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Miss Hilda's Baked Beans

Source of Recipe

From "Emeril's Potluck" by Emeril Lagasse


Recipe Introduction

"This is the recipe for my mother's famous baked beans. Well, they should be famous because these are the best baked beans I have ever eaten. See, these are not your average baked beans—my mother uses lots of mustard for a great tangy flavor. She cooks the beans so they still have some bite to them and aren't mushy. They bear no resemblance to the canned variety. Make some for your next cookout and see what I mean."

List of Ingredients

â—¦ 1 pound dried navy beans, picked over and soaked overnight in water to cover
â—¦ 1 ¼ teaspoons cayenne pepper
â—¦ 1 teaspoon salt
â—¦ 2 bay leaves
â—¦ 2 tablespoons olive oil
â—¦ ½ pound salt pork, trimmed and cut into cubes
â—¦ 4 ounces chopped bacon
â—¦ 1 ½ cups ketchup
â—¦ 1 cup chopped onions
â—¦ ½ cup chopped celery
â—¦ ½ cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
â—¦ 1 tablespoon mustard
â—¦ 1 tablespoon chopped garlic
â—¦ 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper


Recipe

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.

Drain the beans and put them in a pot with ¼ teaspoon cayenne, the salt, and bay leaves. Add 8 cups water and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer until the beans are just tender, 45 minutes to 1 hour. Remove from the heat and let sit for 5 minutes. Drain the beans and reserve 1 ½ cups of the cooking liquid.

Heat the oil in a large ovenproof pot or Dutch oven over high heat. Add the salt pork and bacon and cook, stirring, for 4 minutes. Add the ketchup, reserved cooking liquid, onions, celery, brown sugar, mustard, garlic, black pepper, and remaining 1 teaspoon cayenne. Cook, stirring, for 4 minutes. Reduce the heat to medium-low. Add the beans and stir gently to mix. Simmer for 5 minutes.

Transfer the beans to the oven and bake for 2 hours.
Remove from the oven and serve hot. Remove the bay leaves before serving.

Makes 6 to 8 servings