I was just watching a commercial for Bush’s “Old Family Recipe” baked beans and it occurred to me: I don’t think I’ve ever in my life eaten baked beans that didn’t come out of a can. I’ve eaten all kinds of recipes at family gatherings – topped with bacon, brown sugar, onions – but the beans themselves, I’m sure, came out of a can. If I wanted to make baked beans from scratch, I wouldn’t know where to start – I don’t even know what the beans look like in pre-canned form. I know about all kinds of dried beans, but I don’t know which kind is used to make baked beans. And if I found the beans, how would I make the sauce? Is there a recipe for baked-beans-from-scratch?
Yes, my grandma used to make them. But I have no idea what the recipe was.
My mother-in-law (born in Oregon) just tried to make them from scratch-- they didn’t cook long enough and were. . . crunchy and soupy. I think they were “white beans.” I think the next batch will be better. There are recipes galore, I’msure.
On the other hand, my parents (born in Mississippi) would always just take a can of van de Kamps and improve it with molasses, brown sugar, mustard, etc, and then bake it up in a slow cooker.
The can I have lists them as “small pea beans”. Which is sold as a navy bean most commonly.
You poor benighted soul.
Pot-Baked Beans
1 lb. dry white beans
1.5 quarts cold water
1 tsp. salt
.5 cup brown sugar
1 tsp. dry mustard
.25 cup molasses
1 medium onion, sliced thin
.25 lb. salt pork, bacon or ham, sliced thin.
Soak beans overnight. Discard water. Add 1.5 quarts cold water and salt. Bring to a simmer for 5 minutes. Let stand 1 hour. Bring back to a simmer, cover, and simmer 1 hour. Drain. Reserve liquid. Add sugar, mustard and molasses. Mix well. Fill a 2 quart bean pot or cassarole with alternating layers of beans, onions and pork. Try to make pork the top layer. Add reserved liquid as needed to fill pot. Cover and bake at 300 degrees for 5 to 7 hours, adding liquid as needed. Serve with fresh-baked bread.
*variations include adding hot pepper sauce, pepper flakes, BBQ sauce, etc. to recipe.
Enjoy! 
I make homemade baked beans all the time. Hubby loves 'em. Much more zing than the canned kind.
Zing indeed. Beans made from scratch have flavor, even without added seasonings.
!!! No tomato sauce?! The canned kind always seems to have tomato sauce in it.
I wanted to, but all the restaurant had was Spam.
And Vikings.
Let’s see:
Baked beans come in cans.
Prince Albert comes in cans.
Therefore:
Baked beans are Prince Albert!
Well, I’m off to Great Debates with that one! Unassailable logic.
We lived in Iran when I was little and the food we kids missed the most was baked beans. So my mum decided to give it a go from what she could find. They turned out pretty blah - turns out, the canned variety has a great deal of sugar and mum just didn’t realise this.
You misheard - he comes in Queens.
I rest my case.
We have a can of Prince Albert. Well, we have a can that had Prince Albert.
My mom’s friend Em used to make wonderful baked beans when I was a kid. I’ll bet I can get the recipe for them. It may take awhile, they’re not really internet people. They have it, but I suspect it’s more used to send bad glurge.
Ahhh, the wonderful-ness of homemade baked beans. my mom makes excellent beans, using a recipe from her mother, who I am told made even better beans (why is that always the case? Oh well.) I’ve mae them myself, and thery are gooooooood. The trick? Use salt pork, not bacon, and use maple syrup, not mollasses. Makes them soooooo good.
Oh, and tomoato sauce in beans? Those are crappy canned beans. Good canned beans (I hear Bush’s are actually very good canned beans) shouldn’t have tomato sauce in them.
Bush’s are the best canned baked beans I’ve ever had, although their vegetarian baked beans (across-the-board crowd-pleasers) do have tomato sauce.
I tried making baked beans several times, and I never could get the gas out of them, no matter how much I rinsed after extensive soaking. After the second or third batch, when my husband and I had driven each other into separate parts of our home, he told me never to make them again.
I love baked beans, and my homemade batch tasted incredible. The results just weren’t worth it in the end.
I’ve made them before (using home-grown beans too!), but they were very, very different from canned baked beans, although I suppose that’s the point - they were nice, but I was the only one who really liked them that way.
The recipe posted above would probably be tasty, but just doesn’t appear to be nearly sweet and syrupy enoughto recreate that sauce like the canned kind have. Granted, I’m not saying the canned ones are the benchmark for authenticity, but they do seem to be a style all their own.
My mom makes a pretty excellent version of them, though I’m pretty sure she uses canned/jarred ones that are already softened.
Also, if you want good store bought beans, you’ve got to go with B&M Beans out the glass jars. Better than Bush’s, and better than any other I’ve had. Very brown sugary, yummy.
I grew up in Maine. We ate home made beans every Saturday night. Beans & franks. They were one of my favorite things to eat.
When I got my first apartment, I think the first cooking “thing” I had was a bean pot.
As a matter of fact, I can only recall eating beans from a can once or twice in my life.
Anyway, my beans. . .
Put a 2 lb bag of navy beans in a bean pot. Usually you can find cheap bean pots in an antique store.
Cover with water and let soak overnight.
In the morning, drain, add a chunk of salt pork (for fat and salt), 2 TBSP of Molasses, 5 TBSP of white sugar.
Cook at 350 for one hour. Reduce oven to 250 and cook for about 4-6 more hours until you’re satisfied with the consistency. Check periodically and add water to keep them covered.
Cook for too long and they’re mushy. Cook for too short and they’re hard. I’ll also uncover them for the last 30 minutes or so to let them darken up a little. I don’t know if that really helps.
Don’t eat the salt pork.
I serve them with hot dogs and home made corn bread.
Beer is as good as anything to drink with beans. I wouldn’t drink wine with them.