Independence Day All-American Baked Beans Recipe

"I've been making these baked beans for a long time. A friend of mine who normally hosts a 4th of July cookout, always asks that I bring these babies. It has always gone over very well due to the fact that these are scrumptious in flavor and really the best baked beans I've had. Much, much, much better than the best brand of canned baked beans. If you follow the recipe, you will surely achieve great results. Source: from one of my favorite cookbooks and cooks Julee Rosso and Sheila Lukins (The New Basics)"

Step by Step Method

Step 1

Rinse and pick through the beans. Soak them overnight in a large pot of water.

Step 2

Rinse the soaked beans well under cold water, and place them in a heavy saucepan. Cover with water and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer until tender, 45 minutes to 1 hour. Drain, reserving the cooking liquid.

Step 3

Preheat oven to 300-degrees Farenheit.

Step 4

Place a 2-quart flameproof casserole or dutch oven over medium heat and saute the bacon until it is slightly crisp and fat is rendered, 5 minutes. Add the onions and garlic, and cook until wilted, 5 to 10 minutes (Refer to NOTE II, below).

Step 5

Add the brown sugar and stir over medium-low heat until it has dissolved, about 5 minutes. Stir in the ketchup, syrup, molasses, Worcestershire, salt, and pepper. Add the drained beans and mix well.

Step 6

Cover the casserole and transfer it to the oven. Bake, stirring occasionally (making sure you scrape the bottom of the casserole), for 2 1/2 hours.

Step 7

Add 3/4 cup of the reserved bean liquid, recover, and bake 30 minutes. Then remove the cover and bake until the sauce is thick and syrupy, another 10 - 15 minutes, stirring once. Serve hot.

Step 8

*NOTE I: I sometimes cut down on the sugar depending on the level of sweetness that you or your guests like.

Step 9

Normally, I make these ahead (up to 2 - 3 days ahead, keeping them refrigerated) and then warm them up in a crock-pot where it is directly served out of the crockpot.*

NOTE II: I normally use more onion (2-3 large onions). I cook it down until it's golden and caramelized concentrating the flavor, but cooking it for less is perfectly fine too. If I cook it longer, I add the garlic towards the end of of cooking time (10-15 minutes), so as to not have the garlic burn and turn bitter.

Tips

2 quart casserole dish (I use a pyrex)
If you want to warm it up, have a crockpot ready (optional)

You'll Also Love

LifeIsGood

This is definitely 5 stars for flavor! Wow, there is just nothing like the developed flavors melding together after a long, slow cooking method. The only slight changes I made (and both were listed as options) were to add an extra onion and to use less sugar (I used 2 onions and 1 1/4 C. dark brown sugar). The flavor was amazing! I think where I went wrong was with the initial cooking of the dry beans because my beans were still not super tender, even after the long cooking times. I'll just make a note to cook the heck out of them before adding in all the other goodness. I will also make a note to do these a day or two ahead like you noted. Thank you for sharing these yummy beans!

Marramamba

Best baked beans ever. My only change was to make them in the instant pot

Edna Eats

Beans always fly high with my family so I made these for our backyard celebration for the 4th of July. The little ones loved them as well as the adults. So good with our burgers, ribs and chicken!

pelysma

The cooking time was right on for us. These beans tasted delicious with flavors of sweet, bacony, rich, but no flavor overwhelmed.

ConnieCaters

These baked beans are so delicious! I will be using them at my catering functions. Flavor couldn't be better!!

QueenBea

These beans turned out very tasty, they were served up with roasted chicken pieces which made for a yummy meal. The beans did take a couple of more hours to soften for a total cook time of about 5 hours.