A favorite, hearty New England dish. Mamie's Homemade Baked Beans are made from scratch with just six ingredients, yet are rich with flavor from molasses and bacon.
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The are lots of old-fashioned, simple, and hearty dishes associated with New England, and baked beans are at the top of the list. And I personally think this recipe is one of the best ever: Homemade Baked Beans from my great-grandmother Mamie's recipe.
This is my great-grandmother's recipe for baked beans, a very simple blend of just a few ingredients, including plenty of molasses. After a long bake in the oven, the beans are wonderfully soft, creamy, and full of flavor. Make them as a tasty side for backyard cookouts, Saturday night suppers, or holiday dinners.
In a nutshell... 🐿️
- What this is: A treasured, old-fashioned recipe for my great-grandmother's baked beans. It's a hearty New England favorite made from scratch with just a few simple ingredients, like molasses and smoky bacon.
- You'll love this part: It has a wonderfully rustic, homey flavor that's deeply comforting. The baked beans are soft and creamy, soaking up lots of sweetness from molasses.
- How it's made: After an overnight soak, simmer the beans on the stove. Then mix them with molasses and seasoning, top with bacon, and bake until they're thick and tender.
Jump to:
New England's history with baked beans
Even though Boston has the catchy moniker of Beantown, baked beans have a long history as a suppertime staple not only in Massachusetts but in all the New England states.
New England Historical Society shares that there's some dispute over whether the dish was introduced to colonists by Native Americans, or whether it came from across the sea from Europe or Northern Africa. What's for certain is that early settlers in New England relied on staple ingredients with long shelf lives to see them through the long and bitter winters. Dried beans and salt pork (used to flavor the beans) were two such ingredients.
Beans are also cheap, filling, and can be cooked up in quantities large enough to feed a big family for several days. For Catholics who had to abstain from meat on Fridays, baked beans were a natural choice to fill bellies.
When paired with another inexpensive food, hot dogs, baked beans evolved into the New England traditional Saturday night supper of franks and beans. A favorite side to this easy is a slice or two of Boston brown bread, a loaf with a unique cylindrical shape because it's baked in a coffee can.
Across the six states, there are many interpretations of a classic baked beans recipe: they can be flavored with add-ins like onions, spices, salt pork, or bacon, and sweetened with molasses, maple syrup, or sugar. Some folks cook beans just enough so that they keep their shape, swimming in a rich sauce. Others bake beans longer until they become a tender mash.
This recipe has sweetness and flavor from molasses, much like traditional Boston baked beans, but without any onion. The beans are cooked for a long time first on the stove and then in the oven, until they're thick, creamy, and flavorful. For those of you who remember cans of Grandma Brown's Baked Beans (the company is now out of business), the texture of my homemade baked beans is similar to those.
Fond memories of my great-grandmother
As kids, we were very lucky to be able to grow up with most of our family living close by. My maternal grandparents lived a short drive away from Bennington, Vermont, over the border in New York. (That's my Gram Riley who made the chocolate Wacky Cake!) And my paternal grandparents lived right across the street from us. (My Gram Frechette, who made the Walnut Coconut Cookies!) And next door in the big, old white house were my paternal great-grandparents.
My great-grandmother Mamie was kind, hale and hearty, a caregiver, rather no-nonsense, and often in the kitchen. I have a lot of enduring memories of her house. There was a walk-through pantry that I still dream about recreating in our house one day! It also had a washing machine in the kitchen, a huge willow tree in the yard next to the house, and a dark, scary cellar hole that we were never allowed to go in.
(As a kid, I had a nightmare that I was trapped in that cellar with an axolotl, a strange, amphibious creature that I'd probably read about in an issue of Ranger Rick!)
Mamie did a lot of cooking, but the one dish she made that I could never get enough of was her baked beans. She often sent a pan of them over to our house; no one else was all that fond of baked beans, so I usually had them to myself!
Trying to recreate those baked beans
Years after Mamie passed away, my grandmother wrote down the baked bean recipe for me, from memory. And, in a style characteristic of so many old family recipes, my Gram wrote the recipe with minimal detail and vague estimates on time. ("Cook until tender.") She probably assumed I knew the basics of cooking beans! I didn't... as a result, my early attempts at recreating the dish were disappointing, mealy, and undercooked.
Eventually though, I was able to fill in the gaps and make beans that taste like Mamie's. And when I caught that aroma and took the first bite of the properly cooked, molasses-soaked, super tender beans, it was like I was right back there in Mamie's house. And she was there too, wearing her sensible house dress and in her rocking chair by the screen door, watching for my grandmother, who walked across the street several times a day to see her, and for people she knew driving or walking by on Burgess Road.
Why you'll love this recipe
What you'll love the most about this recipe is how much molasses flavor and sweetness are baked into these beans! The whole dish has a rustic, homey flavor that complements so many main dishes, like hot dogs, hamburgers, pork roast, barbecued chicken, and grilled sausage.
Create your own Saturday night franks and beans supper by pairing these baked beans with cut-up hot dogs and slices of Boston brown bread. Or, enjoy the beans all on their own as a late-night snack or a light meal.
This recipe is almost exactly the same as the one my great-grandmother used to make. One change is that I use bacon instead of salt pork; I just love the extra flavor and light smokiness it gives the beans. The recipe takes some time, including an overnight soak, simmering time on the stove, and baking in the oven. The steps are important, though, to achieve that from-scratch flavor.
