Boston-Style Baked Beans
This classic recipe for Boston-style baked beans is adapted from the baked beans made famous at Boston’s Durgin-Park restaurant.
By Yankee Magazine|Apr 22 2022|
This classic recipe for Boston-style baked beans is adapted from the baked beans made famous at Boston’s Durgin-Park restaurant.
Get the recipe for Durgin-Park Indian Pudding and learn more about One Last Taste of Durgin-Park.
Yield
6
Total Time
15 minutes
Ingredients
1 pound (2 cups) dried navy beans
1/2 pound salt pork or bacon, chopped, divided
1/3 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup dark molasses
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1 teaspoon freshly ground white pepper
1 teaspoon table salt
Instructions
Soak beans overnight in cold water. When you’re ready to cook, place beans in a heavy saucepan; fill with water to cover by about a half inch. Boil 25-30 minutes, until just tender; don’t overcook. (Pick up a bean between thumb and forefinger and pinch; the outer shell should slip off.) Drain and rinse, reserving the liquid.
Preheat oven to 400°. Place half the salt pork in the bottom of a large ovenproof pot. Add beans, sugar, molasses, dry mustard, white pepper, salt, and reserved liquid. Top with remaining salt pork. Cover and bake 4-4-1/2 hours. Stir occasionally and add more water as needed. Let beans rest 30 minutes before serving.
here i go again showing my age.my memory of OLD fashioned baked beans the pork was not cut in pieces,it was cut through the rind every 1/2 inch and buried in the beans,also there was two or three large onions in the near bottom of the beans and baked along with the beans,when the beans had only one hour to go they were stirred to bring the onions and pork to the top to crust over the pork and to finish cooking the onions,these were left uncovered till done.now,these most definately demand baking powder biscuits.[lots of them]
So, I just want to say that my Baked Bean And Franks wouldn’t be complete without Cole slaw and Bakewell Biscuts
Kudos to Leo, my mother made these being 60 years ago and I remember her tucking the salt pork and those onions in the bottom. And she baked them so long we thought we were going to lose our minds until she would take them out of the oven. Your recipe is the most genuine.
The only change I would suggest is to use dark brown sugar instead of white. Thanks BOB
I was thinking the same thing!!
I still make baked beans the old fashioned way. I bake them outside on the gas grill (I live in Florida so anything that avoids heating up the house….) Brown sugar is white sugar with molasses added. I use 1 cup white sugar and two tablespoons of molasses to make brown sugar. I also make my own salt pork but that’s another story. I let it bake for 8 hours at 250 to 300 degrees. The longer bake time really allows the flavors to meld.
if I put them on the grill, I have know way of knowing the internal temp, for fear they will burn, and that has happen before.
accompany with Brown Bread steamed in a can!
My brother Jack made the best baked beans ever, his secret………..NO ONIONS EVER!
No sugar!! All molasses
can this recipe be made in a slow cooker?
Yes, I have done this many times. I only tried it because I couldn’t imagine it would work very well. My bean pot hasn’t seen the inside of my oven in years. It works great. Takes longer but just time it so you put them on to cook before you go to bed. 🙂
B&M beans used to have a baked bean recipe printed on their can in the 1980’s. I made them all the time but have lost my recipe. I contacted the company but was told they had changed owners at one point and they do not have it. Does anyone have a copy of this recipe they are willing to share?
Thank you!
Two critical points for the original New England baked beans: parboil only till the skins QUIVER when you blow across a spoonful of them. AND use only pea beans, not larger types.
Exactly.
Does no one have the original recipe? cmon people put it out here, puleeze!
https://www.food.com/recipe/boston-baked-beans-in-bean-pot-durgin-park-168437
Durgin Park Original Boston Baked Bean Recipe
(I purchased a bean pot at Durgin Park around the year 2000 and in the pot were several of their original recipes, one of which was this baked bean recipe.)
2-quart bean pot
2 pounds beans – California pea beans
preferred or York State beans
1 pound salt pork
8 tablespoons sugar
2/3 cup molasses
2 teaspoons dry mustard
4 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 medium-size onion
Soak beans overnight. In the morning parboil the for ten minutes with a teaspoon of baking soda. Then run cold water through the beans in a colander or strainer. Dice rind of salt pork in inch squares, cut in half. Put half on the bottom of the bean pot with whole onion. Put beans in pot. Put the rest of the pork on top. Mix other ingredients with hot water. Pour over beans. Put in 300° oven for six hours. This will make 10 full portions.
“You can’t let the pot just sit in the oven,” explains Edward: “You’ve got to add water as necessary to keep the beans moist. And you can’t be impatient and add too much water at a time and flood the beans.”
Edward produces his Boston baked beans under the watchful eye of Albert Savage who has been the head chef at Durgin Park for the past 35 years. Albert is probably the worlds leading specialist in Yankee cookery. He himself is an old Yankee who was born in Lithuania. He has one assistant who is a Bulgarian Yankee and another who is a Polish Yankee.
“The chief difference between Yankee cooking and most other kinds of cooking is that we make our food taste like what it’s supposed to be,”says Albert. “In other kinds of cooking chef seem determined to make the food taste like something else.”
Well, the TX version DOES have onion and instead of salt pork, bacon baby!!!!
