Traditional New England Baked Beans Recipes

Steps:

• Sort beans and rinse with cold water. Place beans in a Dutch oven; add enough water to cover by 2 in. Bring to a boil; boil for 2 minutes. Remove from the heat; cover and let stand for 1 hour or until beans are softened., Drain and rinse beans, discarding liquid. Return beans to Dutch oven; add 6 cups water. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 1 hour or until beans are almost tender., In a large skillet, cook bacon over medium heat until crisp. Remove to paper towels with a slotted spoon; drain, reserving 2 tablespoons drippings. Saute onions in drippings until tender. Add garlic; cook 1 minute longer. Stir in the ketchup, brown sugar, molasses, syrup, Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper., Drain beans, reserving cooking liquid; place in an ungreased 3-qt. baking dish. Stir in onion mixture and bacon. Cover and bake at 300° for 2-1/2 hours or until beans are tender and reach desired consistency, stirring every 30 minutes. Add reserved cooking liquid as needed.

Steps:

• Soak beans in a pan of water overnight then drain before cooking.
• Boil the soaked beans until the skins crack when you blow on them. (With a spoon, lift some out of the boiling water and blow on them. If the skins crackle, they are done.) This step is important because the beans don't soften up any more while baking, and you don't want them to be too hard.
• Drain the beans and place them in your bean pot (any ceramic piece will do as long as it has a lid).
• Add uncooked bacon and chopped onion.
• In a sauce pan, bring the rest of the ingredients to a boil.
• Once everything is melted and combined, pour the mixture over the beans in the pot.
• Make sure the liquid covers the beans. If not, then add more water.
• Bake in covered pot at 250 degrees for about 4 hours. Check periodically to make sure the liquid level does not get too low. They will thicken as they bake, but you should have a little juice so they are not too dry.
• The beans will be dark brown, and thick when they are done.

Steps:

• Check the beans for any stones or dirt and discard. Put the beans in a large bowl; cover with cold water by about 3 inches. Cover, and set aside in a cool spot or the refrigerator to soak for 6 hours or overnight.
• Drain the beans. Put the beans in a large saucepan with 5 cups of water and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat so the beans simmer and cook for 30 minutes. Drain, but reserve the cooking water.
• Preheat the oven to 250 degrees F.
• Put the beans in a 2 to 2 1/2-quart ceramic bean pot or covered casserole with the salt pork and the onion. In a medium bowl combine the molasses, mustard, and salt with 2 cups of the cooking liquid and pour over the beans. (If the beans are not covered by the liquid add more.) Cover the pot, and bake for 3 hours. Check the beans periodically to make sure they are covered with liquid and if needed add more of the reserved cooking liquid. Gently stir in the tomatoes and vinegar, taking care not to break up the beans, continue to bake for 3 more hours. Remove from the oven and stir in the rum, if desired. Serve.

Steps:

• Soak beans over night or do a quick soak method. If soaking, drain soaking water, replace with new and boil the beans 30 minutes. I know what crock pots say about beans and sorry companies, this works!
• Place onions and salt pork in bottom of pot.
• Pour in beans drained of water.
• Mix the next 7 ingredients in a saucepan and bring just to the boil stirring occasionally. Pour over beans in pot.
• Add water to cover beans and cook on low 10-12 hours (or more) topping with water if necessary.
• Stir every 2 hours and cook with lid off for final 2 hours to thicken. I usually find that I need to stop adding water at this point and stir occasionally as beans will "appear" dried out on top; this is how they should look. Just stir.
• These should be saucy rather than liquidy or dry. a thick sauce. Unfortunately this is not a crock pot recipe which can be left unattended for more than 2-3 hours.
• Eating the onions is one of the best parts! I used to only use 1 until my mother began screaming give me an onion!
• These freeze very well. Freeze in plastic containers or bags and thaw at room temperature. Re-heat adding a bit of water if necessary as they *can* thicken upon freezing.

