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One of the quintessential summer dishes, baked beans are delicious in many varieties. We offer three recipes to try at your next cookout. (Bill Hogan/Chicago Tribune) |
Most summer foods lend themselves to cooking outdoors. Baked beans not so much. The quintessential summer side tastes best with a long, slow simmer.
Why bother heating up the kitchen when there's such a huge assortment of canned baked beans in stores? My family cooks them for several reasons: pleasure, personalized flavor and accolades. No two recipes are alike. All summer long, we attend parties with someone's rendition. One thing in common: I like them all!
I am especially fond of my brother-in-law Dave's vegetarian slow-cooker version for its simplicity and ease. Then again, there's my late mother-in-law Mickey's recipe, jampacked with bacon and brown sugar. She'd wrap the hot bean pot, crusty with caramelized bits, in large beach towels to stay warm on their trek to family picnics. This summer, we're attempting to re-create it from the yellowed card in her wooden recipe box. Like Dave's, her recipe starts with canned beans and a little time on the clock.
As a young culinarian, I spent hours perfecting James Beard's recipe for homemade baked beans with dried navy beans and molasses. These days, dried black beans factor into my Mexican cooking on a regular basis, but it's been ages since I've made baked beans from dried beans. Soaked and cooked slowly, dried beans have a more toothsome texture than canned.
Dried heirloom bean varieties update my old recipe. I now crave a version more about smoke and heat than sweet, so I make my own barbecue sauce from fire-roasted tomatoes, and enlist just a little bacon fat, smoked paprika, chili sauce and Worcestershire. Then it's into the oven for hours and hours. No worries, I'll have plenty of time to enjoy the summer day — the beans need only an occasional check.
Homemade baked beans — not a bad thing to hang your culinary hat on this summer.
Real-deal smoky baked beans with sweet onion
Prep: 30 minutes
Soak: 1 hour
Cook: 5 to 6 hours
Servings: 10
Ingredients:
1 pound dried pinto, cranberry or Rio Zape beans
3 tablespoons bacon fat or vegetable oil
1 large sweet onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, crushed
2 cups low-sodium chicken, beef or vegetable broth
1 can (14 1/2 ounces) diced fire-roasted tomatoes, undrained
¼ cup each: packed dark brown sugar, chili sauce (or ketchup)
Why bother heating up the kitchen when there's such a huge assortment of canned baked beans in stores? My family cooks them for several reasons: pleasure, personalized flavor and accolades. No two recipes are alike. All summer long, we attend parties with someone's rendition. One thing in common: I like them all!
I am especially fond of my brother-in-law Dave's vegetarian slow-cooker version for its simplicity and ease. Then again, there's my late mother-in-law Mickey's recipe, jampacked with bacon and brown sugar. She'd wrap the hot bean pot, crusty with caramelized bits, in large beach towels to stay warm on their trek to family picnics. This summer, we're attempting to re-create it from the yellowed card in her wooden recipe box. Like Dave's, her recipe starts with canned beans and a little time on the clock.
As a young culinarian, I spent hours perfecting James Beard's recipe for homemade baked beans with dried navy beans and molasses. These days, dried black beans factor into my Mexican cooking on a regular basis, but it's been ages since I've made baked beans from dried beans. Soaked and cooked slowly, dried beans have a more toothsome texture than canned.
Dried heirloom bean varieties update my old recipe. I now crave a version more about smoke and heat than sweet, so I make my own barbecue sauce from fire-roasted tomatoes, and enlist just a little bacon fat, smoked paprika, chili sauce and Worcestershire. Then it's into the oven for hours and hours. No worries, I'll have plenty of time to enjoy the summer day — the beans need only an occasional check.
Homemade baked beans — not a bad thing to hang your culinary hat on this summer.
Real-deal smoky baked beans with sweet onion
Prep: 30 minutes
Soak: 1 hour
Cook: 5 to 6 hours
Servings: 10
Ingredients:
1 pound dried pinto, cranberry or Rio Zape beans
3 tablespoons bacon fat or vegetable oil
1 large sweet onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, crushed
2 cups low-sodium chicken, beef or vegetable broth
1 can (14 1/2 ounces) diced fire-roasted tomatoes, undrained
¼ cup each: packed dark brown sugar, chili sauce (or ketchup)
