I’m pretty sure I have a scientific reference around somewhere which disputes this.
There is no particular virtue in using dried beans instead of canned. And if you get old, stale dried beans you will wish you had used canned beans - some old beans will simply not get tender, no matter how long you soak and cook them. With canned beans, you start ahead. I like to use a combination of turtle beans and navy beans, but almost any kind will do.
If you must use “real” beans, make sure your grocery store has a good frequent turnover on them.
It is told that dumping out the soaking water gets rid of some of the gassiness, but I have not found it to be so.
While bacon is an acceptable substitute, a chunk of salt pork adds an unctuous yumminess that is, well, yummy.
Beans “baked” in a crock pot might be runny, but you can thicken them up by mashing some of them.
One fanatically fussy friend of mine uses distilled water to soak and cook her beans. Claims that our local hard water messes things up.
I thought I read the same thing, but the Minnesota Department of Health says Lynn’s right.
These all sound absolutely wonderful! I love baked beans and polished off a can of Bushes Honey Baked beans this weekend. Without side effects, as I have a cast iron digestive tract.
My favorite quick bean recipe is quite simple. I open a can of Grandma Brown’s baked beans, mix them with finely chopped onion and lightly cooked chopped bacon, if I have it. Turn into a baking dish, sprinkle with brown sugar, bake about 45 minutes at 350 degrees. There are better recipes, but there is something elemental and basic about the simple comfort foods.
Indeed, man!
I’m going to try silenus’s recipe first, though I’m going to use great northern white beans (that I have) instead of white pea beans (which I haven’t heard of); and I’m going to cut the recipe in half.
I have Br’er something-or-other dark molasses and Mary-something organic unsulpherated molasses. I’ll choose one or the other. The only dry mustard they had at the store was Coleman’s, so that’s what I’m using. (And I like Coleman’s prepared hot mustard.) I might be able to make it to the market before I have to start working. I hope they have salt pork. If not, it will have to be the bacon.
Actually, I was going to ask about this. Reading the back of the bag of dried beans, I noticed they have several times more fiber than the canned version. Anyone know what’s up with that? I don’t think it was different serving sizes.
Great Northern and white pea beans are interchangeable. Either molasses will do. Coleman’s is fine for the mustard. Bacon will work, but salt pork gives it more depth.
A great second-day meal is Baked Bean sandwiches. Slather a couple of pieces of thick, preferably home-made bread with butter, then a healthy layer of cold beans. Simple, filling, and oh-so-good!
Here’s the one we use: http://chefmom.com/recipebox/recipes/12.htm
Starts with canned pork-and-beans, then you adulterate it. Will kill a diabetic at 10 paces but is very yummy.
Killer thread. You can get drop-dead gorgeous real baked bean pots on eBay. Mine is obviously hand-thrown & glazed, lighter than some. Cost $19. I had a bean pot from (you guessed it - L.L.Bean) but it got lost in a sewage flood. (Price c. $60 in 1994.) Never could find the exact, logo’d replacement :smack:
Now, how can I print all these recipes & tips??? And try them all in my lifetime?
I recollect being served baked beans FOR BREAKFAST up in New Hampshire. I’m in Alaska now & crave 'em big time. 
FTH, I only like the itty-bitty dry white navy beans for Baked Beans. Unless I’m making chili, which requires (canned) pintos.
:eek: I paid a dollar each for the 4 of mine at a second hand store and I love them.
Oh, I forgot. I put in some chicken flavor base in the cooking water. It’s not as salty as bouillon, and gives the beans a nice flavor.
What exactly is salt pork?
I’d bet also that there’s more caramelization of the ingredients with the oven, as the temperature gets higher all around the beans. A crockpot doesn’t develop the same high heat.
I’d hazard a guess that doing the same recipe in the oven, vs. a crockpot, you’d get much richer flavor in the oven.
(Oh, and a side note on the link I posted: I’ve made that same recipe using vegetarian canned beans - sauce but no pork - and omitting the added bacon. The results are still nice though not as good as the “real” thing).
And where do I buy it?
Salt pork is like bacon, only saltier and not smoked.
I ran to the store this morning and it was near the lunch meats.
[WWII radio voice]
The beans are in the oven.
The beans… Are in the oven.
[/WWIIRV]
You can just hit the ‘print’ button to print the entire thread, but that uses a lot of paper. I would just cut and past each recipe to Word, then print. Or was that a whoosh?
Bourbon fer sure. My recipe calls for “any recipe for baked beans that has pork in it”, and then add 1/2 cup bourbon and a cup of very strong coffee. Maaaaahvelous, dahling.
I think crockpot beans are just all right, by me. But the problem is that they remain soupy and never develop a crust like down home baked beans. The oven baked beans I’m used to has a nice dark crust with crispy bacon slices baked into and latticing the top of the fairly thick beans. They are baked in a cake pan with more exposed surface area for carmelization and evaparation- more like a cake, than a soupy tureen. It’s also the only way to get baked beans that are a suitable paste for a baked bean sandwich.