Old Fashioned Baked Beans
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Thick, smoky, sweet, and savory, this Old Fashioned Baked Beans recipe is one you’ll come back to again and again! Serve these oven baked beans at your next BBQ, picnic, potluck or family dinner and watch your guests lick their plates clean and ask for more! The best baked beans – made from scratch!
Baked beans are an American staple. The combination of sweet, savory and smoky flavors makes them irresistibly delicious. Making your own homemade baked beans from scratch is easier to make than you may think, you just need to set aside enough cooking time. They need time to cook low and slow to allow the beans to soak up all those amazing flavors. The perfect make-ahead dish, these baked beans are even better the next day after the flavors have had more time to develop!
What to Serve With Baked Beans
Baked beans is a versatile dish that can be served with any number of mains and sides. Here are some popular options:
- Grilled Meats and Barbecue Ribs
- Burgers, Sliders, or Hot Dogs (e.g. Banzai Burger, Greek Burger)
- Grilled Vegetables (e.g. Grilled Eggplant)
- Fried Chicken
- Skillet Cornbread
- Creamy Coleslaw
- Freezer Slaw
- Macaroni Salad
- Macaroni and Cheese
- Potato Salad
- Broccoli Salad, Pea Salad, Four Bean Salad, or a tossed salad
- Bread Rolls or Buttermilk Biscuits
Can I Make Baked Beans in a Slow Cooker?
Yes. While the traditional method cooking “baked” beans is to bake them in the oven, which is the method we present here, you can also make them in a crock pot. The sauce may be thinner at the end of the cooking time in which case remove the lid towards the end of the cooking to allow some of the liquid to evaporate.
SLOW COOKER METHOD: Follow steps 1 and 2 in the recipe and then pour everything into the slow cooker. Cook on LOW for 6-7 hours or on HIGH for 3-4 hours or until the beans are tender. Open the lid for the last 30 minutes or longer until the sauce has thickened. If the beans are too thick at any point and too much liquid has evaporated, stir in a little extra water.
Why Are My Beans Still Hard After Hours of Cooking?
You’re not alone, this is a not an uncommon problem. From Fine Cooking: “Some beans refuse to soften. You can soak them overnight and then simmer them all day long, and they’re still hard as pebbles. The main causes of this are age and improper storage.”
As dried beans age the pores in the beans that allow water to enter close up which will prevent the beans from softening no matter how long they are cooked.
Be sure to follow the instructions to soak the beans overnight and then boil them for an hour. For especially hard beans one classic trick you can try is to add 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda to the beans while you’re boiling them (1/4 teaspoon for every pound of beans). Be careful though: If too much is added or if it’s added to beans that aren’t too hard, you could end up with mushy beans.
Baked Beans Recipe
Let’s get started!
Soak the beans overnight in a pot of water. Make sure the beans are covered by at least a couple of inches of water. Drain the beans and put them in a pot of water. Bring to a boil and simmer for 1 hour. Drain and reserved the bean liquid.
In a large pot or Dutch oven fry the bacon until crispy then add the onions and cook until soft and translucent, 5-7 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for another minute.
Stir in the tomato sauce, molasses, brown sugar, apple cider vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, smoked paprika, salt, pepper and bay leaf.
Add 1 1/2 cups of the reserved bean water and the beans.
Bring everything to a simmer for a minute or two to heat it up.
In the meantime preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.
Transfer the Dutch oven with the lid on to the middle rack of the oven. Bake for 2 to 3 hours or until the beans are tender and the sauce has thickened, removing the lid during the last 20-30 minutes to help the sauce thicken.
NOTE: If at any point during the cooking process too much liquid evaporates and the beans get dry, add a little more of the reserved bean water. The beans themselves can vary from batch to batch and you may end up either needing to add more liquid if the beans are too dry or you may need to bake the beans longer with the lid off if there is too much liquid. Adjust as needed.
Add more salt the pepper to taste.
Serve immediately or let cool completely and refrigerate until ready to serve. Can be reheated on the stovetop or in the microwave.
Enjoy!
For more favorite sides to complement your BBQ try my:
- Skillet Cornbread
- Creamy Coleslaw
- Freezer Slaw
- Macaroni Salad
- Potato Salad
- Broccoli Salad
- Black Eyed Pea Salad
- Pepperoni Pizza Pasta Salad
- Chicken Salad
- Pea Salad
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Old Fashioned Baked Beans
Equipment
- Dutch oven I love this one from Lodge!
Ingredients
- 1 pound dried navy beans
- 8 ounces thick cut bacon , diced
- 1 medium yellow onion , finely chopped
- 2 cloves garlic , minced
- 1/2 cup plain tomato sauce or ketchup
- 1/4 cup molasses
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- 1 tablespoon prepared yellow mustard
- 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1 bay leaf
Instructions
- Place the dried beans in a pot of water covered by a few inches of water and let soak overnight. Drain the beans, place them back in the pot with fresh water and bring to a boil. Simmer for one hour, then drain, reserving the liquid. See NOTE.
