Smoked Boston Style Candy-"ized" Bake Beans!

Oldman · June 12, 2005, 12:28:38 AM

For years I use to make Boston Baked Beans the hard way. You know what I mean. Going through the dried beans looking for small stones, and bad beans. Then there was that over night soaking etc..

One day I came across a brand of baked beans I felt I could work with. Now I have two recipes for these types of beans. One is a heavier non smoked Boston Candy-"ized" Bean. The other is a lighter but it is "smoked." The recipe below is for the smoked/ lighter bean.

If you are into Texas style BBQ beans then these are not for you.

Ingredents:
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
6 oz. Molasses
4 oz. Maple syrup--amber
56 oz Bush Old Style Original Baked Beans
1 Tablespoon Yellow Mustard
2 Teaspoons Dry Mustard
1 pound of quality Bacon
1 good size Onion. Yellow or White. NO SWEET Onion.

Step One:
Take about 60% of the pound of bacon along with the onion that is pealed and cut into 6 pieces place them into your smoker and smoke with Maple for 2 hours. Box temperature 225 F degrees.

Step Two:
Slice the smoked bacon and onion into the size that is shown in the picture.

Click To Enlarge

Add all other ingredients.
Mix until you are sure the brown sugar is complete dissolved and the color is uniform.

Step 3:
Next take remaining (non-smoked) bacon and cover the top of the beans. Place in pre-heated oven 350 F degrees.

Step 4
This is where you can lose it. By over cooking the beans. There is nothing worse than to have a candy-"ized" dried out bean. After 1 to 1 1/2 hours stir your beans. Mixed them up good. After that every 15 minutes you are going to stir the beans again but you are also going to "test" the sauce.

What you are looking for is while the sauce still looks wet and loose in with the hot beans you remove some of the sauce and place in a glass bowl allowing it to cooL Next spread it up the sides of the bowl, turn the bowl on it side and if the sauce does not run down then your beans are done.

This is why you must ckeck every 15 minutes. You go 15 minutes to long and the moisture of the beans begins to leave. Shortly after that they dry out.

Note in this picture how the sauce on the right hand side did not run down the bowl.

Here is the finished product:

This bean will have a light smoke flavor. Kind of like a sweet little accent. As you can see from final picture these beans have been candy-"ized."

Years ago I made 50 gallons for an outside wedding. There was not a good gallon left to take home.

Enjoy!

Olds

EDITED to fix the broken links. Pictures will now enlarge. Added to recipe site.

MWS · June 12, 2005, 12:35:26 AM

Looks great...... I'm gonna have to try that. Good to see your finding time to use your smoker Olds [;)]

Mike 

"Men like to barbecue, men will cook if danger is involved".
-John Wayne

Oldman · June 12, 2005, 01:58:56 AM

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Good to see your finding time to use your smoker Olds <hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">Yepper, and the pork was great as well....

Olds

nsxbill · June 12, 2005, 04:03:36 AM

Those beans look great!

Bill

There is room on earth for all God's creatures....on my plate next to the mashed potatoes.

JJC · June 13, 2005, 05:12:51 AM

I've lived in Boston for 30 years--ain't never seen Boston baked beans that looked that good!

John
Newton MA

MallardWacker · June 13, 2005, 02:32:28 PM

Olds, you make it hard on me man, been gone for almost two weeks and dy'n to smoke something and can't. Great recipe. It lends itself to a lot variations and experimentations.

SmokeOn,

mski
Perryville, Arkansas
Wooo-Pig-Soooie

If a man says he knows anything at all, he knows nothing what he aught to know. But...

Oldman · June 13, 2005, 05:51:44 PM

Duck Man you hit it on the head... variations and experimentations. We as folks seem to create these better than super glue smokin' recipes... And yet we forget the simple things. Like the side dishes. To enhance a meal everything should be looked at... not just our best smoked foods.

What is the value of a WHOLE meal when we have one outstanding item and the rest are just run of the mill items that any so - so can open a can and do it...??????????

Eating from the beginning to end should be a life's living experance! Let me repeat that again: Eating from the beginning to end should be a life's living experance! Note just another so-so meal.

Olds

manxman · June 13, 2005, 07:22:00 PM

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">56 oz Bush Old Style Original Baked Beans
2 Teaspoons Dry Mustard<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

Good to see the English (Colmans) mustard in there Olds but it gets soooo frustrating to see some of the goodies you guys concoct when the ingredients are'nt available this side of the pond!![:(][:(] (not that I am aware of anyway)

Next time I get to the US I am going to get some VERY odd looks if I am stopped by Customs when returning to Britain.

