Boston Baked Beans

Tracy K's Note:

The beans can be made ahead. After cooking, cool them to room temp and refrigerate in an airtight container for up to 4 days. Note: It is NOT NECESSARY to soak the beans before using in this recipe; hence the long cooking time. Do not use old dried beans for this recipe.

• Total Time: 5 hrs 30 mins
• Prep Time: 30 mins
• Cook Time: 5 hrs

Ingredients:

Servings: 8

• 4 ounces salt pork , trimmed of rind and cut into 1/2 pieces 2 ounces bacon, cut into 1/4 pieces (about 2 slices)
• 1 medium onion , chopped fine
• ½ cup mild molasses , plus
• 1 tablespoon mild molasses
• 1 ½ tablespoons brown mustard
• 1 lb small dried white bean , rinsed and picked over (but NOT SOAKED or boiled at all... just dry beans)
• 9 cups water
• salt
• 1 teaspoon cider vinegar
• ground black pepper

Directions:

1. Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position; heat oven to 300 degrees.
2. Add salt pork and bacon to 8-quart Dutch oven; cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned and most fat is rendered, about 7 minutes.
3. Add onion and continue to cook stirring occasionally, until onion is softened, about 8 minutes.
4. Add 1/2 cup molasses, mustard, beans, 1 1/4 teaspoons salt, and 9 cups water; increase heat to medium-high and bring to boil; cover pot and set in oven.
5. Bake until beans are tender, about 4 hours, stirring once after 2 hours.
6. Remove lid and continue to bake until liquid has thickened to syrupy consistency, 1 to 1 1/2 hours longer.
7. Remove beans from oven; stir in remaining tablespoon of molasses, vinegar, and additional salt and pepper to taste.

Reviews

[Okra]

This recipe is in my America's Test Kitchen cookbook, and as far as I'm concerned, it's absolutely perfect! One objection I have to so many of the baked beans recipes out there is that they are far too sweet. This one isn't. In fact, I add just a touch more molasses to it. Also, I increase the amount of bacon by 4 slices since there's no salt pork to be had around here.

[Chef #611793]

this was awsome. my husband loved it

[evelyn/athens]

Excellent beans that were a breeze to make. I did make 2 changes - one out of necessity, the outher out of personal preference. I can't find salt pork in Greece so I used a hunk of a lightly-cured bacon. I also like my beans 'red' so I did add a scant tablespoonful of tomato paste to the water mixture, before baking. We enjoyed these on the day I made them as a topping of hot dogs with slaw, and on the following day for breakfast, as part of the 'full English'. With a recipe like this it really is so easy to make your own, from scratch, baked beans. Why would you ever want to buy canned again?