Baked Beans with Bacon

By MJH

Ingredients

• 1 bag great northern beans.
• 8 pieces thick farm fresh bacon (save the rendered fat)
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 6-8 cloves of garlic, smashed
• 1 cup ketchup
• 1 6oz can tomato paste
• 2 tbls ground mustard
• 1/4 cup dijon mustard
• 1/2 cup rapadura sugar (or dark brown sugar)
• 1/4 – cup molasses
• 2 bay leaves
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• water to cover

Details

Adapted from bing.com

Preparation

Step 1

Soak bean the night before

The next day, fry the bacon until barely browned on both sides and the fat has begun to render.

Cut the bacon into 2″ pieces.

In a large cast iron dutch oven or pot add all the ingredients including the port fat from the bacon. Add water to about 1″ above the beans.

Place a lid on your dutch oven or pot and bake at 325f for 8 hours. Make sure to check the beans every couple of hours and stir.

For the last hour, uncover the lid. This will allow the beans to thicken up!

If you are heading off to work, this can be done in a crock pot set on low for 8 hours. However, reduce the amount of water to just cover the beans.