Food You Can Eat: Baked Beans

First things first:  Moving into the side dishes now, and this one is excellent.  When I was a kid, I used to love those cans of pork and beans—but I never liked the “pork” part of pork and beans.  They were always these grisly, fatty, terrible cubes and I would avoid them like the plague.  Not so with this recipe and you’ll see why soon enough.

A caveat before we get started:  This recipe makes a shitload of beans, so either cut it in half, or make sure you’ve got lots of neighbors with which to share it.  Mrs. Butcher doesn’t eat beans and there was no way I was going to be able to plow through all of these on my own.

Here’s what you’ll need:

2 Lbs. Navy Beans (also known as Great Northern Beans), soaked overnight

1 Med. Onion, chopped

¼ Cup Brown Sugar

¼ Cup Molasses

½ Lb. Bacon, chopped

1 ⅓ tsp. Dry Mustard

2 ½ tsp. Salt

Mix all ingredients together, including the water used for soaking the beans, in a baking dish. 

Bake in a 275-degree oven for 6-7 hours.

I would recommend putting any baking dish you use on a baking sheet lined with parchment because the liquid is likely to boil over.

These beans are incredibly good.  They smell just like the “real” thing—if your idea of “real” is a can of processed beans with thickeners and other shit in them—but they taste so much better.  There may still be some liquid at the bottom, but this eventually gets absorbed into the beans after sitting for another day.

Serve with a grilled hamburger or sausage, preferably outdoors seated at a picnic table.