Baked Beans Frankie Style

**friscofrankie** · 05-11-2007, 12:57 AM

Beans. Good for you, cheap and so many way to fix 'em. Now all the Brits 'round here talk abut their baked beans on toast this or which are the best baked beans, etc. They always seem to come back to some insipid combination of sweet ketchup and mushy white beans from a can. usually without a chunk of pork or the least bit of flavor.

Overcome by a feeling of sympathy for y'all, I figured it was about time I can you a bit of an education on what makes a decent pot of real-deal, Baked Beans.

Assemble some ingredients so they're all handy when you start cooking this is not a rapid fix it up and eat kind of meal you have time:

What we have here is two medium sized onions, brown sugar, some balsamic vinegar, Cloves and worsch, worst, Worscestershire sauce about 150 grams of dry-cured bacon and about 140 grams of dry cure black forest ham I went with the dry-cured bacon simply because I couldn't find salt pork, yes I know it's easy enough to make but it take a helluva lot longer to cure salt pork than it does to run down to the market and pick up the bacon. This was hte last chunk of bacon on the shelves so I found a nice fatty piece of black forest ham with the rind still on and figured what the hell.

What is not pictured is apple cider vinegar, dry Mustard and a larger portion of cloves and sugar. What is completely missing is molasses. I looked at three shops here and couldn't find any. So I had to double up on the brown sugar and I added a few shot of the balsamic for color and a bit of flavor pretty tasty it was, too.

Start with soaking a half-kilo of the smallest white navy beans you can find: after soaking all night (and half the next day, I was busy) this is what you end up with:

dump those in the pot and cover with about 1 - 2 inches (2.5 - 5cm) of cool water. Turn the heat on med high and while the water's warmin up peel one medium onion ans stud it with cloves Lots of cloves:

Dump that in the pot and push it down to the bottom let your beans boil for an hour or so until almost tender. Dunno how many beer that is but a couple of two finger glasses of a nice whisky and you should be ready for the next step

**friscofrankie** · 05-11-2007, 01:21 AM

While the beans are cooking I chopped up the pork into good sized chunks, alot of folks want the pork in one or two large slabs, I prefer to chunk it up. Each his own.

Once the beans are cooked al dente, drain teh cooking juices into another pot, remove the clove studded onion I removed the cloves chopped up hte cooked onion and tossed it, along with one more coarsely chopped onion and the pork back into the mix. Dump the beans/pork/onion mixture into a bean pot or any large ceramic cooking pot you happen to have, might look somethng like this:

Set that aside and get to work on the cooking juices. I took about half of what was drained off the beans, put that on the stove over a medium flame and added a few things:

First off the whole bowl of Brown Sugar:

Then the Balsamic Sugar (about a shot):

Apple Cider vinegar, dunno really maybe 1/3 - 1/2 cup? was a new bottle and the top of the remainng liquid was about 5 - 6 mm below the label when I was done

Some dry mustard, about this much, maybe a little more:

And the Worscet.. Worsch, This sauce:

Now let that come to a slow boil/simmer for a while til it just starts to thicken, taste and adjust for a flavor you want Some folks will add a touch of Cinnamon if you're going to do that just add a chunk in along with the clove onion and pull it out, I'm not much on cinnamon in my beans so I didnt.
Now add the thickened mixture to the bean pot:

The juice should just coe up to the top of the beans and not any higher if you have to much you can wait a while and add it later, adds cooking time though
Cover:

And put that in a slow oven temperature is not a real important factor here low and slow is better but if you're getting close to dinner time you might go for a higher temp. It was getting late so I turned the oven up a bit generally I'd shoot for a slow 300 deg F. it should cook for a couple of hours at that temperature.

**friscofrankie** · 05-11-2007, 01:39 AM

Check every once in a while see if the beans are getting dry add more juices if you have 'em. after a couple of hours in the oven take it out and add the top part:

This really has too much liquid and I should have just pulled the cover and let it cook a bit longer, it was 10:00 PM and My stomach was growlin' so I pushed it a bit.

Sprinkle a liberal topping of Brown Sugar:

Add some sliced, smoked bacon:

Turn up the heat on the oven (but you already did that when you took the beans out right?), leave the cover off now and shove the pot back in oven.
Wait until the bacon has crisped up nicely pull the thng out of the oven you're supposed to wait a while but I never do:

As you can see there is still a tad too much juice left in the pot but it was 11:30PM and we were pretty damned hungry. I stuffed the remaining beans back in the oven to cook properly and they cam out quite nice looking:

No serving pictures this time folks But I had a couple of slabs of hme-made sourdough with a thick coating of butter ice water and a shot, or two, of some fairly decent sippin' whisky.
Worth the wait.

**jizzybloke** · 05-11-2007, 01:55 AM

Good honest and very tasty looking food FF!

**dirtydog** · 05-11-2007, 02:00 AM

What did you do with the lumps of pork fat and gristle? also is there a way to make them red like they look when you open the can

**friscofrankie** · 05-11-2007, 02:06 AM

Originally Posted by dirtydog

What did you do with the lumps of pork fat and gristle?

