Classic Baked Beans
Old-fashioned baked beans are a New England staple. Find out why these molasses-kissed New England baked beans recipe is a reader favorite.
By Yankee Magazine|Aug 29 2022|
Coffee By Design | Portland, Maine
Photo Credit : Katherine KeenanOld-fashioned baked beans are a New England staple that go hand-in-hand with many other classic New England foods, like brown bread or franks, and are often still a Saturday night tradition. The versatility and deliciousness of New England baked beans makes them one of our absolute favorites. This reader-favorite just might be our best baked bean recipe.
SEE MORE:
Vegetarian Baked Beans | Slow Cooker Recipe
6 Classic New England Sandwiches | Baked Bean Sandwich
New England Baked Bean Soup Recipe
Yield:
8 to 10 servingsIngredients
1 pound dry beans (navy beans, soldier beans, Great Northern beans, etc.)
3/4 pound salt pork
3 tablespoons molasses
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
Instructions
Wash the beans in a colander or strainer; pick over the beans to remove any pebbles or debris. Put in a large saucepan and add water to cover the beans by an inch. Soak overnight.
In the morning, bring the beans to a boil. Boil until the skins break when you blow across a few beans on a spoon. Place a layer of beans in the bottom of a crockery bean pot. Score the salt pork, cutting through the pork but leaving the rind intact. Place about 1/2 pound of the salt pork in the pot. Add most of the remaining beans and water. Place the remaining 1/4 pound of salt pork in the pot. Cover with the remaining beans. Add the molasses, brown sugar, salt, and mustard. Cover with additional water. Place the lid on the pot.
Bake in a 300 degrees F oven for at least 6 hours, adding water as needed. You may want to use a drip pan under the pot in the oven.
IT IS AN EXCELLANT RECIPE. LIKE MY MOM USED TO MAKE, BACK IN CT.
Just like mom used to make.
I have made many recipes for baked beans for 30 years…this is by far the best! The great thing is nothing is called for in the recipe that most of us don’t have in our kitchens on a regular basis!!!
Born in Massachusetts and raised in Maine. Saturday nights were always home baked beans, franks and B&M brown bread. Mom used to make an extra pot of beans for our monthly church suppers. After 10 years of church bean suppers, we made enough money to build a small wing on the church.
The essence of New England simple pleasures…Try adding three strips of smoked bacon chopped into small bits for added flavor!
These baked beans are so good! Very filling. Just add cornbread and a green vegetable and you have a great meal.
Recently had a bean pot given to me and looked at many baked bean recipes but tried this one. I loved the taste…..BIG thumbs up here! A “keeper” for sure!
I make my Baked Beans in the crockpot using the same recipe. You have to put a “cap” of aluminum foil on top of the beans, resting on the beans. This guarantees soft beans. Without it, sometimes the beans stay hard.
Thanks for the tip about the aluminum foil “cap”! Some kinds of beans soften in the crockpot, other don’t, but now I’ll just use this tip all the time.
What crock pot setting do you use? and ddo you also cover with the glass cover?
Hi John. Since the original recipe uses the oven and not a slow cooker, we can’t comment on what setting/cook time is best for a slow cooker (but perhaps someone else can?) but I do feel comfortable saying that while the aluminum foil tip is likely helpful for keeping the beans extra moist, you’ll still want to use the slow cooker’s lid to hold in the heat. Thanks!
🙂 Nice to see the exact same recipe I always used in Downeast Maine while living there in the ’90s. The only slight difference is that I layered in some onion too. Plus after bringing to a boil – and the cracked skin stage.. I did the layers in a crockpot and put it on high… once up to temperature I lowered it to low and let it cook sometimes over night – or all day. This was always served with quality hot dogs and a fresh home-baked loaf of bread and real butter.
I don’t use salt pork. Instead, — for each pound of beans — add 2-3 pounds of pork shoulder or butt cut into 1-2 inch cubes, including all fat. The fat melts in a long, slow oven, bathing the meat and beans while adding flavor that makes vegans weep. Make ahead for best flavor, using a cast iron pot.
