Traditional Boston Baked Beans
Ingredients
1 pounds dried white or navy beans
¼ cup unsulfured molasses
½ tablespoon plus ½ teaspoon dry mustard
¼ cup packed dark-brown sugar
½ tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 medium onion, peeled, and diced
6 ounces salt pork or bacon
2 ½cups water, possibly more, as needed during baking
Instructions
Soak the beans in 8 quarts of water and 1½ Tablespoon Of table salt. soak for 8 to 24 hours. Drain in a colander and remove and debris, discolored beans or empty shells. Soaking overnight greatly reduces the cooking time required.
Ingredients
1 pounds dried white or navy beans
¼ cup unsulfured molasses
½ tablespoon plus ½ teaspoon dry mustard
¼ cup packed dark-brown sugar
½ tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 medium onion, peeled, and diced
6 ounces salt pork or bacon
2 ½cups water, possibly more, as needed during baking
Instructions
Soak the beans in 8 quarts of water and 1½ Tablespoon Of table salt. soak for 8 to 24 hours. Drain in a colander and remove and debris, discolored beans or empty shells. Soaking overnight greatly reduces the cooking time required.
Heat oven to 300 degrees. In a bean pot add the beans, molasses, mustard, brown sugar, salt, pepper, onions and enough water to cover the beans. Score the salt pork ¼ inch deep 1 inch apart, and slice into two even pieces. Transfer to oven to bake until the beans are tender and the liquid has thickened, about 6 hours. Check the beans every 45 minutes, adding more hot water if necessary to keep beans in broth at all times. For the last 50 to 60 minutes of cooking, uncover beans. At this stage, if you are having hot dogs or sausages with your beans, you can add them into the pot to heat inside with the beans, optional.
Once the beans are to your desired tenderness, remove from oven, adjust the seasoning with salt, pepper and molasses, if necessary. Since Navy beans are relatively high in starch, the sauce will thicken slightly as it cools.
