Aunt Dottie’s New England Baked Beans
My aunt’s New England Baked Beans are part family tradition and part geographic tradition.
Some recipes are so ingrained in a part of the country that they become a part of daily life. Baked beans are ingrained into daily life in New England. Baked beans and Boston Brown Bread are available at many neighborhood restaurants and most church dinners.
My dad’s family is from New England. They lived in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Vermont. We often went to Vermont to visit my grandparents and my aunt & uncle when I was a girl.
My Aunt Dottie and Uncle Phil still live there. My cousins, Ginny and Judi, have spent many hours, days, weeks and years researching our family genealogy.
I have always been fascinated by the stories of families and where people come from. There are some doozies! Stories about the Mayflower, Lizzie Bordon, whale hunting and dairy farming are the most exciting stories.
The tales about day to day life are interesting and amazing, when compared to conveniences we have today.
My grandparents in New England, circa 1930s
As with most families, we have favorite meals and recipes that have been handed down. This recipe is a classic New England recipe – both filling and inexpensive.
Make it a Meal:
Serve these baked beans with your favorite sandwich and a small salad for a hearty supper. If you’re looking for a smaller meal, a serving of beans a slice of bread will hold you over.
Variations:
Add diced celery, green peppers or carrots for extra flavor and color. Mix the type up beans you use, add some kidney beans and black beans to the navy beans.
Gathering Ingredients
I’ve read so many cookbooks, I can’t begin to count them. There is one bit of advice that I’ve read in nearly all of them. That tip is to gather all your ingredients before you begin following the recipe instructions. The French term is mis en place. That’s about as much French as I know.
This is really, super great advice! You know why? – You discover if you have all of the ingredients to make the recipe or not! I took that advice this morning, when I decided I wanted to make these baked beans.
It’s a good thing I did too. I discovered that I didn’t have the ground ginger called for in Aunt Dot’s recipe. (keep reading for how I dealt with that problem!)
After I had my ingredients in one spot, I thought they looked very interesting, so I set up most of them for a photo shoot. (I left the syrup and molasses in the kitchen, because they can be a sticky mess and I was afraid I’d gum up my camera!)
I played around with the ingredients – yes, it is ok to play with your food sometimes! And the picture above is one of my favorites.Don’t you love my grandma’s (now antique and collectible) measuring spoons?!
Here’s another picture of the beans and the onion … the colors look so good together!
Mixing Spices
It can be a trick to get your spices blended evenly throughout your recipe. Â A trick I use to make sure the spices are distributed equally in all corners of my pan and all servings of my recipe, is to mix the spices in their own bowl before adding them to the recipe.
In the picture below, you’ll see I’ve measured the four spices in this recipe and placed them in a condiment dish. A prep bowl, measuring cup, tea cup or shot glass would work as well as my pretty blue bowl. Once I have all the spices in this small bowl, I mix them together, usually stirring with a fork to mix the ingredients. 
I like this picture because you can clearly see the four separate spices, pepper, cinnamon, mustard and salt. I substituted cinnamon in my version for the ginger called for in Aunt Dot’s recipe. Why?
1. because I was out of ginger. 2. I didn’t want to run to the store. 3. I had cinnamon (just a teaspoon). 4. We like cinnamon.
Guess what the first two items on the grocery list are for next week? Â – right! Ginger and Cinnamon!
Bean Pot
My husband’s family comes from the same New England region that mine does. His ancestors and mine both owned dairy farms in the same county. I can imagine his great-something-grandfather trading stories with my great-something-grandfather.
The shared New England heritage probably explains the bean pot my husband brought to our household when we married. (He is not a cook, although he is a keeper!) This bean pot is ceramic with a lid. It is 5 inches tall and 9 inches in diameter -about the same size as a medium mixing bowl.
If you don’t have a bean pot, don’t fret. You can use any covered casserole dish or Dutch Oven that will hold two quarts. If you don’t have a covered casserole dish, an 8 x 8 baking pan covered tightly with aluminum foil will also work.
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My Aunt Dottie shared this recipe with her daughter, Judi, who in turn passed it along to me.
Aunt Dottie’s New England Baked Beans Recipe
Ingredients:
1 lb beans
2 or 3 oz of salt pork or bacon
1 onion
1 tsp salt
1 tsp dry mustard
1/2 tsp dry ginger
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/3 c molasses
1/3 c real maple syrup (if you don’t have this use brown sugar)
Recipe Directions:
Sort and soak beans overnight in water. Parboil beans with salt pork or bacon.
Coarsely chop the onion. Combine the spices and syrup/sugar with molasses.
Place everything in the bean pot and cover with water. Bake.
New England Baked Beans
Family tradition that is a New England staple.
Ingredients
- 1 lb beans
- 2 oz salt pork or bacon
- 1 onion
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp dry mustard
- 1/2 tsp dry ginger
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
- 1/3 c molasses
- 1/3 c real maple syrup if you don't have this use brown sugar
Instructions
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Wash, sort and soak beans overnight in water.
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Parboil beans with salt pork or bacon.
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Coarsely chop the onion.
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Combine the spices and syrup/sugar with molasses.
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Dump all together into the bean pot.
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Cover with water.
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Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 1 hour then reduce heat to 225 for (depends on the beans) and bake for an additional 4-5 hours for Navy beans or 6-8 hours for larger beans like Soldier.
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Check on the water from time to time so they don't dry out on top.
Approximate Nutrition Information:
Servings Per Recipe: 10, Amount Per Serving: Calories: 392, Fat: 13g, Cholesterol: 13mg, Sodium: 500mg, Total Carbs: 55g, Protein: 10g.
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