← Nouns Cooking · American

Ingredients

• 450 g dried navy (haricot) beans, soaked overnight, drained
• 150 g thick-cut smoked bacon or salt pork, cut into 2 cm pieces
• 1 Onion, chopped
• 80 ml Molasses or black treacle
• 3 tbsp Brown sugar
• 2 tbsp Dijon or 2 tsp mustard powder
• 2 tbsp Tomato purée (paste)
• 1 tbsp Cider vinegar
• 1 tsp Salt
• ½ tsp Black pepper
• 750 ml hot water, plus more as needed

Method

1. Soak the beans in plenty of cold water for 8 hours or overnight. Drain, cover with fresh water in a pan and simmer for 45–60 min, until the skins start to split when you blow on a spoonful. Drain.
2. Heat the oven to 150°C (300°F). Fry the bacon in a large ovenproof casserole over medium heat for 5 min, until the fat runs, then add the onion and cook for 5 min more.
3. Stir in the molasses, sugar, mustard, tomato paste, vinegar, salt, pepper and hot water, then add the beans. The liquid should just cover them.
4. Cover and bake for 3 hours, stirring every hour and topping up with a splash of hot water if the beans start to look dry.
5. Uncover and bake for 30 min more, until the sauce is thick, glossy and dark. Taste for salt and serve hot.

Tips

• Add salty or acidic ingredients only after the first simmer, or the beans can stay stubbornly firm.
• They taste even better reheated the next day; cool quickly and refrigerate within 2 hours.

Sources

Written in our own words after cross-checking these recipes:

BBC Good Food The Modern Proper