hours.
• Check occasionally, and if top is dry, add more water.
• If you want to, you can put some hot dogs or rope sausage such as Hillshire Farms beef sausage in on top of the beans for the last hour or so of baking. The meat cooks at the same time as the beans, and picks up their flavor.
• The right thing to serve with these beans is, of course, Boston Brown Bread, for which I have noticed a couple of recipes here on the Zaar.
• There are two ways to cut down on the time a bit. One is to simmer the beans about 20 minutes longer and then bake them for only about 3 hours. Also, after simmering, you can put the beans in a crockpot. That takes longer-figure about 18 hours to be sure that the beans won't be crunchy-but they can be left unattended.