Anyone made baked beans in a pressure cooker, my mom did but can’t find the time to cook them, please share if you have. Thanks
35-45 min, high pressure, natural release if you are using dry beans. 15 min, high pressure, natural release if you are using cooked beans.
400 degrees seems too high for a cook time of 4 to 4.5 hours.
Anyone know where a good old fashioned baked bean pot can be purchased. My very old one has a crack and I worry that it will be not long for this cooking world.
I bought one at LL Bean, however, it was a few years ago.
http://www.potshopofboston.com You can get different sizes.
Yes concerning the bea pot. I have lived in NH and Maine. I the 1800’s a company called E Swasey made millions of bean pots from #1 which is I quart up tp a commercial size #12. You can still find them on EBay or Etsy. Many lids have been broken through 5he years but if you check constantly you will find them. Many antique stores in NH and Maine have 5hem. As far as a good recipe goes I lost mine but several things you may consider. Do not use BlackStrap molasses. It is much bitter and not as sweet 40% sugar as compared to 70 with Grandmas 7”%. Salt port is essential as compared to bacon. Real salt port is hard to find. There should be little meat and mostly fat. The top rind should not be cut but the underneath should be checkered 3/4 but left on the rind. The rind should rind on the top of the beans while backing. No white super dark brown is best, ratios I do nothave. Oh. And onlt the small pea beans. No other
I love my Bean Pot – Daubiere!
I am the happy owner of a daubière from Vallauris France thanks to Marie-Helene and Remember Provence.com. It was made upon order, and Marie-Helene was wonderful about keeping me “in the loop” through its production. It arrived in perfect shape along with careful instructions as to how to prepare it for its first use. I followed the instructions, made my first Daube, and am absolutely delighted with the results. Thanks so much “Remember Provence”! Great for Boston baked beans. Black beans or lucious pot roast.. cost you around $150. but your heirs will love it too.
I always added a whole onion studded with whole cloves. Yum!
My father and I add whole white onions, not just one but three or four small ones. We also add Coleman’s dry mustard.
My father always added salt back pork all or pork fat. I had some smoked bacon thick cut and a little hot sauce (I prefer Frank’s but use your favorite sauce and add as much as you want).
I also like to use pinto beans, they are bigger and to me a meatier when you cook them. No we are not Southwest people we are all the wing on the came over on the mayflower. But my family is open minded.
My father and I also used brown sugar. Must be the molasses flavor. We are’s from New England and we are very proud of it. We may not follow the Puritan Ways but that’s why we call it America. You have the right to do what you want or like as long as it does not interfere in another person’s rights.
Well said. I’m a immigrant German who takes great liberty in cooking German dishes.
I am amazded that I found someone who cuts Salt Pork the correct way and that is through the rind but my mother also added Ketsup along with Molasses… Sat Night was always Beans and Hot dogs…lol These memory’s are the ones that make you feel so warm all over and put a smile on your face but then again it is our truly New England Baked Beans done in a real Bean Pot. Oh don’t forget you must have either Brown bread from a can or home made Johnny Cake (corn Bread).
I am happy to see someone cuts their salt Pork correctly and that is through the Rind… nice. My mother also made something I have never heard anyone mention and that is Salt Port Gravy… Man I miss that.. But Sat Night was always Bean and Hot Dog s and my mother also added Ketsup to the Beans along with Molasses. I remember picking over those beans every week. But to make the meal they had to be baked in a Bean Pot, which I have, and had to have Brown bread from a can or Johnny Bread. Reading all your memories of this meal puts a smile on my face and warms my heart big time. Thank you for sharing our True New England Baked Beans. Leo… your doing it right… Except for the grill…lol
Go to Google and request where to find the old fashioned Bean Pot… you will see tons of them . Good Luck
I was raised in Arkansas but have lived in North Georgia (at the NC and TN lines) for about 27 yrs. My grandmother used to bring home B&M Brown Bread and Baked Beans. She never made them homemade like she did everything else. She said she got hooked on them when she came to Maryland when I was born (Father was USAF). So… I am going to try to make these homemade according to most of the suggestions here and see how they turn out. I do have a very old and very heavy cast iron bean pot with lid you can hang in a big old fireplace so I’m going to use that. I have an InstantPot/slow cooker as well but I’ll opt for the oven cooked method. I’ll come back and post how it turned out. God bless you all and thanks for sharing the recipe and memories!
Hello!
Someone was looking for the Kennebec Navy Bean Recipe.
Here it is
2 lbs. of State of Maine Dry Beans (any variety)
1/2 Salt Pork
1/4 C Sugar
1/2 – 2/3 C Molasses
2 tsp. Dry Mustard
1/2 tsp. Pepper
Dash of Salt
1 Medium Onion (optional)
Directions:
Pick over the beans and soak them overnight in cold water. In the morning, parboil the beans in fresh water until the skins crack when blown upon. If an onion is used, cut in quarters and put in the bottom of bean pot. Drain and add the parboiled beans. Cut through the rind of the salt pork to a depth of 1/2 inch, and place the pork on top of the beans. Mix the sugar, molasses, mustard, pepper and salt with 1 pint of fresh boiling water. Pour this over the beans and pork. If necessary, add more boiling water to cover.
Bake at 300° F for 6 hours or more, adding more boiling water as the beans cook. Serve and enjoy!