Have you ever made "real baked beans"? I made my first ones this past weekend. I admit years ago I found a recipe for Stove-Top Baked Beans that was so easy and my family really liked them. So why make the "real thing" when everyone is happy with this easier recipe (I thought).
All I can say is I am sorry to my family that I didn't see this recipe for Home Baked Beans back then. Besides being the "real thing" they are so easy. More time consuming, but if you have the time, these are absolutely the best.
Our talented director for the handbell choir at our church, The Miracle Ringers, is moving to Atlanta. We will really miss Sara and her leadership. I have learned so much under her direction. But her husband has a permanent job in Atlanta and after being separated for over a year because of his job in D.C., it is time for them to be together. She has already found a church that has a handbell choir near the house they are buying there ... so she is all set.
Saturday night we had a farewell party for her. It was so much fun. I have so many great recipes to share with you but I have to wait for them to be sent to me. It was suggested that I bring baked beans so I went hunting for a recipe. You see, I decided I should do more than just my Stove-Top Baked Beans.
The first cookbook I picked up was my from Amish and Mennonite kitchens cookbook. I have found so many "blue ribbon" recipes in it. And not to be disappointed I found a recipe for baked beans in it. I was especially interested in trying it when I saw it called for dried navy beans. I even decided to add the onion (which I usually leave out of recipes).
Well, they were so good. Everyone raved. Even Krystle, who doesn't eat onions either, ate some. Since we were going to have some fun time in the pool before we ate and I wanted them to be warm when we ate them, I revised the recipe slightly so that I could take them in a roaster/oven pan I have. I will give you the original cooking directions also.
HOME BAKED BEANS
1 lb. dried navy beans
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 small onion (I ended up with about 2/3 cup diced onion)
2 tablespoons molasses
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup catsup
1/2 lb. bacon (I cooked about 9 slices that equaled about 3/4 cup)
Rinse and sort beans. Cover with 3 inches of water and allow to soak over night. (I actually measured since it was so specific in the recipe.)
In the morning, add salt and soda and bring beans to a boil. (Don't empty the water the beans soaked in.)
Cook for 1/2 hour or until tender. (I did continue to cook mine longer while I cooked the bacon and diced the onion. I didn't need to add any more water, but do if the water boils out.)
Fry the bacon until crisp so you can crumble it.
Finely mince the onion.
Combine the onions, molasses, brown sugar, catsup, and bacon in a bowl and add them to the beans.
At this point I had 5 hours at the earliest before we would be eating. So instead of combining everything in a 2 quart casserole and baking them for 1-1/2 to 2 hours at 325 degrees F which are the directions with the recipe,
I dipped the beans out and placed them in my roaster/oven saving the water.
I combined the onions, molasses, brown sugar, catsup, and bacon in a bowl and stirred them into the beans.
Then I poured enough of the water to cover the beans in the pot and
cooked the beans at 250 degrees F for 2 hours.
At the end of 2 hours, I added some of the water that I had saved to cover the beans again. I also lowered the temperature to about 175 degrees F since I still had about 2 hours before the party started.
Before we left, I added the last of the water and placed the cooker in a big box to transport it to Judy's house for the party. As soon as we arrived, I plugged the cooker back in and lowered the temperature to the lowest setting 150 degrees F.
They were perfect when we were ready to eat. I was concerned because I didn't have a setting "Keep Warm" like on my slow cooker, but they were perfect!
I obviously went to more trouble than the recipe called for. Now that I know I ended up using all of the water I had from cooking the beans, the next time I would go on and add all of it initially and set a slow cooker on High for 4 hours or low for 6 hours. If I still had time before ready to eat, I would just move the temperature setting to Keep Warm. If I were going to bake them in the oven as the recipe directed, I'm not sure if I would have room for all of the water or not. I would say without actually doing it, cover as much as you can so that the beans don't dry out. Check on the beans while they are baking and add more water if you need to. They looked ready to eat after 2 hours in my roaster at 250 degrees F.
All I can say is I am sorry to my family that I didn't see this recipe for Home Baked Beans back then. Besides being the "real thing" they are so easy. More time consuming, but if you have the time, these are absolutely the best.
Our talented director for the handbell choir at our church, The Miracle Ringers, is moving to Atlanta. We will really miss Sara and her leadership. I have learned so much under her direction. But her husband has a permanent job in Atlanta and after being separated for over a year because of his job in D.C., it is time for them to be together. She has already found a church that has a handbell choir near the house they are buying there ... so she is all set.
Saturday night we had a farewell party for her. It was so much fun. I have so many great recipes to share with you but I have to wait for them to be sent to me. It was suggested that I bring baked beans so I went hunting for a recipe. You see, I decided I should do more than just my Stove-Top Baked Beans.
The first cookbook I picked up was my from Amish and Mennonite kitchens cookbook. I have found so many "blue ribbon" recipes in it. And not to be disappointed I found a recipe for baked beans in it. I was especially interested in trying it when I saw it called for dried navy beans. I even decided to add the onion (which I usually leave out of recipes).
Well, they were so good. Everyone raved. Even Krystle, who doesn't eat onions either, ate some. Since we were going to have some fun time in the pool before we ate and I wanted them to be warm when we ate them, I revised the recipe slightly so that I could take them in a roaster/oven pan I have. I will give you the original cooking directions also.
HOME BAKED BEANS
1 lb. dried navy beans
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 small onion (I ended up with about 2/3 cup diced onion)
2 tablespoons molasses
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup catsup
1/2 lb. bacon (I cooked about 9 slices that equaled about 3/4 cup)
Cook for 1/2 hour or until tender. (I did continue to cook mine longer while I cooked the bacon and diced the onion. I didn't need to add any more water, but do if the water boils out.)
Finely mince the onion.
At this point I had 5 hours at the earliest before we would be eating. So instead of combining everything in a 2 quart casserole and baking them for 1-1/2 to 2 hours at 325 degrees F which are the directions with the recipe,
At the end of 2 hours, I added some of the water that I had saved to cover the beans again. I also lowered the temperature to about 175 degrees F since I still had about 2 hours before the party started.
I obviously went to more trouble than the recipe called for. Now that I know I ended up using all of the water I had from cooking the beans, the next time I would go on and add all of it initially and set a slow cooker on High for 4 hours or low for 6 hours. If I still had time before ready to eat, I would just move the temperature setting to Keep Warm. If I were going to bake them in the oven as the recipe directed, I'm not sure if I would have room for all of the water or not. I would say without actually doing it, cover as much as you can so that the beans don't dry out. Check on the beans while they are baking and add more water if you need to. They looked ready to eat after 2 hours in my roaster at 250 degrees F.
No comments:
Post a Comment