Eats
Last-Minute One-Hour Baked Beans
In honor of Labor Day (a national day off here in the United States honoring the labor movement, which benefited my family in a concrete way–no pun intended, but they were bricklayers), I wanted to present the best baked bean recipe I know of. It’s the one my friend Leslie makes from an arduous-but-worth-it recipe in an ancient issue of Bon Appetit magazine. It starts with dry beans, and further challenges a lazy summer cook by requiring the acquisition of a smoked ham hock. (Ham hocks, smoked or not, are thin on the ground here in the Northeast, where we lack the panoply of pork parts found in the Piggly Wiggly in Sewanee, Tennessee, which Ann once showed me to my amazement.)
Other ingredients that I can remember are the traditional brown sugar and/or molasses, plus a jar of hot salsa.
Leslie’s baked beans are incredible. They are sublime. They are the only baked beans worth skipping a second hot dog for.
Well, it’s already Labor Day, so there’s no time for soaking a sackful of beans overnight. But Bon Appetit comes to the rescue, with a version of Hot and Smoky Baked Beans from 1999 that requires neither the dry beans nor the elusive ham hock. As this recipe has the approval of Smitten Kitchen, I hereby link to her version, which includes the crucial tip to not use the amount of chipotles called for. La Smitten also omitted the bacon, which seems kind of wrong to me, but I get her point that the leathery consistency of bacon baked in liquid is not the highest form of bacon.
I went with the vegetarian version. 10 minutes to chop an onion, open all the cans of beans, and combine with other ingredients; one hour in the oven.
Whether you are baking beans or not, here’s wishing you a wonderful holiday and an exhilarating return to the routines of September.
Knitting for my last beach weekend of 2018 is a sunshiney lap full of Sea Breeze Cowl-Poncho from Field Guide No. 7. The Spud & Chloë Sweater yarn is so very pleasant.
MDK I don’t know how you do it, but here is another answered prayer, with perfect timing.
Officially on the roster, I will be laboring today. Happy Holiday to all, enjoy the beans at the barbecues.
Thank you. As a person who does not eat meat, I use chipotle peppers instead of bacon a lot. It took me a while to learn the whole less is more thing there. That said, I’ve never found vegetarian baked beans that were not too sweet so will try these. I also may try one day to make with dry beans in the instant pot since you can prep dried beans in 4 minutes there. Enjoy the end of beach season. Fall is my favorite beach season up here.
May I humbly suggest liquid smoke as a sub out for the smoked meat in just about anything. I do not eat meat and use it a lot. It is the not-so-secret secret substitution for amazing vegan red beans and rice. The have regular, mesquite, etc and it is not nasty chemicals, just a bit of alchemy on the part of the manufacturer. From what I understand, it has something to do with literally capturing smoky condensation. It is near the barbecue sauce in my grocery store but the location can vary a lot from store to store so just ask someone. Our Labor Day dinner plans just got cancelled so Field Roast veggie dogs, pretzel rolls, and, thanks to your timely suggestion, baked beans for dinner tonight it is. Thanks,
Interesting. Liquid smoke always seemed gimmicky to me. Glad to have a recommendation.
Come to Lancaster County PA == we’ve got ham hocks galore!
We can get them in most major supermarkets anywhere in NJ. We can also get smoked turkey parts (wings, tails, etc) which we use interchangly. Boil them for 30 minutes or so to remove the saltiness, then pop them into whatever you are slow cooking – beans, kale, collards, turnip greens, etc. We use them a lot to flavor dishes with that nice smokiness.
Hey, Marcia, is there such a thing as an un-salty ham hock? Or a way to cook one that gets rid of most of the salt?
You boil it for about 20 minutes, Eugenia. The boiling water should taste somewhat salty. Boiling for more or less time is perfectly acceptable!
I’m in the northeast, but I belong to a meat-buying club (we buy from a range of meat and poultry items from a Mennonite farm in Lancaster County, PA) where we can get smoked hocks. Another good source can be grocery stores in a majority persons-of-color neighborhood. Great for when I haven’t planned ahead!