Picnic Baked Beans

Nothing like a sweet baked beans serving to go with those hamburgers and hot dogs, tri-tip too. There are those quick doctored canned beans recipes, yep, I even have one. But home baked are truly best. Now, to cut back on the baking time with the same delicious results.

Recipe

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.
Use a dutch oven or a stoneware baking dish with a lid.

Do soak the rinsed beans overnight for the fastest cooking experience. If you forgot simple cover your rinsed beans with a good amount of water and set aside for two hours.

Ingredients:

One pound navy beans-soaked, drained. rinsed and drained again
6 Ounces bacon-partially cooked to render fat, set aside
1 Medium onion-chopped, then add to bacon fat over medium heat, cook until slightly tender, drain.
1/2 Cup packed brown sugar
1/4 Scant cup molasses
15 Ounce can tomato sauce
1 Tablespoon prepared mustard
1/2 Teaspoon salt or per taste

Place beans in dutch oven and add enough water to have three inch layer water over beans.

Add all the other ingredients and stir to mix.

Cover and baked two hours.

Uncover and bake for another 2 hours. (Be sure to check for need of more water. This isn’t likely if beans were presoaked. You may see soupy beans instead. Not to worry. Once uncovered this will evaporate a bit. This evaporation is what makes these beans thick and deliciously sweet.)