Baked beans are not the sexiest dish to feature in a blog post, I have to say. They’re brown, they’re blob-y. But if you could just imagine the mouth-watering aroma while they’re baking – sweet and smoky, rich and porky – you might decide they’re a lot more interesting than they look. Now picture them on your plate – maybe a paper plate, next to a crisp and flaky piece of fried chicken, or a burger or barbecued ribs. Hungry yet?
I call these “three-speed” beans because I’ve got three different methods for cooking them. The slow method involves soaking dried beans overnight and then baking the beans at a low oven temperature for 5 hours. Yep…but most of this time is completely hands-off, and have I mentioned how tantalizing they smell?
For this method, the pork component comes in the form of salt pork, which you should be able to find easily at butcher shops or at most grocery store meat counters. A hefty chunk nestles into the beans when they go into the oven, and 5 hours later it will have practically disappeared.
The medium-speed version uses an Instant Pot, and it shaves off about 3½ hours from the cooking time. For this version you’ll still use pre-soaked dried beans, but the salt pork is replaced by bacon.
Finally, for the fast version, it’s bacon again, and this time the dried beans are replaced by canned beans, whittling the entire process down to a mere hour and a half. That’s a pretty short time to achieve a flavor so dark and deep.
For the barbecue sauce, my Sweet and Sour Homemade Barbecue Sauce (shown at left, below) would be great, or use a good bottled sauce. I like Sweet Baby Rays brand, but if you have a favorite, by all means use it. By the way, adding actual bourbon to the beans is optional; many barbecue sauce brands have a bourbon- or whisky-flavored variety that would be a good choice if you don’t have bourbon on hand.
Other than the barbecue sauce, the only significant liquid in these beans comes from water. You’ll keep adding water at intervals as needed to loosen the sauce, except in the Instant Pot version where the water is adjusted close to the end. Obviously you need enough water to get the beans tender and keep them from sticking to the pot; then, as you get near the end of cooking, it’s all about creating the sauce. I aim for a sauce that’s both thick and plentiful. This means that the sauce isn’t clinging to the beans like a condiment, but instead it pools thickly around them on the plate or in the bowl, as in the photo below. Don’t think about the sauce that comes with canned baked beans, where the beans are drowning and the sauce is runny, flat-tasting and slightly metallic. These beans are suspended in – married to – their delicious sauce in perfect balance.
Making this ahead and what to do with leftovers:
- Three-Speed Bourbon Baked Beans will keep for 5 days, so make them ahead or keep leftovers within that time frame. Once it’s been cooled the sauce will thicken, so as you’re reheating the beans (in the microwave or in a pot on the stove top), add a little hot water to loosen it.
We’ll start with the slow version, which (as you might have guessed) I think is the best. Scroll down for instructions on how to amend the recipe for the fast and Instant Pot versions.
Three Speed Bourbon Baked Beans, Slow Version
The prep time shown for this recipe doesn't include the 24 hours for soaking the beans. Make sure to start one day ahead.
Ingredients
- ½ pound navy beans, soaked overnight in water deep enough to cover the beans by 2 inches
- 2 tablespoons neutral oil such as canola
- 1 onion, chopped
- Kosher salt
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- Pinch of crushed red pepper flakes
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- ½ teaspoon ground cumin
- 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
- 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- 2 tablespoons molasses
- 1 cup water, plus additional
- One 2x3-inch piece of salt pork
- ¾ cup barbecue sauce
- 2 tablespoons bourbon (optional)
Directions
- Step 1 Heat the oven to 250 degrees. Drain and rinse the beans.
- Step 2 Heat the oil in a medium-sized heavy pot (such as cast iron or enamel-coated cast iron) over medium heat. Add the onion and season it with a large pinch of salt. Saute the onion until soft, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and red pepper flakes and cook for another minute.
- Step 3 Add the tomato paste and cumin, and cook, stirring constantly, until the tomato paste is completely incorporated into the onions, 2 minutes.
- Step 4 Stir in the Dijon mustard, vinegar, molasses, water and beans. Nestle the chunk of salt pork in among the beans. Cover the pot and transfer it to the oven.
- Step 5 Bake the beans for 4 hours, stirring and checking the water level every hour and adding more water when the beans look dry.
- Step 6 Stir in the barbecue sauce, re-cover the pot and cook for another ½ hour or until the beans are tender. (Sample several beans to make sure.)
- Step 7 Raise the heat to 375 degrees. Stir in the bourbon if you’re using it, plus a little more water if the sauce looks thick. Cook the beans uncovered for 30 minutes, until the sauce is bubbling and thick. Use a slotted spoon to remove any obvious, large chunks of salt pork before serving.
Three-Speed Bourbon Baked Beans, Medium Speed/Instant Pot Version:
The ingredient list is the same as for the slow version, except substitute 4 slices of bacon (4 ounces) for the salt pork.
Directions:
- Heat the Instant Pot using the Saute function on the Normal heat level. Add 2 tablespoons of canola oil.
- Starting with sauteing the onion, follow the recipe for the slow version exactly, up to the point of adding the salt pork. Instead of using the salt pork, drape the bacon slices on top of the bean mixture.
- Cover and seal the pot, and turn on the Pressure Cooking function on High. Set the timer for 45 minutes. After the cooking cycle ends, let the pressure release naturally for 10 minutes, then release the rest of the pressure manually.
- Open the lid and stir in the barbecue sauce, the bourbon if you’re using it, and ½ cup of water if the mixture looks dry. Sample a few beans to see how tender they’re getting. Reseal the pot, and reset the pot to cook at High pressure, for 15 minutes if the beans were soft, 30 minutes if they were still firm in the center when tested.
- Release the pressure manually and test the beans again. If they’re still firm in the center, reseal the pot again, reset to cook on High pressure for 5 minutes, and test again. If the sauce is too watery, turn on the Saute function and cook the sauce down to your desired consistency.
Three-Speed Bourbon Baked Beans, Fast Version:
The ingredient list is the same as the slow version, except substitute 4 slices of bacon (4 ounces) for the salt pork and two 15-ounce cans of navy beans for the dried beans.
Directions:
- Heat the oven to 375 degrees.
- Chop the bacon into 1-inch pieces. Add a small amount of canola oil and the bacon pieces to the bean pot and put it on the stove over medium heat. Cook the bacon until it’s browned and crisp. Use a slotted spoon to remove the bacon to a plate.
- Cook the onion in the bacon fat, then the garlic and red pepper flakes, then the tomato paste and cumin as directed in the Slow recipe.
- Drain and rinse the beans. Add them to the pot along with the Dijon mustard, vinegar, molasses, barbecue sauce, water, and reserved bacon pieces. Bring the mixture to a simmer.
- Transfer the pot to the oven and bake the beans uncovered for 40 minutes, checking every 10 minutes and stirring in a little more water as needed to keep the sauce loose and plentiful, but not soupy.
- Stir in the bourbon if you’re using it. Bake for 10 more minutes.
To see this dish combined with others in a summery picnic menu, check out my post for Saturday June 13, 2020.
