The Once and Future Beans

[Gerry D.]

I'm a big fan of "Good Eats" on the food network and I've been making these beans since I saw the episode. You gotta leave in the membranes in the jalapenos, they're just awesome.

1 pound dried Great Northern beans
1 pound bacon, chopped
1 onion, chopped
2 jalapenos, chopped
1/4 cup tomato paste
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
1/4 cup molasses
Vegetable broth
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon black pepper
2 teaspoons kosher salt

Heat oven to 250 degrees F.
Soak beans in a plastic container overnight in just enough cold water to submerge them completely.

Place a cast iron Dutch oven over medium heat and stir in the bacon, onion, and jalapenos until enough fat has rendered from the bacon to soften the onions, about 5 minutes. Stir in the tomato paste, dark brown sugar, and molasses.

Drain the beans and reserve the soaking liquid. Add the drained beans to the Dutch oven. Place the soaking liquid in a measuring cup and add enough vegetable broth to equal 4 cups of liquid. Add the liquid to the Dutch oven and bring to a boil over high heat. Add in cayenne, black pepper and salt. Give them a stir and cover with the lid. Place the Dutch oven in the oven for 6 to 8 hours, or until the beans are tender.

Nothing beats beans from scratch. Before these I used to make the Jacks Old South Peach Beans which are great as well. But I fell in love with these. Especially after I left the membranes in the jalapenos.

Gerry D

 

[Rita Y]

Gerry, thanks for posting Alton's recipe. It sounds quite simple and easy. It would be worth trying with a little smoke in a 250° WSM too. Uncovered, it would need more liquid and occasional stirring.

I'll have to try this one.

Rita

 

[Bryan S]

Vegetable broth? I can't even believe I'm asking this question, it goes against my fat diet, but how does one go about making veggie broth (shudder). I know I can buy it or open up a Knorr cube. I'm thinking more like chicken broth for the beans instead of veggie broth. Really look at the 1lb of bacon in the beans, veggie broth at this point is pretty much....... nevermind. I mean veggies to me is french fries.

But hey thanks for posting this recipe, sounds good and I'm a huge fan of good Eats.

To quote AB himself, "Fat equals flavor".

 

[Bryan S]

OK, I kind of made these today but well lets just say they were my inspiration for my BBQ beans today. Here's what I did. Didn't have dried Northern beans or Jalapeno's so I used what I had, little over 1/2 lb of baby limas soaked for about 18 hrs. Was pressed for time so I boiled them for about an hr to jump start them, beans still took forever on the WSM like 6 hrs. Any way I chopped up a lb of bacon and fried it up till crisp, drained off most of the grease but about 2 TBS and then fried the onions for about 8-10 min. Added to that
1/4 C Dark brown sugar
1/4 C Sourghum Moleasses (for Rita)

1/4 C Maple Syrup
1/4 C Head Country Hickory BBQ sauce
1/2 can of tom paste (3oz)
No Jalapeno's so I added 2 TBS of Red Chili Sauce I made the other day, and 1/2 tsp Chipotle powder.
1 tsp kosher salt
101 twists of pepper from the mill, one extra for good luck.
About 1 cup Swanson Beef Broth (left over from Sweedish meatballs last week)
1 Small can of College Inn chicken broth
and about 1/2-3/4 cup or so of the bean liquid.
Mixed it all up in a med foil pan and on the WSM it went under the Pork and Kraut that was on the top rack. Well they didn't get done in time for dinner but I just pulled them off at 10:00 PM and they came out pretty darn good, with great flavor and spice. I liked them alot, nice and sweet at first, but then they get spicey on you. I'll be making them again, they are a keeper. Sorry but I have this problem of not being able to follow recipes as written, my bad.

Well in this case I just used what I had. Might have to call these Fire Cracker Beans.