Mom's slow cooked baked beans

By heathaly

Ingredients

• 1 lb. dried navy beans, picked over for pebbles and rinsed
• 1 medium yellow onion, diced fairly small
• 1-2 pinches ground cloves
• 8 oz meaty uncooked bacon, diced (I use an uncured applewood smoked)
• 1/4 cup plus about 2 tbsp real maple syrup
• 3/4 cup molasses (NOT Blackstrap, just regular)
• Generous 1/2 cup spicy brown mustard (I use Kosciusko Spicy Brown, half of a 9 oz jar)
• 3 cups boiling water
• 1/2 cup ketchup
• 1 tbsp cider vinegar

Details

Adapted from ellesnewenglandkitchen.com

Preparation

Step 1

In a large saucepan, bring the beans and 10 cups of water to a boil. Boil for 2 minutes, then remove from heat, pop the lid on, and let them sit for 90 minutes. Drain the beans and discard the liquid.

Heat the oven to 250 degrees.

In a 4 quart Dutch oven, add the beans, onions, cloves, bacon, maple syrup, molasses, mustard and water. Stir to combine. Put the lid on the pot and place it in the oven. Cook for 3 hours. After the 3 hours, stir in the ketchup and vinegar. Put the lid back on and cook 5-6 more hours.

When the beans are dark brown and tender, and the glaze is nice and thick, they're done. I find I don't need to add any salt or pepper after cooking, but I'll leave that up to you. Store any leftovers in the fridge.