Better Boston Baked Beans

By amaliana

Most recipes for Boston baked beans-including some of my older ones-are exercises in excess, especially sweetness. With a few tweaks to the technique and a little tomato paste, you can cut the amount of bacon and sweetener in half without missing them one bit. As an added bonus, the dish requires virtually no work once you pop it in the oven. For a vegan or vegetarian version, use 2 tablespoons olive oil or butter instead of the bacon, and if you like add a large piece of kombu seaweed to the pot before baking.

Ingredients

• 8 ounces slab bacon, cubed or thickly sliced
• 2 onions, chopped
• 1/4 cup tomato paste
• 1/4 cup molasses
• 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard, or to taste
• 1 pound dried navy or other white beans, rinsed, picked over, and soaked if you like
• Salt and black pepper

Preparation

Step 1

1.Heat the oven to 300. Put the bacon in a large ovenproof pot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Cook, stirring, until the pieces are crisp and some fat is rendered, 5 to 10 minutes. Scoop out the bacon with a slotted spoon. Add the onions to the fat and cook, stirring, until very soft and browned, 15 to 20 minutes.
2. Stir in the tomato paste and keep cooking and stirring until it darkens and dries a bit, another minute or 2. Return the bacon to the pot and stir in the molasses and mustard. Add the beans and enough water to cover by 3 inches. Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring and scraping up any brown bits from the bottom of the pot. Cover the pot and transfer it to the oven.
3. Bake, undisturbed, for the first hour, then stir. The beans should be submerged by at least 2 inches of water; if not, add a little more. Cover and bake for another hour, then check and stir again. By now the beans should be getting tender; keep checking every 30 minutes.
4. When the beans are tender, remove the lid and make sure they are covered by about 1 inch of liquid. Raise the oven heat to 400. Bake until the mixture thickens and bubbles and the top and sides brown a bit, anywhere from 15 minutes to 1 hour. Season to taste with salt and pepper and add more mustard if you like. Serve immediately (or cool and refrigerate for up to a few days or freeze for months).