Garretts Favorite Baked Beans Recipes

OLD FASHIONED FRENCH CANADIAN BAKED BEANS

Steps:

• Cover beans with water and soak overnight.
• Rinse beans then bring to a boil in approximately 1 quart of water, bay leaf and garlic - simmer for 30 minutes.
• Turn off heat and let beans stand for approximately 1 1/2 hours until soft. Drain and reserve the bean liquid. Discard bay leaf and garlic.
• Mix together remaining ingredients (excluding beans and bacon).
• Add beans to bean pot (or any covered dish).
• Stir in molasses mixture to beans. Top off with some of the reserved bean liquid.
• Arrange bacon on top.
• Cover and bake at 300 degrees for 7 hours. For the final hour of cooking, remove cover to let bean brown up nicely.
• Note: check occasionally and keep beans covered with reserved bean liquid during cooking.

BAKED BEANS FROM SCRATCH

Steps:

• Place the navy beans into a large container and cover with several inches of cool water; let stand 8 hours to overnight. Or, bring the beans and water to a boil in a large pot over high heat. Once boiling, turn off the heat, cover, and let stand 1 hour. Drain and rinse before using.
• Place the beans in a large saucepan with 4 cups of water. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer 1 hour.
• Preheat an oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Stir the ketchup, maple syrup, brown sugar, molasses, Worcestershire sauce, salt, pepper, and chili powder together in a small bowl; set aside.
• Once the beans have simmered for 1 hour, drain, and reserve the cooking liquid. Pour the beans into a 1 1/2 quart casserole dish and stir in the chopped onion and the molasses sauce. Stir in enough of the reserved cooking liquid so the sauce covers the beans by 1/4 inch.
• Cover, and bake in the preheated oven for 10 minutes, then reduce the heat to 200 degrees F (95 degrees C), and cook 6 hours longer. Stir the beans after they have cooked for 3 hours. Once the beans are tender and the sauce has reduced and is sticky, remove from the oven, stir, recover, and allow to stand 15 minutes before serving.

OLD FASHIONED BAKED BEANS

Steps:

• Place the dried beans in a pot of water covered by a few inches of water and let soak overnight. Drain the beans, place them back in the pot with fresh water and bring to a boil. Simmer for one hour, then drain, reserving the liquid. See NOTE.
• In a Dutch oven or other oven-proof pot fry the bacon until crispy then add the onions and cook until soft and translucent, 5-7 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for another minute.Stir in the tomato sauce, molasses, brown sugar, apple cider vinegar, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, smoked paprika, salt, pepper and bay leaf.Add 1 1/2 cups of the reserved bean water and the beans.Bring everything to a simmer for a minute or two to heat it up. In the meantime preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.
• Transfer the Dutch oven with the lid on to the middle rack of the oven. Bake for 2 to 3 hours or until the beans are tender and the sauce has thickened, removing the lid during the last 20-30 minutes to help the sauce thicken. NOTE: If at any point during the cooking process too much liquid evaporates and the beans get dry, add a little more of the reserved bean water. The beans themselves can vary from batch to batch and you may end up either needing to add more liquid if the beans are too dry or you may need to bake the beans longer with the lid off if there is too much liquid. Adjust as needed.Add more salt the pepper to taste.Serve immediately or let cool completely and refrigerate until ready to serve. Can be reheated on the stovetop or in the microwave.
• SLOW COOKER METHOD: Follow steps 1 and 2 and then pour everything into the slow cooker. Cook on LOW for 6-7 hours or on HIGH for 3-4 hours or until the beans are tender. Open the lid for the last 30 minutes or longer until the sauce has thickened. If the beans are too thick at any point and too much liquid has evaporated, stir in a little extra water.

OLD-FASHIONED BEAN POT BAKED BEANS

Steps:

• Rinse beans and pick them over. Put beans in a large plastic container with three times as much water as beans. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
• Drain beans. Combine beans and chopped onion in a large saucepan. Add water to cover them and heat to boiling. Cover and let simmer about 30 minutes. Drain liquid into a small bowl to reserve for sauce and for cooking.
• Measure 1/2 cup of the bean liquid into a bowl. Add the orange juice, molasses, maple syrup, ketchup, and prepared mustard. Then add the brown sugar, stirring to dissolve. Lastly, add the dry mustard and salt and combine.
• In a 2-quart bean crock or covered baking dish layer half the salt pork and all of the beans, making sure to bury the peeled, whole onion in the bottom. Pour the sauce mixture over beans and add just enough reserved bean liquid to cover them. Top with remaining salt pork.
• Bake, covered, at 300 degrees for 4 hours, checking on the hour. If beans seem too dry, add a little of the remaining bean liquid. Uncover and then bake for one hour more.

HOMEMADE BAKED BEANS

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 2 1/2-quart baking dish.
• Place bacon in a large skillet and cook over medium-high heat until crisp, about 10 minutes; drain and cool on paper towels. Crumble bacon once cooled.
• Mix bacon, beans, water, brown sugar, onions, ketchup, molasses, vinegar, mustard, salt, and garlic powder together in the prepared baking dish. Cover dish with aluminum foil.
• Bake in preheated oven until bubbling, 45 minutes.