Boston Baked Beans - A good olde fashioned New England recipe

New England style - Boston Baked Bean Recipe

There are so many recipe variations of baked beans, but this is a variation of an old New England recipe, known as Boston Baked Beans, which was created here in the Massachusetts Bay Colony due to a key ingredient that makes this recipe “A New England Thing”.

There is a lot of history behind baked beans in our region, including a war between Beverly, MA and Boston, MA fighting over who was actually the first official “Bean Town”, but in a nut shell, this recipe is a true New England recipe. When the Puritans arrived in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, it’s documented that they, the English, brought with them their bean and bacon pottage recipe, which was adapted over the years.

When Boston became an exporter of Rum in the 18th century, which is produced by the distillation of fermented molasses, molasses was added to the local baked bean recipes, creating a distinctive style of baked beans unique to New England.

Keep in mind there are slight variations of this recipe in recipe boxes in kitchens all over New England, including ours; below is our tried and true family New England baked bean recipe.

I’m sorry Fanny Farmer fans, but I do believe this recipe is much better than the one published in her book.

Pre-heat oven to 300 or 325, depending on your oven (I use 325 degrees)

1 Pound Navy Beans

1 tsp. Salt (My mom’s recipe calls for a tablespoon - your choice)

1/2 cup Molasses

1/2 cup Brown Sugar

1 tsp Dried Mustard

1 Pound Salt Pork (I use about 6 - 8 slices of cut bacon)

1 Onion - peeled

Directions

Wash the beans while looking for any grit or broken beans

Cover with cold water and let sit overnight - Most of the water will be soaked up

Drain and add beans back to a pot, then add 6 cups or enough water to cover the beans. Bring to a boil then simmer until the skins lift when you blow on them. My mother’s recipe mentions about a 1/2 hour, mine take more like an hour for this to happen. (make sure the water is covering the beans the whole time)

Drain, but SAVE the water.

While putting the beans in a bean pot (or your oven safe vessel of choice) also place your salt pork or bacon. Some place it on top, some on bottom… I like to add it in layers

Mix the salt, molasses, brown sugar, and dried mustard into the hot reserved bean water then pour over the beans in the pot, making sure they are covered with water. Keep checking to make sure the beans are not drying out during their cooking time. Add a touch of water if necessary

Place on top the onion. We cut it flower style, but cutting it in cubes, or slices will work fine too. Once it is baked, they will all look the same and break-up into the beans.

Cook for 6 to 8 hours (mine took 6 1/2) - on the last half hour take the cover off ( I forgot to take the lid off this last time and all was good!)

Once the crock full of baked beans is taken out of the oven, keep in mind, as the Boston baked beans sit and cool, the sauce will thicken.

Tips:

if you don’t have your own crock pot and want to purchase an old one, word of advice.

Find one with a cover knob that can be grabbed by an oven mitt. I learned this bit of advice after struggling with taking the top off of my newest purchase.

Make sure there are no cracks or chips in the pottery

This recipe is not overly sweet, at all, but if you would like to lessen the sweetness even more, I would lessen the brown sugar since the dark molasses is the key ingredient to making them a New England recipe. Some may choose to add a bit more sweetness. It’s up to you!