Fed it to the old lady.

There was plenty of bit of pork to eat and she loves the fat and skin

Originally Posted by dirtydog

is there a way to make them red like they look when you open the can

You could probably add soem red dye # what ever it was or since you are used ktchup and beans from a can. add a scoop of ketchup to the sauce mix. Baked beans should be brown the molasses gives a much darker color (and richer flavor) than this but the balsamic & brown sugar helped.

**caller** · 05-11-2007, 04:06 AM

You can rest assured that this rather tasty looking dish will be prepared in the UK sometime soon -but I'll be using proper worcester sauce instead (Lea & Perrins).

Otherwise, ta very much!

**BosseO** · 05-11-2007, 04:51 AM

Looks great FF, I do about the same with brown beans and then with a few generous splashes of tabasco in it.

**astasinim** · 05-11-2007, 05:02 AM

Looks very tasty indeed. My stomach is starting to growl.
Will try this one out for definate

**chitown** · 05-11-2007, 05:55 AM

Another good cooking thread by FF.

Will be trying tis recipe in the near future!

**Jet Gorgon** · 05-11-2007, 06:23 AM

Looks yum, FF. Diff from my Mom's (beans and leftover pork bone and meat), but looks tastier. Canned pork and beans -- where's the pork? This dish will go down well this winter. Thanks.

**friscofrankie** · 05-11-2007, 10:51 AM

For those you wanting to try this dish. Try and find Molasses. Cut abut half the Brown sugar out and use about 1/2 - 3/4 cup of molasses. Much better flavor IMO.

**AntRobertson** · 05-11-2007, 10:57 AM

Looks nice. Dish must be an absolute bugger to clean though.

**NickA** · 05-11-2007, 11:03 AM

Baked beans NickA Style...

**friscofrankie** · 05-11-2007, 11:04 AM

Originally Posted by AntRobertson

Looks nice. Dish must be an absolute bugger to clean though.

Dunno. Ask the ol' lady. She'll scrub the thing 'til the glaze wears off if need be. It was me cleaning it; I'd let it soak a few days and what didn't wipe off easily enough would just add "character" to the pot.

**AntRobertson** · 05-11-2007, 11:05 AM

Originally Posted by friscofrankie

I'd let it soak a few days and what didn't wipe off easily enough would just add "character" to the pot.

Extra seasoning for the next dish cooked

**Lum Khaan** · 05-11-2007, 09:04 PM

This variation would appear true to the original, and just like those originals will likely "make yer bum go BANG", especially when accompanied with a few Beer Chang's

**kingwilly** · 05-11-2007, 09:47 PM

fck ya bastard, amnother red for making me hungery yet again!

actually, hang on a second, i got me some bacon in the fridge, i feel a bacon and mayo sandwich coming on......

**geezopeete** · 05-11-2007, 10:27 PM

Might try a good scrub on the outside of that rice cooker as well...

**Happyman** · 05-11-2007, 11:45 PM

EG
How does that compare with the beans you used to provide at pissups in KL ?

lets have an alternative !

**Jet Gorgon** · 06-11-2007, 01:24 AM

Originally Posted by AntRobertson

Originally Posted by friscofrankie

I'd let it soak a few days and what didn't wipe off easily enough would just add "character" to the pot.

Extra seasoning for the next dish cooked

Yep, just like seasoning a new pot or frypan. Frankie, could I switch beer for the vinegar?

**friscofrankie** · 06-11-2007, 03:54 AM

^you can do what ver you want, it's your food.
Remember, though.
A good cook always eats their mistakes...

**Jet Gorgon** · 06-11-2007, 04:31 AM

Ya, its just getting everybody else to eat it. I just remember beer in a recipe. Maybe I'm thinking of chili or gumbo.

**friscofrankie** · 06-11-2007, 04:45 AM

I worked on this little mini bike today, Baked a loaf of bread then went out drinkin'
Got home, had a bowl of beans a few slices of fresh baked, damn-near day old sourdough bread. I can see a different recipe with a good hearty ale (none of that English stuff) but I'd adjust the sugar/molasses/mustard/ cloves.
When I'm in the mood to make a new dish I rarely look up a recipe, never realy used 'em. First time I made these beans I was 17 years old; fresh out of CYA (California Youth Authority) after 18 months inside and had this sweetie with a well stocked Kitchen. I added a bit of kethcup back then (gee, is it really 39.25 years ago?). in fact teh only ingedients that haven't changed are the vinegar, molasses/brown sugar, Sot pork or bacon.
BUT.
If you just tossed out the bean juices, and substituted a pint of maybe a porter, or even one of the dark Mexican lagers. that just might be the best fuckin beans you ever ate. Might taste llike shit, but some reason I kinda doubt it.

beer Lao dark, and...
hey!
I got another half kilo of beans....

**kingwilly** · 06-11-2007, 05:57 AM

damn, greens to Jet and Frankie, I can see another thread coming!

Thread: Baked Beans Frankie Style

Thread Tools

Display

Baked Beans Frankie Style

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

Posting Permissions