From-Scratch Baked Beans

Method

1. 1

   Cover the beans with plenty of cold water and soak them overnight. Drain them. Cover with fresh water by 2 inches and simmer 40 to 50 minutes, until the skins split when you blow on a spoonful and the beans are starting to soften. Drain, and save the cooking water.

2. 2

   Heat the oven to 300°F. Put the beans, salt pork, and onion in a Dutch oven. Stir in the honey, tomato paste, mustard, salt, and pepper. Add enough of the cooking water to just cover the beans.

3. 3

   Cover and bake 3 hours. Check once an hour and add cooking water, or plain water, if the beans are sitting dry. They should look creamy, not chalky.

4. 4

   Uncover for the last 30 minutes so the top thickens. Taste for salt. The salt pork does some of the salting. If the beans are still firm, cover them and bake longer. Time, not a higher oven, is what finishes them.

From the kitchen

• The tomato and honey go in after the first simmer. Acid too early can keep beans hard.
• A boiled bean that never softens was old, or the water was very hard. More baking helps a little. It will not rescue a bean that has sat in the pantry for years.