The Best Baked Beans Ever

Have you noticed that people are “mama” biased about certain foods?  I mean -  I don’t care if Paula Deen made it, if she didn’t make it like mama’s, it’s just not as good!  My kids are starting to be like that and it makes me smile. 

Baked beans are one of those foods in our family.  When we were kids, if we went to a cookout or potluck and mama’s baked beans were not on the table, we passed.  No one’s beans were like my mama’s, and we loooved hers.

With that said, if you don’t already have a yummy baked bean recipe, this one is a winner!  For everyone else, I’m sure your mama’s are the best so you won’t need to be wasting your time here, right?  Besides, I’m really posting this recipe for my sister, so she can stop calling me to get the recipe.   I figure if it is published on my blog, she can reference it here and I won’t have to explain it to her husband for the 11th time while she is off nursing the baby because my sister asked me to.

There is really nothing special about the ingredients in this recipe.  I don’t know what makes them so good, but they are.  I hope you enjoy them as much as we do.

Ingredients for 8x8 pan:

3 15 oz. Cans Van Kamp’s Pork and Beans, remove fat

4-6 strips of Bacon, cooked and crumbled

1 small to medium Onion, chopped

1/4 Cup Ketchup

1/4 Cup Brown Sugar

1 tsp. mustard

Cook the bacon, reserving the bacon fat.  

By the way, did you know you can cook a pound or more of bacon at once, by layering it?  This allows you to have cooked bacon for other recipes with little or no extra effort.  Just keep a close eye on it and don’t cook at too high of temperature.  Turn the slices frequently and reposition them in the pan as they cook down smaller.

When the bacon is crispy, remove and set aside. Saute the onion in the hot bacon fat until it turns yellow and is tender.  Don’t let it brown.  This will probably take 13-15 minutes.

While the bacon and onions are cooking, empty 3 can of beans into an oven safe dish.  For a 9x13 pan, double the above ingredients.  Add the brown sugar, ketchup, and mustard.  When the onions are tender, add them as well.  Stir  gently. I DO NOT ADD THE BACON AT THIS TIME.  My mother did.  I prefer to have the bacon a little crispier, so I add it right before serving.

Bake at 350 F degrees for 45 minutes.  Stir in about 1/2 of the crumbled bacon, and then top with the remaining 1/2.  If you doubled the recipe, you might want to bake for an additional 10 minutes.  Serve hot or cooled.  Yum!  Yum!  Yum!

We just had a meal of baked beans, turkey burgers, sweet corn from Illinois, and homegrown tomatoes from Missouri.  It was heavenly!

Thanks for stopping by, but next time come for dinner!  We'd love to have you.

Ellie