And New Englanders will tell you—homemade baked beans are worth the wait!
🔪 How to make Baked Beans from scratch
Ingredients:
- Dried beans: My great-grandmother used dried Great Northern beans for her baked beans recipe. Look for bags of the white beans in the grocery aisle with other beans and whole grains.
- Molasses: Use regular, unsulphured molasses such as Grandma's brand. Avoid blackstrap molasses as this type is very dark and bitter.
- Bacon: A few strips of smoked bacon add just the right amount of salt and savory flavor to the baked beans.
- Baking soda: The beans are briefly simmered with baking soda to help pre-tenderize them, and so that they produce less gas once they're eaten.
- Salt: Just a little salt goes in before baking; the bacon will also release salt into the beans as they bake.
- Dry mustard: A classic ingredient often found in old-fashioned baked bean recipes, a little dry mustard works in the background to add a bit of zip to the overall flavor.
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Soak beans overnight
Pour water over the beans in a pot and let them soak overnight.
Simmer the beans
Drain the beans, simmer them briefly with baking soda, then drain and simmer them again until they're tender. This will take about an hour and a half.
Add the other ingredients
Stir molasses, seasonings, and cooking water into the beans in a greased baking dish. Top the beans with bacon.
Bake the beans
Cover and bake the beans for an hour. They'll be very soft and really flavorful. Enjoy!
FAQs
You can store homemade baked beans with bacon in a tightly covered dish in the fridge for up to five days. Let the beans cool completely before chilling them.
I had never tried this before writing this post, but I found that yes, you can freeze these best ever homemade baked beans. Once they cool, transfer the baked beans to tightly covered, freezer-proof containers. Freeze the baked beans for up to two months. When you're ready to enjoy them, move the beans to the refrigerator to thaw for several hours or overnight.
One of the easiest ways to reheat homemade baked beans is in the microwave. Transfer them to a microwave-safe dish, lightly covered with a damp paper towel. Heat the baked beans in 45-second bursts, stirring after each one, until they're warmed through. You can also reheat baked beans in a covered saucepan set over medium-low heat. Stir them often until they're warmed through; you can add a splash of broth or water if they need loosening up.
Tips:
- Look for dried Great Northern beans at grocery stores or online. This baked beans recipe from scratch hasn't been tested with other types of beans.
- If you'd prefer the old-fashioned approach, replace the bacon with a hunk of salt pork or a ham hock nestled into the beans.
The recipe for Mamie's Homemade Baked Beans is below! Try these other classic New England recipes, too:
💬 Did you make and devour this recipe? Leave a comment below.
📖 Recipe
Homemade Baked Beans, My Great-Grandmother's Recipe
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Ingredients
- 1 pound dried Great Northern beans
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 cup molasses
- 1 teaspoon dry mustard
- 1 teaspoons salt
- 4 strips smoky bacon
Instructions
Soak beans overnight:
- Pour the dried beans into a large pot and cover them with cold water. Cover the pot and leave the beans to soak at room temperature overnight.
Cook the beans:
- Drain the beans and then return them to the pot. Cover the beans with fresh water and stir in the teaspoon of baking soda.
- Bring the water to a boil, then simmer the beans for 10 minutes.
- Drain the beans once more and return them to the pot. Cover them again with fresh water and bring the water to a boil.
- Lower the temperature to keep the water a gentle simmer. Cover the pot and gently simmer the beans until they're tender, about 80 minutes.
- Reserve 1 cup of the cooking water; then, drain the beans,
Prepare the beans:
- Preheat the oven to 325°F and grease the bottom and sides of a 13x9-inch baking dish.
- Pour the cooked beans into the baking dish. Add in the molasses, dry mustard, salt, and a ½ cup of the reserved cooking water. Use a wooden spoon or rubber spatula to gently stir everything together.
- Finally, lay the strips of bacon over the top of the beans.
Bake:
- Cover the baking dish tightly with aluminum foil. Place the pan in the oven and bake the beans for 1 hour.
- Check the beans once or twice during baking—if they seem to be getting too dry, pour in a little more reserved cooking water.
- When they're done, uncover the pan and discard the bacon strips. (They won't have any flavor left; all the flavor goes into the beans!)
- The baked beans can be served immediately, or you can let them cool and enjoy them at room temperature. Makes about 10 servings
Store:
- Once the baked beans are cool, cover the pan tightly with food wrap; or, transfer the baked beans to resealable containers. Store the baked beans in the fridge for up to five days.
Freeze:
- The baked beans can be frozen for longer storage. Transfer them to a freezer-proof container, leaving just a little space at the top. Cover the dish tightly and store the beans in the freezer for up to two months.
- To thaw, place the baked beans in the fridge to defrost for several hours or overnight. You can reheat them in a covered dish in the oven or in short bursts in the microwave.
Notes
- Look for dried Great Northern beans at grocery stores or online. This recipe hasn't been tested with other types of beans.
- If you'd prefer the old-fashioned approach, replace the bacon with a hunk of salt pork or a ham hock nestled into the beans.
Nutrition
Anonymous says
Thank you for sharing not just the recipe, but the story behind it. Such sweet memories!
Nancy Mock says
Thank you, I enjoy sharing these family memories! I hope you like the baked beans when you make them!