A Tasty Baked Bean Recipe
This is my adaptation of a recipe I cut from some (unknown) magazine in about 1994. This isn't "low fat," but I've sort of trimmed around the edges to adjust things a bit.
2 pounds of Great Northern beans- I often use the already softened beans from a jar (drained and well rinsed), but you could most certainly use dried beans, with the soaking and then the cooking process needed to soften them
3/4 stick of butter, with two tablespoons of olive oil
2 large onions, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, chopped or minced
1 (28 ounce) can diced tomatoes/with juice
1 cup thick ketchup
2/3 to 3/4 cup of dark brown sugar (depending upon the tartness of the tomatoes and desired sweetness)
two tablespoons of unsulphured molasses (I use black strap)
1 tablespoon of seasoned salt
bacon strips
a little water (or tomato juice), if beans begin to get too dry
Melt the butter with the oil in a pan large enough to hold the chopped onion and garlic. Cook until the onion is softened. In a casserole or oven safe pan, mix the beans and all other ingredients together, except the bacon. Smooth the mixture over and place as many bacon strips as you want across the top. If you want to cut down on the fat, you can partially cook the bacon separately and then drain off the rendered fat, or you can cook up some bacon until desired crispness, drain the fat, and add it to the already cooked bean dish.
Bake the beans at 325 (F) degrees for about an hour and a half, longer if they are still too moist. On the other hand, if the beans get too dry while baking, add a little water along the sides, if you are baking the bacon on top. If you are not using the bacon, you can add a little water and even stir it in if you'd like. The finished beans should be bathed in a nice thick sauce, and it's best to let them cool a bit to thicken more.
In this photo, I served the baked beans over mashed potatoes made from small red and white potatoes, along with a salad of fresh curly kale and fresh lacinato kale, sometimes called "black kale," which is really dark green (w/French dressing).
WORD HISTORY:
Bean-The ultimate origin of this word is uncertain, but it goes back to Old Germanic "bauno," which meant "bean." This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "bean" (but likely then pronounced like "be-an," in two distinct syllables). This then became "bene" (likely pronounced "be-nah" or "be-neh"), before the modern version, which dropped pronunciation of the ending "e." Its many relatives in the other Germanic languages are: German "Bohne," ^ Low German Saxon "Bohn," West Frisian "bean," Dutch "boon," Icelandic "baun," Danish and Norwegian "bønne," ^^ Swedish "böna," and Norwegian "baune."
^ Note the pronunciation in standard German is like "bone-ah/bone-eh," where the final "e" is still pronounced like its English cousin of a few hundred years ago.
^^ The modern Norwegian form seems to be a borrowing from Danish, but "baune" is present in Norwegian dialect and seems to be the surviving form of the actual Norwegian word.
2 pounds of Great Northern beans- I often use the already softened beans from a jar (drained and well rinsed), but you could most certainly use dried beans, with the soaking and then the cooking process needed to soften them
3/4 stick of butter, with two tablespoons of olive oil
2 large onions, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, chopped or minced
1 (28 ounce) can diced tomatoes/with juice
1 cup thick ketchup
2/3 to 3/4 cup of dark brown sugar (depending upon the tartness of the tomatoes and desired sweetness)
two tablespoons of unsulphured molasses (I use black strap)
1 tablespoon of seasoned salt
bacon strips
a little water (or tomato juice), if beans begin to get too dry
Melt the butter with the oil in a pan large enough to hold the chopped onion and garlic. Cook until the onion is softened. In a casserole or oven safe pan, mix the beans and all other ingredients together, except the bacon. Smooth the mixture over and place as many bacon strips as you want across the top. If you want to cut down on the fat, you can partially cook the bacon separately and then drain off the rendered fat, or you can cook up some bacon until desired crispness, drain the fat, and add it to the already cooked bean dish.
Bake the beans at 325 (F) degrees for about an hour and a half, longer if they are still too moist. On the other hand, if the beans get too dry while baking, add a little water along the sides, if you are baking the bacon on top. If you are not using the bacon, you can add a little water and even stir it in if you'd like. The finished beans should be bathed in a nice thick sauce, and it's best to let them cool a bit to thicken more.
In this photo, I served the baked beans over mashed potatoes made from small red and white potatoes, along with a salad of fresh curly kale and fresh lacinato kale, sometimes called "black kale," which is really dark green (w/French dressing).
Bean-The ultimate origin of this word is uncertain, but it goes back to Old Germanic "bauno," which meant "bean." This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "bean" (but likely then pronounced like "be-an," in two distinct syllables). This then became "bene" (likely pronounced "be-nah" or "be-neh"), before the modern version, which dropped pronunciation of the ending "e." Its many relatives in the other Germanic languages are: German "Bohne," ^ Low German Saxon "Bohn," West Frisian "bean," Dutch "boon," Icelandic "baun," Danish and Norwegian "bønne," ^^ Swedish "böna," and Norwegian "baune."
^ Note the pronunciation in standard German is like "bone-ah/bone-eh," where the final "e" is still pronounced like its English cousin of a few hundred years ago.
^^ The modern Norwegian form seems to be a borrowing from Danish, but "baune" is present in Norwegian dialect and seems to be the surviving form of the actual Norwegian word.
Labels: bacon, baked bean recipes, baked beans, beans, English, etymology, Germanic languages, recipes
posted by Randy at 7:10 PM
4 Comments:
like it
I'll have to try this, I like baked beans. I see the 'Word History' ties in.
Sounds good.
We tried it, and it is very good! Sounds like a lot of butter, but not really when you consider the amount of beans, and we used partially cooked bacon, with a lot of the fat melted off, before putting it on top.
Post a Comment
<< Home