Old Fashioned Baked Beans with Bacon
This flavorful comfort food can be served either breakfast, lunch or dinner and also freeze for later.
Ingredients
- 3 cups navy beans
- 1 tsp. ground Himalayan pink salt
- 3/4 cup molasses, preferably blackstrap, divided tips & tricks
- 3 tbsp. brown sugar, such as demerara
- 1 tbsp. prepared yellow mustard
- 1/4 tsp. dry mustard
- 1/8 tsp. baking soda
- freshly ground black pepper, to taste (I always use mixed peppercorns)
- 6 slices bacon
- 1 large red onion, halved and cut into 8 pieces
Directions
- Place the beans in a large bowl and cover with cold water, 2 inches above. Leave it out on the counter overnight.
- Twelve hours later, drain the beans and transfer them to a large pot. Cover with cold water, add sea salt and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium and simmer for 40 minutes or until tender.
- Drain the beans and reserve the cooking liquid.
- Transfer the drained beans back to the large pot and set aside.
- Meanwhile when the beans are simmering, in a mixing bowl combine 1/2 cup molasses, brown sugar, prepared mustard, dry mustard, baking soda and black pepper; stir and set aside.
- Take 1 slice of bacon and rub the sides of the inside of the bean pot. Cut bacon slices into pieces; set aside.
- Place 4 onion pieces at the bottom of the pot and set aside.
- Preheat oven to 325ºF
- Pour the sauce over the beans and mix to coat. Add bacon pieces, stir and pour half of the bean mixture into the bean pot over the 4 onion pieces. Add the remaining onion pieces and pour in the remaining sauce. Season with more black pepper and add the remaining ¼ cup of molasses; stir just the top to spread the molasses evenly.
- Pour in enough of the reserved liquid to cover the bean mixture.
- Cover with the lid and transfer to the preheated oven; cook for 6 hours.
- Every hour, check to see if it needs more liquid. If so, add more of the reserved liquid.
- The last hour, pour in enough liquid to cover and continue cooking without the lid to darken the beans.