Brahman Boston Baked Beans
Ingredients
- 1 cup Dry Navy Beans
- 1 Tbsp Unsalted Butter
- 1 cup Diced Sweet Onion
- 1 Tbsp Chopped fresh garlic
- 2 each Bay leaves
- 1 each cinnamon stick
- 1 tsp Ground allspice
- 1 cup chopped fresh bacon (for vegetarian version use bacon substitute)
- 1/2 cup molasses
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1 tsp Dijon mustard
- 1/4 cup ketchup
- 1/4 cup brandy
- Water to cover
- Salt and Pepper to taste
Instructions
- Soak the beans in water overnight. They should at least double in volume
- In a heavy gauge pot, render the bacon until the fat is liquid and bacon is browned. Add in butter. Melt that and stir in the onion, garlic, bay leaves, and cinnamon stick, Stir and cook until translucent.
- Drain the beans. Add into the pot and stir. Add in the brandy and cook down to cook off the alcohol.
- Add in the rest of the ingredients (except salt and pepper) and cover beans in water. The water should be 1 to 2 inches above the level of beans. Bring to a boil. Then turn back to a low simmer. Cover the pot.
- Allow the beans to simmer at a low temperature for about 2 hours, stirring occasionally. Check them periodically to make sure the water hasn't evaporated or that the beans are still to hard.
- After about 2 hours, the beans should be soft enough to eat, but not falling apart. The liquid should be a coating, less than a soup, but more than a glaze. Remove the bay leaves and cinnamon stcks. Season with salt and pepper and serve. You can hold this for up to a week in refrigeration or longer in the freezer.
Notes
You can make these vegan by substituting or omitting the bacon and butter.
Make sure the beans are well soaked and plumped before cooking. If they aren't pre-soaked, they will remain hard even after a couple hours of cooking.
You can do this recipe in a slow cooker as well. You still need to render the bacon and cook the onions, etc first. But, you can set it and forget it following instructions on the slow cooker. You could make them in the morning and have them that afternoon or evening.
baked beans have a relatively long life and can be frozen if you aren't going to get to them in a timely fashion.