Boston Baked Beans

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Addie

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East Boston, MA
Boston Baked Beans


Ingredients:
1 Bag of Navy Beans
Some recipes I have seen over the years tell you that you can also use Great Northern. I personally do not care for them. They are just too big.

1 Large Piece of Salt Pork.
I always try to find a piece that has a couple of large streaks of meat running through it.

Approximately 1/3 Cup of Molasses
I always used Grandma’s molasses with the yellow label.

Approximately 1/3 Cup of Packed Dark Brown Sugar.
Dark brown sugar has more molasses thus adding more flavors.

3-4 Tablespoons of Dry Mustard

1 Medium onion cut up into approximately 6-8 pieces. Leave the stem on so that the onion sections will stay together.

Directions:
1. Sort through the beans looking for small rocks or beans that do not look appetizing. Soak them overnight covered completely covered with water. Check on them every couple of hours and replace any water to make sure they are completely covered. I suggest you use a bowl a lot larger than you think you need. The beans swell up during soaking.

2. The next morning drain the beans and do not keep the water. Place the soaked beans in a sauce pan and completely cover with water. Cook the beans with a gently boil. You don’t want to damage the skins while cooking with a hard boil. Make sure the beans stay covered with water at all times. The beans are done when you blow on a bean and the skin splits.

3. Drain the beans and retain the liquid.

4. Take about one cup of the hot cooking water and place the molasses, brown sugar and dry mustard in the hot water. Stir to dissolve.

5. Cut up the salt pork into large bite size pieces. Arrange and line the bottom of the pan or pot with the half of the salt pork pieces.

6. Cover the pork with half of the cooked beans

7. Add all of the onion pieces around the layer and cover with the rest of the beans and salt pork.

8. Pour the mixture of the hot water and seasonings over the beans. Add the remaining hot water from the boil.

9. Add additional water if needed. There should be about 1-2 inches of water over all of the beans.

10. Place the beans in a 250ºF. oven. Cook for 7-8 hours until the beans are fully cooked. The fresher the beans, the sooner they will be done.

11. Check the water level every few hours and replace the water to just cover the beans. They are done when you bite into one bean and there is no small hard little nib in the center.

Notes of Interest:

The sauce should be a bit thick at the end of cooking. So only add water at the end of the last hour with just enough to bring it to the top of the beans.

My kids loved the salt pork. So I always added two large pieces. That way there were no fights over who got the most.

The sugar and molasses are an approximate amount. Some folks do not like their beans too sweet, some do not like molasses. My personal taste was toward more molasses. The molasses give the beans their color. The more molasses, the darker the bean.

You will see some recipes that add ketchup, tomatoes, and every thing else. Put the ketchup on at the dinner table. Forget all the rest of additives. They will no longer be Boston Baked Beans. Just plain bake beans.

My mother also made her own brown bread. She made it in a one pound empty Chase and Sandborn coffee can. It came to the table hot. Place a slab of butter on a hot slice of it and it was delicious. You can buy it in your grocery store or try to make your own.

It is also tradition to serve Cod Fish cakes with the beans and brown bread.

If you don't have a bean pot, you can use an oven safe Dutch oven with a cover or your slow cooker.

A few years back our Legislature passed a bill that stated you could not call them Boston Baked Beans unless they are actually made in Boston. And we the taxpayers pay them for this foolishness. Happy Eating! Enjoy.
 
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Addie, your beans are almost exactly like my mother made them as I was growing up in Sault Ste. Marie, MI. So does that meat I have to call her bean recipe - Sault Ste. Marie baked beans?:LOL:

I often use the same recipe and technique you use for my own baked beans, except that I use the pressure cooker to speed things up. Then again, sometimes I substitute maple syrup for the mollases, making them a true Native American dish, as all of the ingredients are indigenous to this land.

As for tomato product, sometimes its in the beans (just a touch), but usually left out. Meats range from browned pork, to bakon, to ham, to ham hocks, to pork jowl bacon. It's all good.

