Bodacious Baked Beans Recipes

Baked beans are a wonderful addition to any meal. They're great for a picnic, a BBQ, or a main meal. What's really great about them is they taste even better leftover. They are an all-American comfort food that everyone can enjoy.

Did you ever wonder where baked beans came from? I did. I set about finding out just how someone came up with this delicious dish. I looked and looked but really didn't come up with too much information.

It is believed that Native Americans had been eating dried beans long before the colonists arrived on their shores. They would stew them over night, adding animal fat, to make them softer and eatable. Sometime after the colonists arrived someone came up with the idea of adding molasses to sweeten them.

Of course, there are other trains of thought that say that Italy, France or England came up with the idea. Whoever came up with this delicious dish has my thanks.

Ingredients:

1 lb pkg dried beans, navy or great northern

6 slices bacon

2 medium onions, finely chopped

1/2 cup molasses

1/4 cup ketchup

1/4 cup tomato juice

1/4 cup packed brown sugar

2 tbsp spicy brown mustard

1 tbsp salt

1 tsp black pepper

Directions:

Follow directions on dried bean package for quick soak.

Drain beans and place in crock pot.

Add the rest of the ingredients and cook in crock pot for 6 hours on low.

If beans appear to be drying out add a little tomato juice at at time. You do not want them too soupy.

Ingredients:

4 cups navy or great northern dried beans

1/2 lb bacon

3 tsp salt

1 onion, finely chopped

1/2 cup molasses

2 tsp spicy brown mustard

1/2 cup ketchup

1 tsp black pepper

Directions:

Soak dried beans overnight in cold water.

Drain beans and add 10 cups of fresh water and minced onion. Cook slowly until beans are tender.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Drain beans and set aside liquid from the cooked beans.

Mix molasses, mustard, salt, pepper and ketchup with 2 cups of liquid you set aside.

Place beans into baking dish or bean pot. Add molasses mixture and blend.

Lay strips of bacon on top of beans.

Bake for 2 hours covered. Uncover and bake for 1/2 hour.

As you bake the beans you may need to add a little more liquid you saved from cooking the beans. Add a little at a time as needed.

Ingredients:

3 (32oz) cans pork and beans

4 slices bacon

2 medium onions, finely chopped

1 cup packed brown sugar

4 tbsp spicy brown mustard

2 tsp Worcestershire sauce

1/2 cup molasses

Directions:

Mix all ingredients together except bacon.

Cut each strip of bacon into 4 to 5 pieces and add to bean mixture.

Cook on medium low heat for 45 to 60 minutes.

I can remember standing in the kitchen with my grandmotherly quietly watching her make her homemade baked beans. It was my very favorite thing to eat.

She would throw some of this and some of that into a pot of pinto beans she had made the day before. She would lift that great big pot filled to the brim and place it on a back burner of her stove to bubble and boil it's way to perfection.

I could not get over how she could cook with out measuring anything. She just stood there with the item in her hand almost like she was weighing it. Then add or take away some of it and throw the just right amount into the pot.

No matter what she threw in there it always tasted good. Somehow it was always just the right ingredient in just the right amount. I wish I could cook like that.

Anyway, try as we might we could not get that recipe out of her. She would always say well, honey I just throw some of this and some of that together until it taste like I think it outta.

To this day I am still trying different recipes hoping I can copy those wonderful baked beans from my childhood.