Anyone make homemade baked beans?

[wryter2000]

I have a pot of pinto beans cooking in the crockpot. Refried beans are a staple around here. Refried in bacon fat, of course.

The smell is making me think it would be fun to have real baked beans going in the oven. It'd heat up the house some, too.

(I'm freezing, but my PG&E bill was under $80 last month.)

[kestrel91316]

1. I have always meant to make a batch of those yummy

New England style baked beans, made with white beans and molasses. I just have never got around to it! But I have several recipes. I bet you could check out one of the recipe websites and find a good slow-cooked-in-the-oven recipe!

Oh, and you want to do the steamed brown bread to go with, too. It's traditional.

[wryter2000]

7. Brown bread

Mmmmm, I've never made brown bread. We used to buy it in the can. I recently found a site that sold Friends baked beans.

http://www.hometownfavorites.com/shop/candy_cat.asp?c=40&p=1&id=1069&newp=

My grandmother remembered when the Friends brothers sold beans from a horse-drawn truck. They also have brown bread, but I think it's B&M.

I wonder if the Friends beans are as good as they were when I was a child. But, I think I still may try making my own.

[politicat]

2. Yay on the bill - recipe for beans

This is a guess as you go recipe, since I learned it from various adults (not my invention, in other words) in my life. And no, I'm not an adult. Not yet.

Once the beans are cooked, drop about 3 cups of cooked beans and some of the bean liquid into a greased casserole dish. Add big dollop of maple syrup (not pancake dressing) or a large chunk of brown sugar (your choice) or molasses or a mix of all three, some mustard, a chopped small onion, a dash of Smoke flavor or BBQ sauce or steak sauce, a bay leaf and some salt and pepper. Mix well, taste and correct for your tastes, then top with 3 slices of bacon, salt pork or mix in cocktail sausages (if you want beanie weenies.) Bake at whatever temp you're cooking everything else at for as long as it takes.

Sorry this is a bit of a non-recipe, but I think most baked bean recipes were originally non-recipes, just a way to flavor an essentially boring foodstuff.

[OldLeftieLawyer]

3. This is SO similar to an old college mainstay

We were too poor to afford maple syrup so we used Welch's Grape Jelly (don't knock it 'til you've tried it), lots of onion, brown mustard, and we couldn't afford bacon, but we threw in cans of those little Vienna Sausages.

Then we'd mix it all together with shredded surplus cheese that - now that I think of it - had suspicious origins.

This was Sunday night supper with brown bread, lots of beer, and, on those icy New England winter nights, it was fabulous.

Thank you so much for reminding me of this. It was really good.

[politicat]

4. I'd never have thought of grape jelly, but...

Yeah, I can see it.

In my college household, brown sugar was the low bid sweetener usually - the scratch and dent food store over in Mesa usually had the old 1 pound boxes from the grocery store that were suitable for building adobe housing, they were so hard, for about $0.25. The little jars of jelly were at least $0.50, so they were not on my list unless I was looking at a week of PB&J and bananas because I had to be in the lab a lot.

Bacon I could rarely afford, too, but in those days, Walmart was not entirely evil (Sam Walton was still alive) and one of the first Super Walmarts was in the Valley. They sold Salt pork for something like 62 cents a package, so I learned to use it in a lot of different dishes. (Salt pork now goes for something like $3.99 for a 12 ounce package, so....)

[wryter2000]

8. Sounds great

Maybe next weekend. It's bean weather.

[mike_c]

5. my PG&E bill was only $55 last month...

...but I live alone. I also leave the back door open for the cats most of the time and sleep with my window open, so rather than heat the back yard, I've just gotten used to wearing sweaters and keeping the house pretty chilly. I heat with a wood stove in the evenings, or like you, cook something in the oven. I'm in norcal, but on the coast where it is still only in the mid 40's at night and won't ever get really cold.

Sorry, I haven't baked beans ala boston style in years....

[wryter2000]

9. I'm on Oaktown

I keep the thermostat at 60 most of the time. I raise it to 65 to get some heat before I get the pet snakes out to play. They have heaters under their cages, but it doesn't seem quite fair to make them come out when it's so cool.

I bought some cheap, warm throws at Albertson's. We get into the 40s at night here. Usually we get some freezing weather in December.

[mandyky]

6. I loved my Mom's homemade baked beans

White or Navy Beans
Bacon
Brown Sugar
Mustard
Molasses

Not sure on the amounts of ingredients. Obviously you have to soak and cook the beans before you bake them.

[wryter2000]

10. Thanks

Sounds as if we're all on the same page.

[grasswire]

11. my Connecticut grandmother...

...made her New England style beans in a great big ovenproof glass baking dish. Big dish. She would start the day before with the soaking in the morning, and then put the dish into the oven in the evening and bake them all night while the oven was free. There were halves of several onions and slices of salt pork on top. Molasses, not too much. A bit of brown sugar. And I think the secret ingredient was more black pepper than she wrote in her recipe. No one in the family is able to duplicate the flavor of her beans even with her handwritten recipe.

One thing I used to have trouble with was getting the beans soft despite par-boiling and soaking and slow cooking. Then I read somewhere that salting the dish early on keeps the beans from softening.

[SoCalDem]

12. soak the beans over night...rinse, and cook very slowly...

That's the secret of soft, but not mushy beans :)

[wryter2000]

13. Thanks

I'll bear that in mind. I usually don't bother to rinse, but if I'm making refried beans, it doesn't matter if the beans break up. Baked beans are a different deal.

[wryter2000]

15. That's pretty much what my grandmother used to say

The beans cooked all day. I don't think they were cooked when they went into the oven.

She was born before 1900, so I imagine she was talking about a wood stove. I think I'll precook the beans.

When I cook pinto beans, I add salt, a piece of bacon or salt pork, and onions at the beginning of cooking. I've heard that the beans won't cook if you put anything but beans and water in, but that doesn't seem to be the case for me.

Someone here said that beans do get old eventually and then they won't soften. That seemed to happen with some pintos I had around for a long, long time.

[jeanarrett]

14. My grandma used to make them in her old wood range

and cook them all day. They came out somewhat like refried beans, but more whole and they were pretty dry. This may sound gross to some, but we would make bean sandwiches the next day with them--spread on bread with a little mayo. They were so good, but I can't duplicate the process--it must have been the woodstove.

[wryter2000]

16. My grandmother made bean sandwiches, too

I've never tried one.

[jeanarrett]

17. Much better than it sounds.

Like a lot of things. I haven't had one since I was a kid, because I'm spoiled from the way her beans came out and I can't duplicate it.

[wryter2000]

18. I made some baked beans yesterday

I used Cooks Illustrate'd recipe. It was easy and yummy...baked in the oven for 6 hours.

I don't know if I can copy recipes here because of copyright laws. Maybe the mods can let me know.

Anyway, a pound of uncooked beans in 9 cups of water along with the regular suspects -- molasses, mustard, chopped onion, a combination of 2/3 salt pork and 1/3 bacon (these last cut into small pieces and browned in the pan before wilting the onions in there).

Cooked in a 300 degree oven for 4 hours covered and then 2 hours uncovered. This recipe is a keeper.