Good for Your Heart

I’ve had a lot of baked beans in my life (read: from a can), but I’ve never made baked beans from scratch.  What kind of a Bostonian am I?  A crappy one, I guess.

Number 68 on Food & Wine’s Top 100 Tastes to Try in their January issue was heirloom beans.  In fact, I’ve been hoarding several bags of heirloom beans from local Moraine Farm (sold as Baer’s Best), just waiting for the perfect winter’s day to make them.  That day was yesterday. 

I picked money beans from the stash.  Not because I thought they’d make me rich or anything.  They’re just pretty.  Pretty and, you know, maybe potentially lucrative.  F&W’s accompanying recipe for maple-glazed beans enticed me, if only because of the half-pound slab of bacon nestled in there.  (This might be a good time to mention how much I LOVE the maple-cured applewood smoked bacon from North Country Smokehouse in New Hampshire.)  But, wait, we’re talking about beans.

This recipe takes freaking forever.  I looked it over beforehand and saw the overnight bean-soaking part, and the 1-hour boiling part, and even the 3-hour baking part.  But, I didn’t see the additional 1½-hour baking part.  Nor the subsequent 1½-hour baking part.  Someday, I’ll learn to read.  Seventeen hours later, we were ready to eat. 

Anyway, I’m posting the recipe because it’s just what Boston baked beans ought to be, and I aspire to be a good Bostonian, someday.  One who doesn’t get lost in JP, or at least not trapped in a never-ending series of loops between those confounded rotaries.  The same goes for Roslindale.  Ditto for anyplace in crashing distance of the Big Dig.

Will anyone make this recipe?  I doubt it.  But, at least, I’ll feel like a good Bostonian by comparison.  Until I need to borrow your map.

Maple-Glazed Beans

It doesn’t matter whether you use heirloom beans here or not.  You and the beans you walked in with will be heirlooms by the time you’re done with this recipe.

1 lb. dried beans (like yellow eye, navy beans, or money beans), soaked overnight and drained
2 cloves
1 small onion, cut into wedges ½-inch thick
2 small bay leaves
½ pound bacon, fat side scored
½ cup pure maple syrup
3 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
2 tsp. dry mustard
¼ cup ketchup
2 tsp. kosher salt
1 Tbsp. Dijon mustard

Don’t forget to soak your beans overnight.  I mention that up there, right next to the beans, but maybe you have the same reading problem I do.  In a large pot, cover the beans with 2 inches of water and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to low and simmer, skimming occasionally, until the skins loosen, about 1 hour.  Reserve 4 cups of the cooking liquid, and then drain the beans. 

Preheat oven to 325°F.  Transfer the beans to a 10x13-inch baking dish.  Stick the cloves into a wedge of onion.  Nestle the onions, bay leaves, and bacon, fat side up, among the beans.  In a bowl, whisk 2 cups of the reserved cooking liquid with the maple syrup, Worcestershire sauce, dry mustard, ketchup, and half of the salt.  Pour over the beans and bake for 3 hours. 

Stir the remaining 1 tsp. salt into 1 cup of the cooking liquid.  Pour over the beans, stirring gently if certain areas are browning too much, and bake 1½ hours longer.  Whisk the remaining cooking liquid with the Dijon mustard and pour over the beans.  Bake another 1½ hours until richly browned.  Let stand 15 minutes.  Discard the cloves and bay leaves.

Source: Food & Wine.  Recipe by Marcia Kiesel.

Comments

[Linda]

I hate it when that happens-you miss one sentence in a recipe and you are doomed. I love baked beans but, as you said, lots of work.

[Adele]

Hmm. I'd make this recipe. Hell, it can't be any worse than red beans and rice done without shortcuts. The question is - what does one serve it with?

[Tammy]

Adele: The classic pairing is hot dogs. Granted, that's a lot of protein, but who am I to question convention? I mean, unless you wanted to braise some short ribs. Or barbecue some baby backs.

Linda: Boy, did it make the house smell good, though.

[Husband]

Beans, beans, the musical fruit.

The more you eat, the more you...

[Korinthe]

What! No molasses?

