The other day, I acquired a new slow cooker and deep fryer. I was so excited because now, I could make my husband deep fried bacon and not worry about making a mess of my good pans. But before I even deep fried him up some bacon, I was reading the directions and came across a recipe for Boston Baked Beans. I thought this was great since I am trying to start making my own foods from scratch. My daughter and I have food allergies and other illnesses so I thought to start making food from scratch would mean I could control what was going into our diet.
So I was really excited to try to make some Boston Baked Beans. Now, I thought the recipe was going to be easy, but I can tell you, after nine hours of trying to get my beans to soften, I am wondering if this was a smart idea. I have used Great Northern Beans, which are white. I read that they didn't need to be soaked. Don't listen to the recipe. SOAK the beans.
Ok, so after reading the recipe, I gathered all my ingredients and started to work. I followed the directions to a tee, but didn't use bacon or onions in the beginning. (I still haven't added the bacon, but with a few minor alterations on my part, I don't think it really needs any bacon.) Of course, when it comes to cooking, I can be a bit...impatient. I like to see results fast. If you are like this, a word of caution. Patience is a virtue.
Instead of bringing my beans to a boil and reducing the heat, I left them to boil for an hour, and didn't check them often. BIG mistake. I came back into the kitchen to find the pot boiled over! There was a mess everywhere and my husband had to help me clean up everything.
After six hours of slow cooking these beans, I had my husband test them. STILL crunchy! I scratched my head and wondered what happened to my beans that should have been ready to eat. So, feeling frustrated, I decided to add more water and switch them to cook on the stove. Now that worked a little. After boiling them for another three hours on the stove and adding five more cups of water, the beans had started to soften a bit and finally started to take on the color of the sauce, a nice deep brown color from the molasses.
It is now 10:30 pm. My beans have been cooking since 1:30 this afternoon and they still need to cook more as they are hard. So I put them back into the slow cooker and am planning on letting them go overnight and see what happens when I wake up.
Meanwhile, I decided to try my patience again, by soaking another bag of Great Northern beans. After soaking them for three hours, I transfered them to a pot on the stove with all the ingredients to allow them to soak overnight. Then I will boil them tomorrow and see what happens. Will post tomorrow how my beans came out and if I can figure out any other ways to make this recipe without wasting 10 hours and longer to make them.
Boston Baked Beans
1 lbs uncooked beans ( I used Great Northern Beans, read above. Follow the directions on the package)
1 cup of chopped onions
1/4 cup molasses
1/4 cup brown sugar (If you don't have brown sugar, use white and add another 1/8 cup molasses. This is what I did)
1/4 teaspoon dried mustard
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 tablespoon salt
6 cups water
1/4 pound chopped bacon
Combine everything into a slow cooker and cook for 6-9 hours on low heat. Stir occasionally.
That was the recipe that came with my slow cooker. I tried this exact recipe, minus the bacon, the first time I made these beans today. The second time, I decided to see what it would be like if I just used barbecue sauce that I had in the pantry. I used Sweet Baby Ray's Sweet and Spicy. I added 1 cup of the barbecue sauce with 3 cups of water, 1 cup of onions, and the beans. I am letting the beans soak overnight in the base of the sauce to see what happens before I try boiling them tomorrow. Let's hope they plump up and cook better the second time around. Will keep you posted on what happened. Even though I had trouble, I hope I didn't discourage you to try your hand, because I can tell you, there is NOTHING better than making your own beans. There really isn't. And your family will rave about them when you bring them to a picnic.
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