hot and smoky baked beans
I think that the basic instinct that gets us in the kitchen “after all those messy sustenance issues have been attended to” is a deep-seated desire to make something taste a little better than the way we’ve come to accept it. It’s why there are ten thousand crab cake recipes and a line of followers behind each, and it’s why everyone has an idea carved into their base philosophy of the way corn bread is supposed to taste (and most of it fails to please because it’s not as savory/rich, sweet/cakey or textural/salty as they believe pone was intended to be). I’d also argue that this is why few bother to make their own ketchup, as Heinz figured out a long time ago what most of us expect of it and why reinvent the wheel?
I’m pretty sure it’s why this summer I’ve become obsessed bordering-on-frenzied with figuring out how to make all those American BBQ classics unboring. Somewhere along the line, barbeque sauce started tasting like tangy corn syrup, coleslaw started tasting like soggy dullsville, potato salad became a boiled-tuber-floating-in-eggy-oil cop-out, and baked beans became wretchedly sweet and uniform, each crying out for some innovation. But today, I’m starting with the beans.
And what beans they are! These chipotle baked beans are everything your last can of baked beans thought it was going be when it grew up. They’re spicy and complex and dramatic. They were also finished in two meals, and we sang the “beans, beans” song the whole time. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
Hot and Smoky Baked Beans
Bon Appetit, July 1999
6 bacon slices*
1 1/2 cups chopped onion
1 1/4 cups purchased barbecue sauce
3/4 cup dark beer
1/4 cup mild-flavored (light) molasses
3 tablespoons Dijon mustard 3 tablespoons (packed) dark brown sugar
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon soy sauce
4 to 6 teaspoons minced canned chipotle chilies**
6 15- to 16-ounce cans Great Northern beans, drained
Chopped fresh parsley***
Preheat oven to 350°F. Cook bacon in large skillet over medium heat until crisp. Transfer to paper towels and drain. Transfer 2 1/2 tablespoons bacon drippings from skillet to large bowl. Finely chop bacon; add to bowl. Add onion and next 7 ingredients to bowl and whisk to blend. Whisk in 4 to 6 teaspoons chipotle chilies, depending on spiciness desired. Stir in beans. Transfer bean mixture to 13 x 9 x 2-inch glass baking dish. Bake uncovered until liquid bubbles and thickens slightly, about 1 hour. Cool 10 minutes.
* So, this is where I admit that despite my love of all things salty and pork-ful, I skipped the the bacon. [Blashphemy!] Even the best of bacon gets a leathery unappetizing texture when in a wet base for a period of time, thus, it was omitted.
** And this is where I warn you, in italics no less, that this is a LOT of chipotle. I used 1 (one!) large one in the whole dish and it was tres spicy. Add what you see fit, but I’d suggest sparingly.
*** Might have forgotten this; the world did not end.
Beans look very good, but SantaMom might throw me out of the house …. afterward.
Love your website! Great recipes and commentary, but … tsk, tsk, tsk. “Barbecue” is spelled with a “c” – not a “q”. Sure, we abbreviate it as BBQ or Bar-B-Q because that’s how it’s pronounced. But, when we write it in full, it’s barbeCUE. (Think of a pool/billiards “cue” stick or to “cue” someone’s lines in a play.) Spelled with a “q”, it would be pronouced “”barbek”, like “technique”, “unique”, “bisque”, etc., where the “que” is pronounced as a “k”.
Kit
Barbeque is an appropriate variant, just ask Merriam-Webster: http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/barbeque
But have you ever had homemade ketchup? It is SO. GOOD.
Worth trying.
My family LOVED this recipe. I found the KEY to making it is not to bake the beans, but to put them in the crockpot and just let them simmer for a couple of hours. It keeps them wonderfully soupy and you get to avoid firing up the oven on a summer day. Also, just saute the onions a little with the bacon so that they aren’t crunchy and raw. I threw in a couple teaspoons of fresh minced ginger as well since I had it leftover from another recipe and liked the added depth, but the beans would have been marvelous without it too.
These are awesome. I added a few healthy shakes of liquid smoke instead of bacon. Also, these would be much better with home-cooked beans. The canned were a little mushy, but the flavor was AMAZING!
‘Barbeque’ is an acceptable variant in American, despite the origin – a misunderstanding of the abbreviation BBQ; however ‘barbecue’ is the correct appropriate (and internationally understood) form. The spelling ‘barbeque’ should indeed be pronounced ‘bar-bek’.
Yum! Brought these to a 4th of July party, to rave reviews. The chipotle is great, and they’re not sweet and sticky like canned beans are. I used dried beans (why? dunno) and raw onions, which were sweet and tender and cooked. Also baked them in a Dutch oven, since I have that and not a glass dish of the appropriate size (or pretty much any size, really). Will make these again!
To cook
1 dig a hole about 1 cubic foot in the ground. Burn a fire in it for about 2 hours. Put whatever bean recipe you like in a one gallon corn syrup can (I’m dating myself) and place in hole among the coals and charcoal.
2 keep a fire going above the hole till the next day at supper time.
3 excavate and die bloated.
sorry
1(b) fill hole and start fire on top
I used the bacon drippings as in the recipe but reserved the actual bacon to crumble over the dish just before serving. It was crunchy and delicious and I highly recommend it!
Deb, what kind of barbecue sauce do you use? I’ve got access to mustard/vinegar, sweet, tabasco-tinged, etc., but I’m unhappy with any sauce I try since D.L. Jardine stopped making their Texas Champagne sauce.
I like to make my own.