📍 Massachusetts

Boston baked beans

Name: Boston baked beans
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 360 min
Total time: 860 min
Yield: 6 servings
Ingredients: 500 g navy beans, soaked overnight; 150 g salt pork or bacon, cut into pieces; 1 whole onion; 1/3 cup molasses; 2 tablespoons brown sugar; 1 tablespoon dry mustard; 1 teaspoon salt; Hot water, as needed

· Lunch

Beans slow-baked with molasses and salt pork, sweet and thick, enough to earn Boston the nickname 'Beantown.'

Editorial content by WorldBites · 2026-10-04 · Contact

⏱ 860 min🍽 6 servings📊 Intermediate🏷 Commonly associated🌱 Dairy-free

Preparation: 20 min
Cooking: 360 min
Waiting and resting: 480 min

History

This dish of beans slow-cooked with molasses and salt pork has colonial roots in New England, tied to the molasses and rum trade and the Puritan custom of cooking them on Saturday so as not to work on Sunday. They became so popular that Boston earned the nickname 'Beantown.'

Ingredients

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Preparation

1
Drain the soaked beans and cook them 30 minutes in water until they start to soften; reserve the liquid.
2
Place the onion at the bottom of a bean pot or casserole and add the beans with the salt pork.
3
Mix the molasses, sugar, mustard, and salt with cooking liquid and pour it in to cover.
4
Bake, covered, at 150 °C for several hours, adding hot water as they dry out.
5
Uncover for the last hour so they thicken and brown, then serve.