I Need Clarification. The Ingredient List calls For 1/3 Lb Salt Pork, But The Instructions Call For 1/2 And 1/4 Lb.
Hi Cheryel! My goodness, you’re right. The correct amount of salt pork for this baked beans recipe should be 3/4 pound. We’ve fixed the ingredients list. Thanks!
Could someone please tell me how much water is needed in this recipe? Do I just add enough to cover the beans? I’m anxious to try them but don’t want to mess it up.
Thanks!
Was there an answer to the how much water question? I want to make these, too! Thanks, Jennifer
Hi Lori. Just enough to creep up around the beans should do it. No need to submerge them! Happy bean-making!
This is how my mom made baked beans. So happy to find the correct recipe.
Same here. Our old range had a deep well cooker on it which worked something like a modern crock pot. It was just the thing.
We had baked beans every Sat night, along with coleslaw, hot dogs, ( with Skins) and brown bread and then apple pie. My Mom was the best. thanks for sharing.
Dzień dobry Pani, Did you drag the “enamel” kitchen table into the living room too to watch Boston Blackie while the Vulcan was heating Saturday night’s bath water so you could watch Jackie Gleason and the June Taylor dancers at 8? Alas, I guess we weren’t well off enough to add cole slaw and apple pie. On the other hand, I’d add a dollop of Mayo and ketchup to my beans. Our dogs were Yes ’em, it’s Essem! Indeed canned Brown Bread with a dollop of buttaah was to die for! Chow! as we nonItalians say.
As far as water amount, my mom said it was to “just above the inward turn of the pot”, of course using an authentic bean pot.
Same as my mom made in NC
Good old Yankee cooking is what I like. <3
Thanks New England magazine for all the great recipes, I enjoy reading and cooking to, but to print them takes most of my paper and ink, my wish is to have printer friendly, that would be super, my Printer will thank you very much
Copy and paste the recipe into Word (or other doc editor) and delete the parts & pix you don’t want. I can usually get everything down to 1 page by adjusting the margins & font size.
I usually browse on my phone. I just put it in reader view and PDF print to my iCloud Files. Then I can access it on my Laptop and print the lot. It usually goes down to 2-3 pages from the usual 14. Hope this helps.
I just put this in the oven now. Breaking all the rules- having beans on a Tuesday and not Saturday.
I love making beans but my recipe, while similar, is quite different on the amounts of molasses and br sugar. I use maybe a cup or more of molasses and 3/4-a pound of dark brown sugar….never measure just pour until it looks/tastes right. Not to toot my own horn, but everyone here loves my beans and constantly ask for the recipe….oh, red kidney beans are the best!
Dry mustard and onion to this,my mother in-law made hers that way.I have used the recipe on the State of Maine Bean container for 60 some years.
THE HECK WITH ALL THE WORK! BUY A CAN OF CAMBELL BEANS!!! JUST AS GOOD….
You are sick in the head.
You got that right!
FUNNY!
You can’t be from around here.
Yuk
No way.
Definitely a tourist or flatlander (guessing there are one in the same) commenting. There is nothing in a can that comes close to homemade baked beans . Especially if they are bean hole beans cooked in a hole in the ground
Mum only used yellow eyes or Jacob’s Cattle dry beans for a baked bean supper(right-every Sat night)but it was cabbage salad,,only cole slaw when I went to the outside world(left Mainme)…Irv Fletcher
I sometimes add about a pound of boneless spare ribs in addition to the salt pork. Add it about 1 1/2 to 2 hours before they are done. Yellow eyes make the best smoothest bean liquid.
