# Homestyle Barbecue Beans



## raceyb (Oct 24, 2009)

Ahhhh, fall is in the air. The leaves are slipping into beautiful orange and burnt hues, the air at night is beginning to get crisp and chilly. You can almost smell the smoke meandering up from the chimneys in the area. Old Man Winter is on the way, and with him, our desire for comfort foods. Stews, soups, casseroles and beans. Yes, I said beans. Today I'm going to share a fairly new recipe i have been working on for home made barbecue baked beans.


I love the recipe fine just as it is now, but I sometimes think it is missing just one magical ingredient that would put it beside Bush's beans in the grocery store. I retain all rights to this recipe. I am publishing it here to share as others have before me.

Enough legalese, on to the beans! OK, this recipe serves about 12-18. When I cook, I love to share with others and have leftovers. You can easily half this recipe if you are using a small dutch pot. The ideal way to make the beans is to use a cast iron dutch oven pot and cook outdoors over a campfire or a grill. Just keep in mind that the beans need about 5-6 hours to cook and that will burn up some charcoal or wood. Today I am making them in a crock pot inside. Tomorrow a pan of these beans will go into the smoker under the pork spare ribs to catch their juices for the last two hours. This will give them a baked look and taste. Of course the beans are awesome without smoking them too.

Here are a list of ingredients you will need to make these Home-style BBQ Beans...

2 16 oz bags of dry navy beans
8 oz of thick cut bacon chopped
1 lg finely diced yellow onion
1/2 cup of 100% pure maple syrup
1/2 cup of honey
1 cup molasses
3 1/2 cups of ketchup
2 tsp liquid smoke
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
4-6 cloves of garlic crushed
2 tsp dry mustard
2 tsp Cayenne pepper
2 tbsp kosher or sea salt
cracked black pepper to taste
2 tbsp pimentos

The first thing you want to do is soak the beans overnight. Pour the beans into a large bowl or pot and go through them to make sure undesirables are removed, such as tiny rocks or discolored beans. Do not skip this step, as dry beans are an agricultural product and will contain like sized rocks and dirt almost every time. Once beans have been screened, add enough water to cover by 3-4 inches and let set overnight.

An alternative to soaking beans is the quick soak method. As we did in the first step, sort through the beans and then add water to cover the beans by about 3-4". Cover the beans and bring to a boil. Allow to boil for about 2 minutes and then remove from heat and leave covered for about one hour. Drain the beans in a colander and they are ready for use as above.

Next, we are going to fry the bacon in our cooking pot. If your using a cast iron dutch pot, your in luck. I believe the bacon and onions fried in the cast iron add some additional magical flavor. It's just not the same to use a Teflon coated pot. Fry the bacon up until it is firm, but not crispy and remove it from the pot. Add your onions and cook those until soft, about 5 minutes.

Leave the onions in the pot and add the beans. Level the beans and add water to cover about 1". Add remaining ingredients and cook over an indirect fire or grill for about 6 hours, stirring when you can. I like to bring the mix to a soft boil and then move the pot to indirect heat to speed along the process. In a crock pot, cook on high heat for about 4-6 hours, stirring about once an hour.

There you have it. Not a lot of work, but there are several ingredients to add to this recipe. We basically made our own BBQ sauce and added it to the beans. During the last hour of cooking, I'll taste to see if it is spicy enough. If not, I'll add a little more cayenne pepper to offset the sweetness of the syrups that we used.

Alternatives:

There are a couple of alternatives that you can try, to spice these up some more. If you like meat in your baked beans, add 1lb of cooked ground maple sausage. Another alternative is BBQ pork meat. I had 3 left over spare ribs in the fridge, so I placed them in a pot and covered with water and boiled for 10 minutes and let it cool down. The meat was falling of the bones, so I pulled it with forks and added it to the beans. Reserve the water and use to top off beans if they get too dry before finishing. You can also substitue a bag of sm black beans or pintos for one of the bags of navy beans for an interesting variety.

I hope you enjoyed reading this recipe. I am looking for feedback. If you try this, please let me know how you liked it, and what you would do differently if anything. I'll add a pic of a steaming bowl of beans when they are done. 

Enjoy your weekend and until next time... Keep on smokin!


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## cowgirl (Oct 24, 2009)

Sounds like some good beans Racey..thanks!!


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## mballi3011 (Oct 24, 2009)

Now theres a whole lotta goodness in them beans. I'm glad you shared it with us here. Now lets talk about this coming of this cold stuff I don't know what part of Jacksonville your in but over here on the NORTHSIDE (where it's suppose to be colder) it is a nice tmep of 84 today and it was 75 when I woke. But all that does make the bean thing sound good so. In the words of Rosanna Rosnna Danna "Never Mind"


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## beer-b-q (Oct 24, 2009)

They sound good Ray...


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## raceyb (Oct 25, 2009)

Still cooking as of this writing. My crock pot appearantly doesn't get hot enough. to cook this amount of beans in 6 hours. The liquid tastes awesome, beans are still beyond al dente...

Longer cook, no problem.

LOL Mark, we got a lil chill in the air tonight. Not all readers are as blessed as us.


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## raceyb (Oct 25, 2009)

Wow, my crock pot must suck.  These took almost 16 hours to cook, but the end result is fantastic. Since I'm doing ribs in the smoker today, QVIEW will follow....


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## scarbelly (Oct 25, 2009)

Those sound great. I think I might add some maple bacon to them. Thanks for sharing the recipe


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## plj (Oct 25, 2009)

Sounds too sweet to me... 
which means perfect for my in-laws & my son. I think I'll be trying this in the dutch oven, maybe thanksgiving to go with smoked turkey sandwiches in the evening?  Or maybe this weekend to eat with something smoked during the world series. 
thanks for sharing the recipe!


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## meateater (Oct 26, 2009)

Gonna try that recipe very soon, +1 on baked beans.


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## the dude abides (Oct 26, 2009)

Sounds like a great recipie.  I'll add it to my list of things to try out soon.


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## raceyb (Oct 26, 2009)

I think these turn out soo much better in a dutch oven. The flavor was awesome, but it still is missing something. I want to thank the private response I received suggesting what it might be.











(click on pic for a large view)

Here is the final Qview. I didn't really feel like picturing the smoke for the ribs, as it is fairly common to everyone here now how to smoke ribs. One thing I like to do if I foil them is to add Dr. Pepper soda to the foil pack instead of BBQ sauce. Mixed with the rub, it makes for sticky ribs that are finger licking good! :)

The beans were great, color here is a little off due to the long cook time. Next time I'll skip convenience of crock and use a dutch oven and just stir and stir. :)

These are sweet, enough to offset the spice. You can reduce the molasses to 1/2 cup. if you wish. Judging by Bush beans, most people like the sweet to be a bit stronger then the spice. But since we are making them from scratch, we can make adjustments.

Thanks for the feedback and keep it coming. I'd like to hear from someone else that makes this as well. Keep in mind if you do not half recipe, you'll have a lot of beans if just feeding family. I like this recipe size because it feeds a backyard get together.


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