Herb's Popular Baked Beans

This was my Dad’s recipe that was vey popular and requested for family gatherings. NO canned beans, NO barbecue sauce and NO brown sugar, just great country baked beans made from scratch. The bacon came from my family’s farms in MN where we butchered our own hogs and smoked the hams, bacon and sausages in our large smokehouses. This is old world Deutsche (German) heritage. Ah, memories. I remember the delicious aroma of those smokehouses.

• Ready In: 5 hrs 45 mins
• Serves: 6

Ingredients

• 3  cups dried navy beans
• 8  cups cold water
• 1  teaspoon baking soda
• 1  lb bacon, thick sliced and hardwood smoked
• 1  cup onion, chopped
• 1⁄3 cup dark molasses
• 1  teaspoon salt
• 1  teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 1⁄2 teaspoons prepared yellow mustard
• 1  teaspoon apple cider vinegar

Directions

1. Sort and rinse the beans in a colander under cold running water, removing any stones or foreign matter. Place the beans in an 8 quart pot, cover with 8 cups cold water, bring to a boil and boil for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and drain off the water. Rinse the beans under cold water in a colander and return the beans to the rinsed out 8 Qt pot.
2. Slice the bacon crosswise into 2” pieces, fry the bacon in a large skillet over medium-low heat till the bacon is browned yet still quite limp, remove from the skillet and set aside. Repeat for the remaining uncooked bacon. Pour the bacon grease through a steel mesh strainer, lined with cheesecloth, into a sealable container and store it in the fridge for future use.
3. Add the cooked bacon and the remaining ingredients to the pot of beans. Add enough cold water to cover the beans + 1 more inch above the beans and stir gently. Heat the pot over medium heat on the stovetop till bubbles form at the surface, gently stirring every once in a while.
4. Transfer the heated contents of the 8 Qt pot to a crock pot and heat on the low heat setting for 8 - 10 hours or for 5 – 6 hours on the high setting. Bake till the beans are soft. Check the beans every once in a while and add more water if it looks like it’s lacking water. Not too thick or too thin of consistency. Also taste the beans an hour before the due cooked time and adjust the seasonings to your liking.