Baked Beans

[downsizingnow48]

We usually have baked beans for 4th of July. I start things the evening before so they are ready by midday on the 4th. I have used the same recipe with minor adjustments for a long time. The actual prep time is minimal but cooking takes a while.


Day 1, evening.


Cook up the beans on top of the stove. I like to try a different type of bean each year, this year was yellow eye beans.


1 lb beans
1 onion
2 medium carrots
3 garlic cloves
2 10" sprigs fresh rosemary
1 bay leaf


Put it all in the pot. Simmer for about 2-3 hours until beans are soft but not falling apart. Take the herbs etc out of the beans, put the pot in refrigerator overnight. You can also just go straight on to Day 2.


Day 2, morning.


1/2 cup molasses
1/2 cup maple syrup
1 tsp dry yellow mustard
1 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp salt
1 lb pork belly
1/2 small onion
1 medium shallot


Cut pork into half inch cubes. Fry in dutch oven until pretty well cooked. Add the diced onion and shallot. Fry until they are translucent and slightly browned.


Now pour in the pot of beans from Day 1.


Mix up the molasses, syrup, and mustard with about 1 cup of water to get everything to merge together. Pour into the dutch oven with everything else.


Add salt and pepper.


Add water to cover plus about one half inch. Bake in oven (uncovered) for 3-4 hours at 325 degrees.


Let it sit for 30-40 minutes before serving.

 

[Bird]

Sounds like some good beans. My mother had a very popular recipe. It seemed that her baked beans were always very popular, but I don't have her recipe. So now we just eat Bush's Original Baked Beans.

 

[Molalla1]

Sounds like some good beans. My mother had a very popular recipe. It seemed that her baked beans were always very popular, but I don't have her recipe. So now we just eat Bush's Original Baked Beans.

I have a recipe for my grandmothers BB's, nobody, not even my sainted mother could replicate it . . . to this day I cannot either . . . with instructions like a pinch of this and a drizzle of that . . . and if after adding some other ingredients it taste like this to add some more of this or that :confused2: . . . they were the greatest BB's I have ever ate.

 

[CADplans]

I have a recipe for my grandmothers BB's, nobody, not even my sainted mother could replicate it . . . to this day I cannot either . . . with instructions like a pinch of this and a drizzle of that . . . and if after adding some other ingredients it taste like this to add some more of this or that :confused2: . . . they were the greatest BB's I have ever ate.

I recommend you keep trying!! :thumbsup:

My grandmother had a way of making dumplings that everyone in the family tried to re-create,, and they all failed,,

One Saturday, I set out to make dumplings,, equal to grandma's,,

Well, finally on the third or so batch,, I figured it out,,

We had a family get together,, to try the dumplings,, served with three other dishes grandma served the dumplings with,,

Everyone agreed,, I had duplicated the dumplings,,
Then, I had to have a "lesson" on how to make them,, they are a regular item in most of the families homes now,,,:cool2:

 

[Thomas]

Sounds good :licking: what time should I arrive.

 

[Molalla1]

I recommend you keep trying!! :thumbsup:

My grandmother had a way of making dumplings that everyone in the family tried to re-create,, and they all failed,,

One Saturday, I set out to make dumplings,, equal to grandma's,,

Well, finally on the third or so batch,, I figured it out,,

We had a family get together,, to try the dumplings,, served with three other dishes grandma served the dumplings with,,

Everyone agreed,, I had duplicated the dumplings,,
Then, I had to have a "lesson" on how to make them,, they are a regular item in most of the families homes now,,,:cool2:

My wife has given up . . . I am going to keep trying, there is just something missing . . . but I'll have to repeat, those beans were to die for, fatback and all.

 

[Sheldon Hamblin]

Are the beans "bland" or lacking flavor?
Sometimes food needs an extra day for the flavor S to "meld". Then reheated it tastes better

 

[Molalla1]

Are the beans "bland" or lacking flavor?
Sometimes food needs an extra day for the flavor S to "meld". Then reheated it tastes better

That is not that ^^^^^^ it's a delicate symphony of ingredients that that my grandmother put together many, many years ago . . . early 1900, where ingredients were not measured like today.

 

[downsizingnow48]

How would you compare her recipe to today's standard BB recipes? What is the same, what is different. Interesting.

 

[Molalla1]

How would you compare her recipe to today's standard BB recipes? What is the same, what is different. Interesting.

downsizeing48 . . . you have me curious, I'm going to break out her recipe and give it another go, and as far as comparing my grandmother's recipe to today's it makes no sense . . . they had a different way of communicating with people back then.