Baked beans with pork and molasses
- 1 cup dried large white beans (tarbais, flageolet, Great Northern, navy, yellow-eyes)
- 2 pieces whole very smoky, thick-cut bacon, chopped finely
- 1 medium white onion, chopped (I recommend Walla Walla sweet)
- 1/4 cup molasses
- 1 tablespoon cider vinegar
- 1 tablespoon whole grain mustard
- 2 tablespoons ketchup
- 1 teaspoon salt
Soak beans for several hours or overnight in water to cover. Preheat the oven to 325. Brown chopped bacon and onion until onion is golden brown; drain excess fat and place in dutch oven or other oven-safe casserole. Drain beans, and add to dutch oven and cover. Add rest of ingredients to pot, then add enough water to cover the beans by about two inches.
Place in oven and cook until beans are tender, about 3 hours, depending on how old the beans are. This year’s crop will take significantly less time.
When the beans are tender but not falling apart, raise heat to 350 and remove cover. The increased heat will boil away excess liquid to a syrup. Watch the beans at this point so they don’t burn in the process. Let cook for 30 minutes, then check in 15-minute intervals until the beans are a consistency you like.
Chef notes:
- For my first attempt, I used Corona beans, which are very large. I enjoyed the result, but they have a lot of surface skin because of their size, and some folks might not like the resulting texture.
- For my second attempt, I used navy beans and doubled the amount of bacon and onion in the original recipe. Much better! This batch only needed 3 hours of cooking, probably because I didn't put in as much water; I never had to take the lid off since all of the liquid was absorbed. One person commented that he found the beans a bit underdone, but others disagreed. Personally, I like my beans to have a touch of resistance in them. Beats mushiness!