I just found this recipe yesterday and am in the process right now of making it for tomorrow’s Fourth of July celebration. It’s in the oven right now! I am hoping that the color will darken to the posted picture, because it is a very light color right now (similar to Campbell’s P & B). I followed the ingredients exactly as listed. Maybe as it continues to bake with will darken in color. This will be my solute to our Fore Fathers tomorrow. I’ve got my finger crossed that it will turn out well!!! Wish me luck!
many years ago I got a reciepe (many years) for baked beans made with grandma browns beans it had ground beef&applesause from yankee mag can you find this for me thankyou
Someone found your answer
Kathleen,I Googled the requested recipe.It was in Yankee magazine under German baked beans,December 5 2007,a much simpler recipe with half pound hamburg and 3/4 cup applesauce. a fee other ingredients and used canned beans or your own recipe for beans..hope you see this!
Hello All, My 2 cents from n of the 44 th.! Saturday’s were Boston baked beans, molasses style, my grandmother Louise Spencer from Beersville, New Brunswick
cooked for her grandchildren from 1959 to 1969 when she passed at 86 every
Saturday nite & boiled up all beef wieners pokin the fork through them to let
the fat out! She’d make fresh brown break or brown rolls and we’d have a cold
glass of cow’s milk with it! For dessert, she’d cook-up some pork rhinds, give us
two each with a wee amount of fat, put a wee touch of molasses in the middle
and say now there’s your dessert! I am very very partial to Boston baked beans!
My memories of Grandmother is just as if a day has not passed! Pls. note she also
puts good amount of onions, myself I put a wee amount of ketchup 1/4 cup just
to sweeten the flavour! Amen folks in New England! How about Boston Clam Chowder! Can be get your recipe?
Yours livin in southern Ontario, Canada… Luvv our Neighbours…..
Baked beans were a staple in New England, especially on Saturday night. From the 1600s to the 1800s people wouldn’t cook on a Sunday, so the beans were baked, sometimes at home, sometimes at the bakers, or bakehouse. The baker would then come around in his waggon and deliver the beans from house to house to be eaten on Sunday, with brown bread and a nice slab of salted pork. Ugh, now I’m hungry for it myself
Same here. Born and raised in the good old state of Maine. Beans was a Saturday night staple, my mother would make carrot salad and homemade yeast rolls. I am near 60 years old and my kids grew up the same way. My wife and I still do the Saturday night beans and yes the kids and grand kids are always here to have our bean supper together.
Also born and raised in Maine and my mother made baked beans and yeast rolls most saturday nights in the except in the summer. We lost her recipe for her yeast rolls. Do you have any suggestions for a good recipe?
Have used Hayden Pearon’s recipe for years…ginger, other spices and maple syrup added so much. (I subbed bacon for salt pork often). Yum!
I also use a bit more molasses, one onion and substitute Portuguese Linguica for the pork. It gives a wonderful flavor! The bean pot I use is handed down from my grandmother. Still bakes a nice bean!
Sounds so delicious! My grandmother, born in Boston, used to make baked beans, but unfortunately my grandfather wanted them very plain, so her recipe was lost to me. This sounds like it will give me the taste and texture I still remember over 60 years later.
I still bake beans for Saturday night dinner, once a month. I use 1/4 C. Molasses in lieu of 3 Tbsp., I also use 1/4 C. Real maple syrup in lieu of brown sugar. I also add half of a small onion, diced small. But my secret ingredient (which will now no longer be a secret) is 1/4 C. Bourbon and 2 slices of orange! People ask me to bring my baked beans whenever we go to potluck dinners. I serve it with homemade brown bread with raisins.
This is basically the recipe I use, but I add a whole small onion. The bourbon and orange sounds intriguing.
This sounds fascinating. Do you leave the rind on the orange slices?
My favorite were the COLD leftover baked bean sandwiches on Sunday night after getting home from church.
I can still hear my Dad say, “Now, that’s good eats!”
Jim Kisser
I have 2 different sized pots. What size do you recomment for this recipe?
Hi there! We recommend using a large saucepan for this recipe (usually 10 to 12 inches in diameter). Happy cooking!
Whichever pot can accommodate roughly 2 lbs of ingredients and plenty of water to cover it. Perhaps the big pot? Remember beans plump up.