(just kidding)

We use about the same recipe (s/maple syrup/molasses/), and the results are always delicious. You can do them in a crockpot for less time. I think this is the first recipe I've seen that has you baking them uncovered -- is that right?

[Dad]

Well, not as good as my classic Beanie Weenies, but not bad!

[Ali]

In my northern New England upbringing,baked beans were served with other brown food, Boston brown bread, and gingerbread for dessert. My mother didn't like hotdogs, (her brother-in-law worked for Jordan's). Sometimes there was corn relish or coleslaw, but it really was about the brown food.

[andrea]

I followed the North Country Smokehouse link since we like their bacon, too. Did you know they have a bacon of the month club!?

So much bacon, so little time.

[Tammy]

Andrea: Bacon of the Month Club? Do they really have 12 different kinds of bacon? Sign me up. (drooling)

Ali: Yes, brown bread. I LOVE that stuff. Thank you for reminding me!! I never seem to have the right kind of can around, though, for steaming it. Also, to add to your brown list, Indian pudding!!

Dad: It's hard to beat the nostalgic appeal of Beanie Weenies. Hard, but not impossible.

Korinthe: Yes, uncovered is right. You keeping adding more liquid throughout the process, which keeps it all from evaporating. Of course, I suppose adding less liquid and just covering it would get you to the same place with potentially less aggravation.

Husband: I guess I was just asking for that with my post title.

[izzy's mama]

I have actually made baked beans a few times, long, long ago and only because my true love mentioned his love for them. Since we have married I have yet to make them again...hmmm...maybe I ought to!

Though if I do it will be a short version.. I think there was an article about how to reduce the cooking time in the Times.

[Sally]

I've never had Boston Baked Beans, but that sounds really good. I, too, have a problem with reading recipes correctly. Why, just last night I decided to try this new recipe for sticky rotisserie-style roasted chicken. I got it all ready then came to the part where I was supposed to roast it in a low (225F) oven for FIVE HOURS! Uh oh. I just toasted it normally and it was fab. I'll have to try doing it the "right" way - some other day.

[Ali]

Doh! I can't believe I forgot the Indian pudding!

[Helen]

I made them! Yay. I grew up a New Englander in exile (in DC... below the Mason Dixon line!) which I think just made the New England identification stronger. (For the record, I can get out of Logan Airport without using a bridge or tunnel, but still get lost in Boston.) We definitely did the brown food night thing, with the B&M cans lined up (baked beans, brown bread, etc). I'd never made them from scratch before, so this was fun. And boy did they ever make the house smell great (well, while they were cooking, anyway). But despite 6 (ok, 5 1/2) hours in the oven, they never quite got soft. I found I had to add quite a bit more water, more often, as it baked (uncovered, right?). But they definitely tasted significantly better than anything out of a can. So not only was it worth it, I'll probably do it again (and try and figure out the hard bean issue, maybe).

[Family Nutritionist]

As a new reader of your blog, I'm a little late getting to this one, but I can't help myself.

Maple Syrup instead of molasses? Now, that's not a bad idea. I remember having homemade baked beans and brown bread as a child. It was my grandparents' recipe, from Manchester, NH. They (probably my grandfather, now that I think of it) were famous for it, and my cousin requested it at his wedding reception -- many years ago. Boy was it good. My grandfather used fatback, and spread it on his brown bread instead of butter. My Mom learned the recipe because, for some reason, my Dad did not follow in his father's footsteps -- at least not into the kitchen. My Mom used bacon ends because fatback and salt pork were hard to come by in the DC area.

I agree that the lid is a good idea. It lets you put that baby in the oven and just walk away from it. Baked beans was a sabbath dish. Quickly cook it Saturday night, then nestle it in the coals on Sunday and let it slowly cook all day.

You can bet that brown bread wasn't originally made in a Maxwell House can. Use any handy mold (like a loaf pan) covered in aluminum foil.

Helen, the beans have to be pretty soft before you start adding the other ingredients.

My mouth is watering, and I'm sorry I didn't find this post until May. I'll have to put this on the calendar for October!