Traditional baked beans

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MrTom

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Unlike the canned varieties of baked beans these actually have flavor and a nice firm texture. I cut some of my recently made bacon into 1" pieces and added it to the other ingredients to go into the drained, soaked bean in the pot.
I just gave them the first stirring in 4 hours and added just a smidge more water. They'll be all wrapped up when I fire up the grill to do the bratwurst for dinner.

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Love homemade baked beans. I’ve got my mom’s old bean pot and use the recipe
in the old 3 ring binder Betty Crocker cookbook. Mom made hers with a hambone
but I use salt pork and serve it with kielbasa sizzled up in an old iron frying pan.
 
Beans and red hot dogs and brown bread were a Saturday night meal for most of Maine. B+M still has a factory in Portland, it's been there for over 150 years. They make great Beans and brown bread slow cooked in brick ovens. Take their brown bread from the can, slice it and fry it in butter. I have to admit that home made beans are better!
Nit Wit
 
I grew up on B&M Baked Beans and their Brown Bread. Still love both. These beans I make are very similar to B&M's.
 
Instead of hinting of your favorite beans,give up the receipes😉
 
I grew up with B&M baked beans.
Since moving out to Oklahoma, I haven't found anything comparable. My son in law just recently sent me a half dozen cans of my favorites. Been saving them for a special occasion. Lol
 
Reading this makes my mouth water. My recipe gleaned from several women on both sides of my ancestry of which non left any kind of record. I had to try different methods much of which was from memory. I settled on fresh bacon ends for the meat. Other than that the usual brown sugar, briar rabbit molasses, onion, mustard seed, garlic powder & salt & pepper and for sure soak the beans over night and in baking soda, drain & rinse before starting to add ingredients. My aunts say that soaking lets the GAS out of the beans (some but not all I might add).
 
My mom used to add baking soda to the beans....She said that takes out some of the gas too...Beans just aint the same without a little tooting..
 
Instead of hinting of your favorite beans, give up the receipes😉

1 pound of navy beans, cleaned and sorted to remove any with black or darkened spots
1 cup catsup
1 cup dark brown sugar
3/4 cup molasses
1tsp salt
1 tsp mustard powder
1/2 pound of side pork or slab bacon cut into 3/4" pieces

Soak the beans over night in water with about 2 tablespoons of soda. Drain and rinse well and re-drain. Mix all the ingredients in a bowl, then add to a bean pot or a covered casserole and place in the oven, center rack, at 300 degrees for 5/6 hours. After about four hours stir the beans and check a couple for tenderness. If the beans seem dry add a 1/2 cup of warm water and mix in before returning the pot to the oven to finish. Finished beans should be a somewhat soft-firm, not mushy, and the sauce should be somewhat thick but not pasty.

Just personal observations ....I use only dark brown sugar. The light stuff has had most of its character removed. I prefer straight navy beans, to say, great northerns or a bean blend. I like slab bacon as opposed to side pork because I like the smokiness that bacon imparts in the beans when finished and I like enough bacon so that when I am eating the beans I actually get a chunk every fork full of so. The half pound of bacon seems to be a good amount and the size of the dice is purely up to whoever is the cook. If beans are left over I let the pot cool completely then stir in some cool water so that the beans are in a loose gravy, then transfer them to a covered casserole and refrigerate until warmed again. Doing this assures that the re-heated beans won't be a thick blob.

That bean pot belonged to my great grandmother. I'm 70 and got it when my grandmother passed away at the age of 112 years. Her mother was well into the 100's when she passed away. My grandmother told me the history of the pot several times when I was a child and I marveled at how she made the beans and bread. She made bread by hand at 106 years old. A fall that year ended her up in a nursing home. I was sitting on her bed holding her hand when she took her last breath.
 
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Beans and red hot dogs and brown bread were a Saturday night meal for most of Maine. B+M still has a factory in Portland, it's been there for over 150 years. They make great Beans and brown bread slow cooked in brick ovens. Take their brown bread from the can, slice it and fry it in butter. I have to admit that home made beans are better!
Nit Wit
Amen brother. Fried natural casing dogs in butter as well. Put little cuts in the dogs when we fried them.
Grandmother bvb andvmother both worked at B&M beans during WW2. I grew up in South Portland.
 
1 pound of navy beans, cleaned and sorted to remove any with black or darkened spots
1 cup catsup
1 cup dark brown sugar
3/4 cup molasses
1tsp salt
1 tsp mustard powder
1/2 pound of side pork or slab bacon cut into 3/4" pieces

Soak the beans over night in water with about 2 tablespoons of soda. Drain and rinse well and re-drain. Mix all the ingredients in a bowl, then add to a bean pot or a covered casserole and place in the oven, center rack, at 300 degrees for 5/6 hours. After about four hours stir the beans and check a couple for tenderness. If the beans seem dry add a 1/2 cup of warm water and mix in before returning the pot to the oven to finish. Finished beans should be a somewhat soft-firm, not mushy, and the sauce should be somewhat thick but not pasty.

Just personal observations ....I use only dark brown sugar. The light stuff has had most of its character removed. I prefer straight navy beans, to say, great northerns or a bean blend. I like slab bacon as opposed to side pork because I like the smokiness that bacon imparts in the beans when finished and I like enough bacon so that when I am eating the beans I actually get a chunk every fork full of so. The half pound of bacon seems to be a good amount and the size of the dice is purely up to whoever is the cook. If beans are left over I let the pot cool completely then stir in some cool water so that the beans are in a loose gravy, then transfer them to a covered casserole and refrigerate until warmed again. Doing this assures that the re-heated beans won't be a thick blob.

That bean pot belonged to my great grandmother. I'm 70 and got it when my grandmother passed away at the age of 112 years. Her mother was well into the 100's when she passed away. My grandmother told me the history of the pot several times when I was a child and I marveled at how she made the beans and bread. She made bread by hand at 106 years old. A fall that year ended her up in a nursing home. I was sitting on her bed holding her hand when she took her last breath.
Thanks for the receipe and story!
 
Thanks for the recipe! Story too. Seems like us muzzleloaders share an appreciation for good, traditional food.
 
Sorry guys, I see I left onion out of the recipe. It should include a medium onion, minced. Myself I like a sweet yellow onion but a white onion will work too. I have tried the recipe using a red onion and wasn't too impressed with it.

The beauty of cooking is that a basic recipe can be tweaked to get a desired taste at an individual level. With the beans the only real item one has no control over is what the growing conditions were. With this bean recipe if they get too dry during cooking water can be stirred in. If they're too sweet add less sugar. Lots of ways to personalize them.
 
Instead of hinting of your favorite beans,give up the receipes😉
For some years I made the bake beans For our annual fun days Festival that has ran for over 50 years. The basic recipe was this;
Two, 1 pound cans pork and beans
One small onion chopped
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1/3 cup Brown sugar
1/3 cup molasses
Combine all ingredients and stir. Pour into 2 quart casserole dish, bake at 354 one hour.
Can be doubled or tripled, liquid mustard works just as good.

If you have more people,
1 gallon can pork and beans,
Three small onions or one large
4 teaspoons mustard
One and 1/4 cup brown sugar
1 1/4 cup molasses
Bake for 2-3 hours.
Squint
 
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