Boston Baked Beans

Is the making of Boston Baked Beans becoming a lost art?  This is an authentic Boston Baked Beans recipe that I have been making for 30 years! They are very easy to make – and to do very well. It does take some time while you are sleeping for the beans to soak. And then some time during a day when you are home doing other things. Just a little bit of planning though, and you can make something so much better than what comes in a can, and for a fraction of the cost. Don’t have a bean pot? Just use a large ovenproof covered casserole.

 While you can literally use any kind of dry bean, the size of your choice will determine how they are to be treated. Many recipes call for prolonged boiling/simmering after the requisite soaking period – but hold on! If you are using the traditional small white pea bean, I caution you to treat them much more gently than that – save the heavy boiling/simmering for a larger bean, such as a Jacobs Cattle type. For the wee bean, soak in water three times the amount of beans overnight, and then only bring them to a low boil (you can do this right in the water they soaked in), and then simmer gently for 2 minutes. Turn off the heat and leave them covered while you are preparing the sauce in which they will bake. Since this will only take you about ten minutes, the initial hot water treatment will only be about 15 minutes total. This will save you from separating the skin from the meat of the bean and ending up with a mushy mess.

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Boston Baked Beans Recipe Ingredients:

1 pound dry beans
1 medium yellow or red onion, peeled with root end intact
1 slice salt pork
2 teaspoons dry mustard
3/4 cup molasses
1/2 cup brown sugar
3 whole cloves
1 clove garlic
Salt and pepper

While the beans are soaking in the hot water, prepare the sauce. While some people suggest making and heating the sauce in a saucepan on the stove, I make it directly in the bean pot without preliminary cooking. If you are using a bean pot – do not put it on a hot burner!  It will crack. Molasses is an essential ingredient in Boston Baked Beans – it was the everyday sweetener for the folks in these parts, due to their heavy West Indies trade. Another essential – English dry mustard.

Directions for making Boston Baked Beans Sauce:

Smash the clove of garlic with the side of your knife and toss in, as well as a slice of salt pork.

Add several grates of black peppercorn into the mix, and a whole onion studded with three cloves. By doing this, you can easily remove the cloves when the beans are done. The cloves will give off their flavor, but won’t get lost in the pot – chomping down on a whole clove is not really pleasant!

  

Add 3/4 teaspoon of salt, stir, and add the beans after you have drained them. Save the bean soaking water to add some occasionally while the beans are cooking.

Mix everything around gently, then add just enough of the reserved bean water to barely cover the beans. It is important to get the liquid level right. Too much liquid and the beans will boil and tend to be too mushy. Too little, and the top ones will dry out.  The onion will give off some water, so that can be taken into account.

Place the top on the pot and put into a preheated 275 degree oven. Check every hour or so, stir and add bean water as necessary.

After five hours begin to check for doneness. This is also a good time to check for sweetness and salt – adjust these to your liking. They will be firmer than a canned bean because they are not so heavily processed, but shouldn’t be unpleasantly firm.

Between five and six hours should do the trick. If you put a bean on a spoon, blow on it’s side and the skin peels back ……. they are ready!  Remove the cloves from the onion, check salt and pepper again, stir and you have very authentic Boston Baked Beans!

 

Old fashioned Boston Baked beans are great with leftover ham, or for a classic New England Saturday Night Supper –  serve with hot dogs, brown bread and a red pepper relish.