Southern Baked Beans
Baked Beans is a dish that deserves a your kitchen time to perfect. I have made great effort to test recipes and decide on what formulary will carry my name. I have about 4 great recipes that make me smile. Only one really came from my kitchen but all 4 deserve your eyes and your opinion. I have tasted many versions of passable baked bean dishes and a few that made me invest hours of chat time, begging for a recipe from the cook… needless to say, baked beans are easy to make and though they are a high calorie comfort food, this dish is delicious and can make you stand out at a food event. My Dad has a very fine recipe that I love to make over and over. Let’s get my Dad to share his recipe for Southern Baked Beans (even though he is a Northerner).
3 cans navy beans (drained 16 oz cans)
1 tsp canola oil
6 strips bacon, diced
2 tsp garlic, minced
1 large sweet onion, diced
1 green pepper, diced
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1/3 cup unsulphured molasses
1/4 cup distilled vinegar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup ketchup
2 tsp dijon mustard
Place the drained navy beans into medium stockpot (I use a cast iron dutch oven)
In a 14″ saute pan, over a med heat, add canola oil and diced bacon.
Allow bacon to begin to crisp then add, onion, green pepper and garlic.
Cook until bacon is crisp and onion is starting to turn golden on color.
Transfer the bacon mix to the navy bean stock pot.
Add Worcestershire sauce, molasses, brown sugar, ketchup, and dijon mustard.
Combine well by gently stirring the beans and the sauce mixture
Place covered stockpot (cast iron dutch oven in my case) in 325F preheated oven
Bake 1 hour 20min at 325F
Remove from oven and allow to rest about 5 minutes before serving.
Thanks Dad…. your recipe is about as good as it gets…