I might get away with some of the rubs I have in mind plus the Foodsaver bags but copious cans of "Bush Old Style Original Baked Beans" might be difficult to explain!!!

With a bit of luck they will just pat me on the head and send me on my way!![:I][:I]

Them there beans look scrumptious!![:D][:D][:D]

Manxman.

Oldman · June 13, 2005, 08:23:38 PM

Manxman,
Tell what I will do.. I will see if I still have my recipes from 30 years ago about beans...if I do (no promise now) you will not have to worry about the beans.

If I don't give me a couple of weeks to come up with something you can use... I will find it again.

Olds

manxman · June 13, 2005, 09:01:47 PM

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Manxman,
Tell what I will do.. I will see it I still have my recipes from 30 years ago about beans...if I do (no promise now) you will not have to worry about the beans.
'

If I don't give me a couple of weeks to come up with something you can use... I will find it again.<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

Just love this forum, the nicest bunch of folks you could possibly meet! [:D][:D][:D][:D]

Manxman.

Oldman · June 14, 2005, 01:29:10 AM

GRRRRRRRrrrrrrrrrrr I just realized by X took all of my older recipes when she blew out...16 years ago.[V] Damnest part of it she hated to cook too~~~! Don't get me wrong. She was not ugly about things when she left... I just think she took them by mistake. As I said, she of all people would have no use for them. She is the only woman I've ever known who could scorch water in a pan before it boiled dry. LOL! She is like my current wife. Only with Susie it is gardening. I've seen Susie kill plastic plants~~! NO KIDDING. She went to clean some plastic plants/ flowers in hot water. The problem was it was boiling water on the stove--DUH! Does the word melt come to mind? Well at least you got to admit the women I've been married to are interesting!

As I said give me a few to kick this around. If I drink enough Brandy I should be able to remember what I did 25-30 years ago. The question is if I will remember what I remembered when I sober up. LOL!

Joking aside. Give me a few days to come up with a recipe from my memory. Plus I would have to test it to make sure the end results where the same. [:D]

Seeing for whatever reason we have things to work with here that you don't over there...may I ask if you do have "White" or "Navy" beans?

Also tell me what brand{s} of pork n' beans do you have.

Olds

manxman · June 15, 2005, 07:19:22 AM

Hi Olds,

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">may I ask if you do have "White" or "Navy" beans?<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

We certainly have white beans, also borlotti (?spelling) beans, available.

We have various tins of "barbecue" beans, beans and pork sausage etc. in various sauces but these are mass produced stuff which are be pretty insipid in the main.[:(]

Manxman.

Oldman · June 17, 2005, 03:20:14 AM

Manxman,
I have not had a chance this week to work on the beans for you. I'll do my best to start something Saturday. I have kicked around a couple - three ideas and I do plan. I've just have not had the time to get into the kitchen.

If this works out like I think it will then this will become my new recipe. One way or another we will get you some candy-"ized" beans! [^]

As far as your borlotti bean goes (spelling is correct) it is a little too close to pinto bean for me. Not that I don't like pintos, its just I don't see them working in this recipe. Your borlotti bean is the same bean we call here in America cranberry beans.

Olds

manxman · June 17, 2005, 10:09:54 AM

Hi Olds,

Great, really looking forward to this one. There is no hurry, I had some exams last week and for a while I have had very little free time for anything else so I can appreciate the difficulties.

And anticipation is half the fun..............!![:D]

Manxman.

BigSmoker · June 17, 2005, 03:54:04 PM

When I want to make baked beans I use navy beans usually. I sort them and then put them in a strainer that fits in my pressure cooker. Cover with 1" water and bring to a boil for a minute or two. Turn off the heat and let steam let off by itself. Once steam is gone rinse throughly(this 1st step takes a lot of the "gassy" out of them[:D] and replaces the overnight soak). Return beans still in the strainer to the pressure cooker once again cover with 1" water, salt to taste and bring to a boil again for several minutes. Again turn off heat(move off the burner both times if using an electric stove)and let the steam let off. Open her up and test your bean to see if they are done. They should still be firm and by no means squishy. Now prepare with your favorite ingredients and bake in the oven until bubbly. I normally use brown sugar, ketchup, dry mustard, onion and some type of smoked meat. Brisket is really good in beans. Happy Smokin'.

Jeff

Some say BBQ is in your blood, if thats true my blood must be BBQ sauce.