Homemade Baked Beans from Scratch

Saucy, saucy beans!

If you’ve ever been to a great BBQ joint, you’ll know how awesome homemade baked beans are.  They’re tender, sweet and spicy in a way that syrupy mushy canned baked beans could only dream to be. 

The best part is, these will only set you back a few cents for the dried beans and you can likely cobble the seasonings together out of things you already have in your spice rack and in the condiment shelf in your fridge.

Ingredients

1 cup dried white beans

2 cups water

½ onion diced

½ cup ketchup

3 Tbs molasses (or black treacle syrup)

2 Tbs honey

2 Tbs mustard

2 Tbs Sriracha hot sauce

1 Tbs Worchestershire sauce

½ tsp salt

½ tsp pepper

1 tsp bacon fat (optional)

Some of the key players 

These do require a little pre-planning.  Soak your beans in water the night before so they can hydrate.  I prefer dried beans here because they hold up better to the long baking process and they’re practically free ($1.54 for a half pound bag).

Add at least double the volume of water to dried beans

In the morning when your beans are plumped up, you’re ready to go. 

Dice half of an onion and add it to a baking dish with the beans.

Chopped 

Add the molasses or in my case British black treacle (a darker and more licorice-flavored syrup) to the dish along with the honey, spicy mustard, Worcestershire sauce, ketchup, salt and pepper.

I'm a sucker for good packaging

Treacle your beans

Like a stress ball but edible

If you’re going vegetarian with the recipe, you’re all set now, but to add some smokiness, I slipped in a teaspoon of bacon fat that I keep reserved in the freezer for just such an occasion.

Stir the beans to mix, and add water to top (about 2 cups), then stir again.

Dressed up uncooked beans

Adding water to top

Cover the pan with foil and let it bubble in a 325 degree oven for 4-5 hours or until the beans are very tender.  Give them an occasional stir to check that they aren’t sticking.  If the beans are still undercooked and are drying out, additional water can be added to the dish.

They may look dry on the top, but give 'em a stir and you'll see that they're pretty saucy 

Serve at your next picnic or with a tasty hot dog.  Leftover beans freeze and reheat well so make a bunch!