I am a snob when it comes to baked beans

[MissMillie]

I live about an hour outside of Boston.

Baked beans do not come from a can. They come from your oven. The benefits of making your own are numerous: very inexpensive, they make your house smell amazing while they are baking, and homemade is always better than canned. And yes, cooking the beans in cool weather means the oven will help warm up your house.

If you're making a BBQ baked beans, then ketchup is okay (but don't serve them to me). Other than that, there should never be any kind of tomato product in the ingredient list of baked beans. Beans, salt pork, onion, brown sugar, molasses, ground mustard, clove & ginger (literally just a pinch of each), salt & pepper, and water. That's it!

[pangaia]

1. I'm with you.

EVERYTHING is better when you make it yourself.

[MissMillie]

7. I don't make my own pasta

but I make my own homemade soups, my own pasta sauces, my own stuffing, my own gravy,... (I'm sure there's more).

[A HERETIC I AM]

21. Making pasta is arguably easier than making baked beans!

If you don’t care whether or not your noodles are uniform, you don’t even need a pasta maker machine. Just a rolling pin

[enough]

2. Sounds delicious. What are the best beans to use? NT

[MissMillie]

9. Navy beans

but great northern beans work okay too, the just have to cook a little longer.

[Sneederbunk]

3. Slow cooker is only way to go.

[MissMillie]

8. disagree

I like being able to keep the lid off just in case the beans have too much liquid.

Besides, it takes less time in the oven (you can eat sooner!).

[jpak]

4. I'm a bigger bean snob from Maine

No ginger or cloves (yuk!)

Just 4 heaping teaspoons of ground mustard.

[MissMillie]

6. seriously... when I say "pinch"

it's really a pinch between finger and thumb. It adds a certain somethin'-somethin'

[jpak]

20. I was just kidding

I'll try that sometime.

[Siwsan]

5. My Mom made amazing home made baked beans

I think you would have approved of her recipe because I definitely don't ever remember her adding ketchup.

[Submariner]

10. From the city

I grew up eating Friends beans, and still get them at the local supermarket. B&M beans in a pinch if they are out of Friends, and I think it's offensive to see non-local Bush beans on Boston area store shelves.

I never entertained the thought of cooking them myself. I'm probably too lazy to do it and don't feel I could do it as good as Friends and B&M, who have been doing a good job cooking in the old fashioned brick oven kettles. Power to you though.

[left-of-center2012]

38. Good that you can buy it locally

60¢ tax and $5.99 shipping on one can?

[OriginalGeek]

11. it never occurred to me

that there was no ketchup product in baked beans. I thought they at least had some kind of BBQ sauce in there.


But then, my go-to bean for regular eatin' is Bush's. On very special occasions (My Birthday) I use Van Camp's Pork and Beans but that's for a specific application where only those work. In that instance, if I were to make my own, I'd re-fry pinto beans. Or use Old El Paso - which I might doctor up with bacon grease but I wouldn't have the audacity to claim that makes me a cook lol.

[MissMillie]

15. I don't care much for BBQ sauce

When I do use it I use a mustard-based one. But even that doesn't go in my beans.

I think it's quite common for baked beans in the south to be BBQ baked beans. (I guess I'm assuming you're from the south.) I see it on many of the cooking shows. But when I see someone demonstrate a recipe for Boston Baked Beans and see them add any tomato product, it makes me very angry.

[OriginalGeek]

18. yep, born in Florida and

never lived north of the Mason Dixon line (although pretty close when we lived in Maryland)

That's probably exactly how I feel when I go to a BBQ place here in the southeast that claims to have BBQ brisket and I get thin slices of some tough piece of crap. These folks know what to do with a pig but they can screw up a brisket without even trying.

[Cirque du So-What]

12. Doesn't sound snobbish to me

Homemade baked beans are far FAR superior to anything that comes from a can. My tastes are quite specific regarding the sweetness level, however: I don't want 'candied beans.'

[MissMillie]

13. I think molasses and brown sugar are very sweet

I use about 1/4 cup brown sugar and even less molasses.

I have a cousin who would use so much molasses that her beans were nearly black. She also would cook them until they were mush. I like just a little bite left to my beans.

[Cirque du So-What]

14. Definitely a case

where 'less is more.'

[GeorgeGist]

16. I prefer more variety ...

... yours sound good.

[shraby]

17. My mother used worchester sauce, brown sugar and a bit of butter.

She always made baked beans from leftover bean soup, added the Worchester sauce, brown sugar and butter to it and simmered for a while.
Delicious!
I do the same thing when there's leftover bean soup.

[MissMillie]

19. I've seen worcestershire in some recipes

I just worry about the salt content, especially when using salt pork or bacon.

I usually just freeze leftover soup. I love to have a freezer full of things in case I get sick and don't want to cook. (Once I got pneumonia and spend a week emptying out my freezer. When I was better, I had no room in my cabinets for all the empty freezer containers! lol)

[Laffy Kat]

22. Well, I'm from the south and I say they come out of a can.

First you open and few cans of Bush'es Baked Beans and dump the contents in a casserole. Then you add your own chopped onion and ketchup. Next (and this is the most important part) you layer a few bacon slices on top. Lastly, you throw that casserole into a low-temp oven and slowly cook the hell out of it. Then, you pull it out of the oven and tell everyone you made them from scratch, having started last night.

[Floyd R. Turbo]

24. Pretty much what I do except I mix in some mustard and on occasion top it with cheddar cheese

or cornbread, or both! 😋

[Laffy Kat]

25. Cornbread, yummy! nt

[Floyd R. Turbo]

27. It is! 😋

[raven mad]

36. Yep!

My Alabama-born daughter calls them "Mama's Bacon Beans".

[Laffy Kat]

37. I learned by watching my mom.

Special family recipe.

[seaglass]

39. Yep, I'm from MA and my mom used B&M baked beans, added the contents you listed (though

I'm not sure about the ketchup) and also added cheddar cheese. Sooooo good!

[zanana1]

42. That's called "Beans a la can". nt

[fleur-de-lisa]

23. Me too. I HATE ALL BAKED BEANS!

[SummerSnow]

26. This is the truth.

[Ohiogal]

28. Ketchup in baked beans??? BLECH!

[JDC]

29. To be enjoyed at breakfast or no?

I agree with your position. Breakfast out in New England always throws me with the beans option though. I have limitations.

[NotASurfer]

30. Never been to the UK but

I understand it's part of a fine British breakfast, on toast

[JDC]

33. Along with kippers.

Nothing like small, pickled in oil, whole head to tail herring to kick off your fine English day.

[annabanana]

31. cold bean sandwich, Sunday morning... . . .n/t

[JDC]

32. Puke

[CentralMass]

35. Those were popular with my friends of French Canadian decent in MA aa a kid.

[zanana1]

41. I'm of French Canadian descent...

I make baked beans at Christmas every year. (You can't forget to soak the beans overnight).

[CentralMass]

43. +1

[Laffy Kat]

40. Oh my.

[CentralMass]

34. The origin of the name Bean Town

http://www.celebrateboston.com/culture/bean-town-origin.htm