New England Beans (aka Boston Baked Beans) w/recipe

These are pretty standard beans in New England, but there are probably thousands of recipes. 

So My recipe goes like this...

1 lb dried Navy Beans

3 C water

1/2 Med Sweet Onion

Pork (of some kind)

3-4 T Brown Mustard

1/3 C Black Strap Molasses

1/3 C Brown Sugar

Allspice (I add about 1/2 teaspoon, but you really need to add a little, taste, add a little more, etc)

To bake them, soak the beans 24 hours...rinse...then in the crock you layer onion, pork, beans...onion, pork, beans...then mix everything else and pour it over. Cover and bake on low heat until the beans are cooked well. Checking it every hour or two to add water if needed. The lower the heat, the longer they bake and the better they taste :)

But, I am canning them...which is a bit different. So this is what I do.

Soak the beans 24 hours...Then rinse well...

In a soup pot I mix Double of all ingredients aside from the beans and onion. So 6 C water, 2/3 C molasses, etc...

Then I chop the onion fairly fine, and add that to the pot...and put it on medium heat.

Once it is warm, I add the beans and bring it up to a simmer.

We want to simmer them until the beans can be squished, but are still fibrous, like 3/4 cooked.

The pork I am using I saved from the shoulder I used to make Pea soup. I had cut it into pieces and put it in the freezer...but any pork will do, like bacon is good too.

I drop 1 bit of pork into each jar...

Then add the beans. I fill them to 2'ish inches below the rim with beans, then to 1 inch with the liquid...because the beans will keep soaking that liquid up.

Then wipe the rims, add the lids and they go in the pressure canner for 80 min.

Check your altitude for the pressure.