Addie, the long bake time you use insures that the beans are well flavored, not just the sauce. Nice recipe. And I can't believe with the number of people who expressed interest in your bean recipes, that I'm the first to comment.

Tip, for a real change, and a delicious one, add a little chili powder to your beans. It's a very good flavor. I learned that from a guy who ran a fried chicken place in my home town, about a block or so from where I lived as a 6 year old. It was called Vic's Chicken, and pre-dated KFC's arrival in the Soo by many years. I always remembered the beans and chicken from that place. His beans influence mine to this day, and that's 54 years later.

Seeeeeeeya; Chief Lonwind of the North
 
Addie,

I was with you until I saw the 3-4 T of dry mustard, is that correct?

Yeah, My husband had an infinity for powdered mustard. I always made sure it was a very level measurement. And I went with the 3 as to 4 Ts. But you can use less if you desire. The kids learned to like it also.
 
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Here is my mother's recipe!
b-and-m-bean-baked-orig-gls-jar-18-oz-pack-of-12_3051554.jpg
 
Boston Baked Beans

A few years back our Legislature passed a bill that stated you could not call them Boston Baked Beans unless they are actually made in Boston. And we the taxpayers pay them for this foolishness. Happy Eating! Enjoy.

Well, if you can't call a sparkling wine Champagne if it doesn't come from the Champagne region, and you can't call a sweet onion a Vidalia onion unless it comes from a prescribed region in Georgia, then why could you call a bean a Boston Baked Bean unless it comes from Boston? Wouldn't that be kind of like Scotch whisky that was made in Canada?
 
Thank you Addie.

Sometimes simple is the best.

Technique is sometimes more important then ingredients.

I love beans but sometimes they don't love me. :(

Or should I say those around me don't love me eating them. :LOL:
 
Well, if you can't call a sparkling wine Champagne if it doesn't come from the Champagne region, and you can't call a sweet onion a Vidalia onion unless it comes from a prescribed region in Georgia, then why could you call a bean a Boston Baked Bean unless it comes from Boston? Wouldn't that be kind of like Scotch whisky that was made in Canada?

Because the flavor in Champagne and Vidalia onions is related to the soil, aka terroir, the grapes and onions, respectively, are grown in. That's not the case with Boston baked beans. The dish can be made anywhere and it will taste the same.
 
it's got to be good! I was bouncing Addie's against my old standard -
basically the same with slightly different proportions, but adds a splash of paprika.

but I'm with Zagut - technique/method is everything in these kind of dishes. it's all in the wrist. these are not "remove from freezer and nuke for 25 minutes on high" dishes.

now, on to the brown bread.... metal coffee cans are hard to come by now-a-days. can't believe we're all still alive after making brown bread contained in all those poisons (yeah, right....) but regardless -

I don't have a decent BBB recipe - Addie - can you post your approach?
I promise to strip the paint off the can before I bake it, honest!
 
Good one tenspeed. You wouldn't recognize the Charles River today. It has been cleaned up so much, that you can't even find a dead body in it. :angel:
 
it's got to be good! I was bouncing Addie's against my old standard -
basically the same with slightly different proportions, but adds a splash of paprika.

but I'm with Zagut - technique/method is everything in these kind of dishes. it's all in the wrist. these are not "remove from freezer and nuke for 25 minutes on high" dishes.

now, on to the brown bread.... metal coffee cans are hard to come by now-a-days. can't believe we're all still alive after making brown bread contained in all those poisons (yeah, right....) but regardless -

I don't have a decent BBB recipe - Addie - can you post your approach?
I promise to strip the paint off the can before I bake it, honest!

You would have to haunt the antique shops and look for pudding steam pots to make it today. I haven't made Boston Brown Bread since my mother had me helping her. I would recommend buying it in a can with or without raisins. Your choice. It is a lot of work and sometime the ingredients can be very hard to find. :angel:
 
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