- In a Dutch oven or other oven-proof pot fry the bacon until crispy then add the onions and cook until soft and translucent, 5-7 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for another minute.Stir in the tomato sauce, molasses, brown sugar, apple cider vinegar, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, smoked paprika, salt, pepper and bay leaf.Add 1 1/2 cups of the reserved bean water and the beans.Bring everything to a simmer for a minute or two to heat it up. In the meantime preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.
- Transfer the Dutch oven with the lid on to the middle rack of the oven. Bake for 2 to 3 hours or until the beans are tender and the sauce has thickened, removing the lid during the last 20-30 minutes to help the sauce thicken. NOTE: If at any point during the cooking process too much liquid evaporates and the beans get dry, add a little more of the reserved bean water. The beans themselves can vary from batch to batch and you may end up either needing to add more liquid if the beans are too dry or you may need to bake the beans longer with the lid off if there is too much liquid. Adjust as needed.Add more salt the pepper to taste.Serve immediately or let cool completely and refrigerate until ready to serve. Can be reheated on the stovetop or in the microwave.
- SLOW COOKER METHOD: Follow steps 1 and 2 and then pour everything into the slow cooker. Cook on LOW for 6-7 hours or on HIGH for 3-4 hours or until the beans are tender. Open the lid for the last 30 minutes or longer until the sauce has thickened. If the beans are too thick at any point and too much liquid has evaporated, stir in a little extra water.
Notes
Nutrition
Originally published on The Daring Gourmet August 30,2020
Hi, I’m Kimberly Killebrew and welcome to Daring Gourmet where you'll find delicious originals, revitalized classics, and simply downright good eats from around the world! Originally from Germany, later raised in England, world-traveled, and now living in the U.S., from my globally-influenced kitchen I invite you to tour the world through your taste buds!
We tried this recipe today and did the 2X version. One thing I’d point out is that the recipe doubles up all the ingredients but the line about adding a cup and a half of water from the beans post boiling doesn’t get doubled up when choosing the 2X option. I’m a newbie so I didn’t realize this until the beans had bean going for a while and were quite dry.
Otherwise, they turned out great for us! Thanks 🙏
This says 6 servings. Is that as a main dish or even using as a side with lots of other food. I’m trying to figure out how much to make as a dish to pass for a party of 45 people.
Hi Ann, that’s 6 servings as a side dish.
8×6 is 48 so 8 lbs. of beans
Made this recipe today…absolutely perfect! I didn’t change anything. This is totally going onto the menu for Cabane a Sucre in March.
Fantastic, Kelly, thanks so much!
Made this recipe today and it turned out great, even with two-and-a-half-year-old navy beans. Thanks for the tip about reserving the bean water; even with the lid on, enough liquid boiled off that more needed to be added. Depending on how well done the beans are in the first step, it may be a good idea to check the baking beans at one-and-a-half hours.
Thanks so much for the feedback, Mike, I’m happy you enjoyed them!
These have become a staple for our Easter dinner with ham and scalloped potatoes! I am just wondering if these can be portioned and frozen once cooled? We are expecting baby #2 in December, and I would love to have these pre-made for easy reheating!
Fantastic, Erika, thank you! And yes, these can absolutely be frozen. Congratulations on Baby #2!! :)
I haven’t tried this recipe yet but it sure looks like it would be delicious. So here’s a Question I have. I’m taking The somewhere where there are some vegetarian people. Has anyone tried these without the bacon? I could add liquid smoke flavoring to give a little bit of that taste. What do you think about doing it like that?
Hi Jan, yes, adding some liquid smoke is a great idea and substitute for the bacon. Happy cooking!
I just finished prepping and put everything in the oven. Even though they still have to bake a while, I can already tell they will be great! One point I’d add, is for anyone wanting to reduce sugar, it’s just a simple matter of cutting down to your own taste. Often, I only use molasses, no additional sugar. With this recipe, I used about what was indicated, however, next time I will reduce it some.
Also, I added a blend of normal yellow mustard and whole-corn mustard, since I like the Irish types of mustard. Added about double what the recipe called for, for a little more kick. (No cayenne because of young children. Don’t want it to be too spicy for them.) And I used more smoked paprika as well as smoked salt instead of regular salt.
For people having trouble with hard beans, seriously, if you follow the tips, this shouldn’t happen. I’ve been cooking dried beans for twenty years. Never had a problem. Presoak over night is the key. Then cook the beans until tender. For some beans, an hour is enough, for others, you need to cook longer. So, test them after about 45 mins to an hour and then adjust the cook time accordingly. I used a mix of white and pinto beans, as that’s all I had here. But the results are great!
Really good recipe, and I’ve been baking beans for years.
My question, how to get “syrupiness” in the sauce I don’t want bean soup, nor a thick sludgy sauce. Iif you toell me to just pay attention to it, that’s OK.
Thank you, Miles, I’m happy you enjoyed them! The addition of the reserved bean water (as opposed to regular water) along with the molasses and brown sugar help give these a good consistency. They definitely shouldn’t be soupy but if you find they’re a little thicker than you like you can some additional water at the end.