New England Style Baked Beans

  Having recently bought a brown bean pot at our local (next town) thrift store, I had to bake some beans. Yes, I know, I really didn’t have to, but I wanted to. We are fans of the dark, no tomato style of baked beans, B & M in the brown jar was what we grew up with. Everyone wanted the one lone piece of salt pork in the bottom of the jar.

  Alas, these are no longer available in the supermarkets around here. The recipe from The Better Homes & Gardens is quite close to this style of beans. They are a little time consuming, but not a lot of work as they bake without too much supervision. Slow baking in the oven is what gives them their great flavor. 

  If you do the quick soak instead of the all night soaking, the process goes much faster. The HyVee store had salt pork and I had the rest of the ingredients on hand.

Everyone agreed that they are great and taste like we remembered from when we were growing up.

  New England Style Baked Beans

Serves 6 to 8

1 pound of dry navy or northern beans

8 cups cold water

½ teaspoon salt

4 ounces of salt pork, cut up

1 large onion, chopped

½ cup molasses (I used Sorghum)

⅓ cup packed brown sugar

1 teaspoon dry mustard

½ teaspoon salt

⅛ teaspoon pepper

  Rinse Beans. In a heavy 3 quart saucepan combine beans and the eight cups of water.

Cover and soak overnight or bring to boiling, boil 2 minutes and remove from heat, keep covered for one hour.

  Add ½ teaspoon of salt to the beans and soaking water. Bring to boiling reduce heat and simmer covered one hour or until tender. Drain beans, saving the liquid.

  In a 2 ½ quart bean pot or casserole combine the beans, Salt pork, and onion. Stir in 1 cup of the reserved bean liquid, molasses, brown sugar, mustard, ½ teaspoon salt, and pepper.

  Cover and bake for 2 ½ hours or until desired level of thickness stirring occasionally.

Add additional reserved bean liquid if necessary.