Steps:

• Place a sauté pan over medium-high heat. Add the bacon and cook, turning, until crispy. Transfer to paper towels to drain, and chop.
• Place the beans in the slow cooker and add the bacon, water, cider, onion, molasses, maple syrup, ginger, mustard, and cloves. Cover and cook on low for 6 to 8 hours, until the beans are tender. Season to taste with salt.
• Place a large sauté pan over medium-high heat and add the butter. Add the apples and pears and cook for about 10 minutes, until they begin to brown. Sprinkle with the brown sugar and cinnamon and sauté for about 5 minutes.
• When the liquid is almost evaporated from the slow cooker, place the fruit mixture on top of the beans and continue cooking for about 40 minutes, until the flavors are melded.
• Divide evenly among bowls and serve at once.

Steps:

• Place beans in large bowl. Add enough water to completely cover beans. Let stand overnight.
• Heat oven to 325ºF. Cook bacon in large skillet until crisp. Remove bacon from skillet with slotted spoon, reserving drippings in skillet. Drain bacon on paper towels. Add onions to reserved drippings; cook and stir 6 min. or until crisp-tender. Remove from heat; stir in sugar, molasses and mustard.
• Drain beans; place in 3-qt. casserole. Stir in onion mixture, water, salt and pepper; cover with lid.
• Bake 6 to 7 hours or until beans are tender. (Check beans after 5 hours. If they start to dry out, moisten with additional water.) Stir in bacon.

Steps:

• You'll get fewer blowouts if you soak the beans overnight, but if you're pressed for time, you can quick-salt-soak your beans. In step 1, combine the salt, water, and beans in a large Dutch oven and bring them to a boil over high heat. Remove the pot from the heat, cover it, and let it stand for 1 hour. Drain and rinse the beans and proceed with the recipe. 1. Dissolve 1 1/2 tablespoons salt in 2 quarts cold water in large container. Add beans and let soak at room temperature for at least 8 hours or up to 24 hours. Drain and rinse well. 2. Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 300 degrees. Combine beans, salt pork, onion, molasses, sugar, soy sauce, mustard, pepper, bay leaf, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 4 cups water in large Dutch oven. (Liquid should cover beans by about 1/2 inch. Add more water if necessary.) Bring to boil over high heat. Cover pot, transfer to oven, and cook until beans are softened and bean skins curl up and split when you blow on them, about 2 hours. (After 1 hour, stir beans and check amount of liquid. Liquid should just cover beans. Add water if necessary.) 3. Remove lid and continue to cook until beans are fully tender, browned, and slightly crusty on top, about 1 hour longer. (Liquid will reduce slightly below top layer of beans.) 4. Remove pot from oven, cover, and let stand for 5 minutes. Using wooden spoon or rubber spatula, scrape any browned bits from sides of pot and stir into beans. Discard onion and bay leaf. (Salt pork can be eaten, if desired.) Let beans stand, uncovered, until liquid has thickened slightly and clings to beans, 10 to 15 minutes, stirring once halfway through. Season with salt and pepper to taste, and serve. (Beans can be refrigerated for up to 4 days.) Baking Beans at High Altitude When testing our New England Baked Beans recipe, volunteer recipe testers living at high altitudes reported that they had a hard time getting the beans to cook through properly. This wasn't too surprising since water boils at a lower temperature at high elevations, which presents numerous challenges in cooking. This led us to make a version of the recipe using a pressure cooker (a pressure cooker is ideal for cooking at higher altitudes because the enclosed environment raises the boiling point of water). After a few tests, we were happy to discover that it worked well, with a few modifications. REDUCE WATER: You have to reduce the amount of water you add to the pot (2 1/2 cups rather than 4) since little is lost to evaporation during cooking. The beans aren't totally submerged when using this lesser amount, but in the sealed environs of a pressure cooker, it's not an issue. RELEASE PRESSURE NATURALLY: Because beans cook at a faster rate in a pressure cooker, we found that 35 minutes at high pressure followed by a 15-minute "natural release" (where you move the pot off the heat and let the pressure come down slowly on its own) delivered fully cooked, tender beans. STIR TO RELEASE STARCHES: The cooking liquid will look thin initially but will thicken after about 15 minutes; stir the beans several times during this time to draw out the starches and thicken the glaze. Note that many pressure cooker manufacturers suggest adjusting cooking times and liquid amounts based on how many feet above sea level you are cooking; consult your manual for instructions.