Baked beans were more savory than sweet until recently. Canners stepped up the sugars in the 20thC to make their beans dark like home cooked. This ultimately led to abominations like Bush’s baked beans (I won’t even dignify Campbell’s with a comment). Even B&M is significantly sweeter than it used to be. This is exactly the recipe I use, except I add a whole small yellow oniion, 1/2 tsp black pepper and 1/4 tsp each of allspice and ginger. It works with Jacob’s Cattle, pea beans, and yellow eyes.
Been making baked beans for years. I do them in a crockpot at least two days ahead of eating them. I use maple syrup, a grade b dark type. Moose Mountain Sugar House in VT has the tastiest one and you can order it online. I also add dry mustard, small amount of ketchup, chopped onion and a “small glug” of Gravy Master. Sounds weird I know but it adds that little something.
I love to make mine almost like above but instead of water I add coca cola and or Dr. Pepper plus ground ginger to the mix! Gives it a bit of a spicy kick! So far nobody guessed my secret so I post it here! lols!
Add chopped Jalapeño peppers to the beans makes the beans very good
Thanks so much for this and for ALL the comments! I grew up in Maine and all the stories ring true. I’ve lived in the South for 50 years so the 6 hours in the oven isn’t an option! But the crockpot tips were very helpful. And the history someone added in the comments section makes sense of it all – my Mom loved those cold bean sandwiches, too – the devout Puritans not cooking on Sundays, most likely; love the idea of the baker delivery! Thanks everyone! (By the way, my southern style “company beans” are these plus diced green pepper and a 1/2 C. bourbon. ????)
I made these for an Independence Day picnic and they were fantastic. I used slab bacon (blanched 20 minutes) instead of salt pork, a slow cooker, laid foil on the surface of the beans and the again under the cover, set the setting on low, and cooked eight hours (adding water once). Perfection. Thank you all for the recipe and your comments.
My very old, very poor Old Yankee mother-in-law made baked beans every Saturday. Other than beans, every other food was probably heavily fried or boiled for hours. Married extremely young with children born up to 40 years apart, she was quite an example of early 1900 New England.
70 years ago I watched my 100% Mainer mother make these beans every Saturday morning for that night. People praised them to the sky, I liked the onion that topped them and kept them submerged. I remembered what went in them, but not how much, and with the exception of that onion, hers matched this recipe. So, they’re in The oven now, and will serve a bunch of people in Italy who have never had them. Whether they are good or bad, they’ll never know the difference!
Beautiful, beautiful story! This comment has inspired me to bake a pot of bean! Thank you
Question. Can you freeze leftover baked beans?
Yes, baked beans can be frozen. The texture will change a little but they’re still very good.
I live at 9200ft so pressure cooking beans is a must to get them started. 15min + natural release in a stovetop pressure cooker, followed by 6-7 hours in a Dutch oven in the oven. Amazing! Left out the salt because my salt pork was labeled “robustly seasoned” or something or other. Thank goodness I did because it was almost over the top as it was. Next time I’ll use a bit less pork (8-10 oz instead of 12 oz) and will reduce the brown sugar a bit. Yellow eyes came out super creamy and held their shape — find them of you can!
What size should the crockery bean pot be?
I’m so excited to make these. This sounds just like my mothers recipe. 🙂
My mother made her Saturday night beans by starting with white sugar browned and syrupy in a cast iron pan. Never used molasses. Wish I had her recipe.
How much water do you add to the beans when you cook?
Add enough boiling water to cover the beans. Check more often toward the end of cooking time.
Could this be prepared in an instant pot?
Sadly, my recipe from the Kennebec Bean Co. is lost. This seems similar except it is missing a quartered onion in the bottom of the pot and some ground black pepper. The recipe was always on the bag of beans until, poof, Kennebec Bean was no more. I can’t even find i on line but it made a great pot of beans.
https://newengland.com/food/breads/parker-house-rolls-recipe-history/