Baked Beans

 It has been a while since I last posted here on my blog. A lot has happened in the world and around me, but the most important thing has been baked beans. Not just any beans, but I wanted to duplicate the recipe my mom use to make, or at least like my brother John, a professional chef. Last week I put out the request on Facebook, and I got a lot of feedback and actually a few friends sent me a recipe. I made some in the electric crockpot this past Friday. Today, a week later, I am still eating the leftovers as seen in the photo.

My inspiration today, to pen this blog post, is another recipe I like to play around with, and that would be for a great Bloody Mary. Here is the one I created today. Need recipes here too! The background fruit is to add color to the photo  and show that I am supposedly eating healthy. All it did was make me realize I forgot to add a lime wedge to the drink.

Let's get back to the baked beans. People wanted me to share the recipe.  First, let me share the post I made on Facebook:

Both my mother Stella and older brother John made fantastic baked beans. My mom made hers with Vermont maple syrup and John was more adaptive. Both added the special ingredient of love. I just spent over an hour going through a large collection of recipes I had stored in a box. These recipes were from my mom's collection and included many 3x5 cards handwritten with old family heirloom recipes. My dad liked to type his in but mom's were usually in her great penmanship. I think there is more than 500 in the collection, and NOT one of them was for baked beans. I found many interesting ones including one that may be my Dad's home brew recipe. But at this moment I want to find, I need to find, the baked beans recipe. I am pretty sure both Mom and John knew it by heart, and hence why I cannot find it written down. All the recipes have been sitting in this box for about 20 years; the plan was to organize and create a cookbook from them to share with family. I am hoping that my nephews, Israel or Jared, has their Dad's recipe. I am willing to, at this desperate moment, accept any great baked bean recipe. 

 In reality, I received one recipe from Jim Doria and another from Sarah Dow Provoncha. They were similar to each other but also different. I kind of combined the two into the one that made the lovely beans in the photo.

Step 1 - Select your beans

Let's get to it. First, you will need beans. I had bought a 1 pound bag of dried Navy beans.

• Jim:
• Use navy or soldier beans 
• soak 2# beans overnight. Drain and rinse place in crock-pot
• Sarah:
• Soak 2 lb. great northern beans overnight
• Drain beans and put into a 6 quart crock-pot

From this information, I decided to buy a 1 pound bag of Great Northern beans and mix the two together. Being alone, this ended up to be too much beans. Maybe In will make a half batch (1#) next time.

Step 2 - add other ingredients

• Jim
• add 1/2 pound chopped salt pork
• 1/2 diced onion 
• 1/2 cup brown sugar 
• 1/4 cup molasses 
• 1 teaspoon dry mustard 
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder 
• 1 teaspoon black pepper 
• pinch allspice 
• Sarah
• Add 1 lb. diced up salt pork, 
• 2 medium sized onions diced, 
• 1 tablespoon ground mustard, 
• 1tablespoon ground ginger, 
• about 2-3 cups maple syrup, depending on how sweet you’d like them.

First, both recipes asked for salt pork but at different amounts. I had just bought some bacon from Djon's Market. This is a honey orange bacon that I treat myself with occasionally. I added a half pound of it to the crock-pot.

I also added 1 chopped medium onion, one teaspoon dry mustard, 2 cups maple syrup from Vermont. Since the bacon had flavors of honey and orange, I did not include any other spices.

Step 3 - Cook the beans

• Jim:
• cover with water 
• cook till soft or about 6 hrs
• Sarah:
• Add enough water to just cover top of beans. 
• Cook on high 8-9 hours, stirring frequently.

I covered the beans with water, and after some verification from Jim & Sarah, I cooked it for 2 hours on high then 6 hours on low. My real goal is to use the non-electric crock-pot I got from my mom. Jim suggested 6 hours at 300 degrees. I realize that is a long time in Florida to be generated that much heat, so electric crock-pot until the weather gets colder and I need to heat the house. I know we had beans a lot in those cold Vermont winter months, mom was just trying to keep warm.

Step 4 - Salt and serve

• Jim:
• add salt to taste after done 
• Good luck you can sub maple syrup for molasses if you want
• Sarah:
• Once beans are soft and liquid looks like it’s thickening you can shut it off and 
• start with about a tablespoon of salt…stir well then taste. 
• If it seems to need more salt, go ahead and add a little more. 
• Best served the next day

Because the bacon was salty, I did not add salt. I have salted after I reheat a bowl of the beans, but leave it out when I make a cold baked bean sandwich. I think my beans were darker in color than what my mom use to make, but I think it is a combination of the bacon and maple syrup.

I am still waiting for some more recipes to arrive. I will try again. These were to be a tribute to my mom and brother John. I did not realize that horns would be tooting all night long and into the next day. I am sure one tribute blare lasted a full 30 seconds. If my family did not hear it, I am pretty sure they smelled it...

A photo I took earlier in the week of the beautiful clouds over the ocean....

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