The Baked Bean Experiment

Alastair maintains that he has been looking at the Boston Baked Beans recipe in our Supercookery book for the past twenty years and meaning to make them, and he's certainly been saying to me for the past ten years he's going to make them one day.  Repeated exposure to the idea means that I've acquired a low-level obsession with home-made baked beans too.  When a recipe for Boston Baked Beans not only appeared in an American cookbook Jules gave me for Christmas, but also in the February issue of Good Food we decided that the universe was obviously trying to send us a message, and purchased a bag of haricot beans from Tesco. 

The first thing you're meant to do is soak your beans overnight.  We forgot to do this, which may have some bearing on what happened later.  They look so innocent here....

When we realised our mistake, I did a bit of internet searching and found that there is actually a "quick-soak" method which we used.  I do not recommend it! 

Soaking issues aside, making the baked beans is very simple.  After you've soaked them and then boiled them up a bit (to remove the toxins) you put the beans, an onion chopped into quarters and some belly pork (we used 260g) into a stew-pot.

The BBC Good Food recipe also has celery, carrots and tomato puree in it - having done the Supercookery version I think that the BBC Good Food version would make a better end result.  In the Supercookery version you just mix some black treacle, some soft brown sugar, some mustard powder and some salt and pepper together, and then add the mixture to the pork and beans.

Then you cover your beans and additions with water and - according to the recipe - cook them on a low heat in the oven for 5 hours (adding water every so often), followed by 45 minutes simmering on the stove-top.

Ahem.  It took about 9 hours, including a good 3 of fierce boiling on the stove-top, and what seemed like gallons of water before our beans went soft!

I wasn't at all sure, given the amount of sugar and black treacle, and from tastings during the boiling process, that I was going to like proper baked beans, but by the time the cooking process had finished the belly pork had gone meltingly tender and the sugariness of the sauce had abated somewhat, producing eight portions (!) of rich and hearty bean stew.  A very economical dish (although not pretty I have to say...)!

To be honest, the baked beans we produced are too sweet for me, but - not one to let good food go to waste - I have been eating them as the basis of a healthy and filling meal with steamed kale, carrots and a squeeze of lemon juice.  The strong flavour of the kale and the lemon juice cuts through the sweetness of the sauce and makes an enjoyable, balanced meal.  I don't think I would make this recipe again, but I am now a lot more inclined to make casseroles with (pre-soaked) beans in them and use them as meal-bases.

And finally...because I'm sure you're wondering...I have not suffered from the digestive problem traditionally associated with baked beans!