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Boston Baked Beans

Introduction & method

Some versions of Boston baked beans are older than the US itself. If you think they'll be like what us Brits know as baked beans, they're not really - there's no tomato in the sauce, but there is molasses and mustard. These beans also contain meat, so it's a pretty substantial dish.

 Boston Baked Beans Recipe

Soak the beans


Dried beans need to be soaked in plenty of cold water for at least 4 hours. Adding a strip of kombu (dried kelp, a seaweed) will improve the texture of the beans. If you don't have kombu, use a teaspoon or two of coarse sea salt.

Cook the beans


Top and tail the carrot and onion, and cut them in half. Transfer the beans, soaking water and kombu to a large saucepan, add the veggies and bay leaf, bring to the boil and simmer for 30 minutes. You want the beans to be only partly cooked. Drain the beans - keep the liquid, bin the onion, carrot and bay leaf.

Bake the beans


Heat your oven to 140° Celsius (284° Fahrenheit) for a fan/convection/airfryer oven, or 160° Celsius (320° Fahrenheit) for a conventional one, or gas 3. Mix the molasses, mustard and cloves into 300 millilitres (1¼ cups) of the cooking liquid. Stir well to dissolve the molasses. Add the beans to a casserole dish and cover with the liquid. Place the strips of pork belly into the casserole with any rind facing upwards. Cover and bake for 2 hours - check it after about an hour and top up with more water if needed. To finish it off, remove the lid and continue baking for 15-30 minutes until the liquid has mostly evaporated and the beans are sticky and moist.


The video above is from the Keef Cooks YouTube channel. Click here to see the video recipe of Boston Baked Beans on YouTube.

 
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Ingredients & Info



 200 grams dried white beans (haricot, cannellini etc)
 1 strip kombu (dried kelp)
 400 grams pork belly
 1 medium onion
 1 medium carrot
 1 bay leaf
 100 grams blackstrap molasses
 1 tbsp dijon mustard
 half a tsp ground cloves
  salt and pepper to taste
PLUS

Water, lots of water.


UNITS:
Metric
US Customary/Imperial

Serves 4 -6
Prep time: 10 minutes.
Soaking time: 4 hours+.
Cooking time: 3 hours 30 minutes.
Total time: 7 hours 40 minutes.