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It doesn’t matter whether I need to presoak them or not, but I would prefer recipes where they don’t need to be precooked (which is what I have to do when I use them in recipes that call for canned beans). I really just want to be able to use dry beans and not canned beans in all the things I cook, since they are a whole lot cheaper and if I don’t have to precook the beans it would save a whole lot of time.

I know my mother and grandmother never precooked them when they used dry beans when I was a very small small child, but by the time I was old enough to learn to cook from them, they both had switched to using canned beans since they were more convienient and took less time to prepare.

When I was really little, however, I remember them putting beans to soak at night before going to bed and then they would cook them up the next day. I do remember that they always said not to salt the beans or to add an acid to the pot until the beans were soft, but I was too little to pay attention to all the other ingredients they would add to their bean concoctions.

They both made really wonderful baked beans using the dry beans, but I haven’t been able to figure out what I am doing differently.

This site has tons of recipes, but, the link is going directly to beans.

http://www.justbeanrecipes.com/index.html

My mom always presoaked her beans. then dumped the water in the morning. I sometimes presoak, but, sometimes I do the short cut on the bag where you boil them for a few minutes then let them sit, then drain and continue with the recipe.

Anyway, there are a lot of bean recipe there and you should be able to see which recipes suit your needs.

I wish that I could help you. My mom made great baked beans, with latticed bacon strips on top. But I never learned her recipes and now wish that I had. I know that she started with dry navy beans, but don’t have the rest of the details. They were so good!

The first recipe is the one I use. At the time, it was the one I found that most resembled the ingredients that my mom used, though it does use the precooked beans. Having said that, I quickly looked through the bean site and grabbed a couple of recipes where the ingredients closely resemble the above, but use dry beans.

Easy Baked Beans
1 (48 oz) jar Randall cooked Great Northern Beans 1 1/2 lbs cubed pork 1/2 tsp salt (optional) Dash of pepper	1 (14 oz) bottle of catsup 3 T prepared mustard 1 1/2 cups brown sugar 1/4 lg onion, chopped 2 T molasses
In a 3 qt casserole, combine all ingredients, mixing well. Let it marinate in the refrigerator for a couple of hours or overnight. Bake uncovered at 325 for 4 hours, stirring after a couple of hours.

I need to comment on something here about the cubed pork. We found that the longer the cubed pork sat in the finished beans, the tougher the cubes got. Whatever recipe you eventually do, its something to keep in mind. My mom always used bacon. At the family Christmas dinner where I took them, everyone loved them and some said they liked the cubes better. But, if you have left overs you might want to use them fairly quickly to avoid the meat getting tough. Now, that might have been my fault. First time I made it that way I thought the pork needed more flavor so the next time I let the pork sit in the liquid mixture for a few hours, then added the beans just before cooking. First time around they were gone the next day so maybe they didn't get a chance to get tough. I just don't know. My son says the sweetness in the mixture pulls the moisture out of the meat. (He's majoring in plant genetics and minoring in biotech)

I tried them using Eckrich Smoked Sausage, but after a day or two the sausage gets odd. Almost candied. I'm thinking of trying it without meat once just to see how they are, but may wind up going back to the bacon.

The one recipe below cooks the baked beans on top of the stove. My mom did hers in the oven. I remember her using ketchup, molasses, yellow prepared mustard, brown sugar. The second recipe doesn't use a few of those, and I'm not sure how to adapt it, since it uses a lot more molasses, which is why I ended up using the precooked bean recipe.

As for cooking them on the stove, I would probably avoid that simply because, trying to simmer something for a long time like that ends up being a pain on our stove. Its either too high or too low. I might try that last recipe, and just pop them in the oven and see how that goes.

Hopefully one of the recipes at that site will pop an ingredient into your head that maybe you were missing.

Boston Baked Beans

3 lb Dry Pea beans or Navy beans
1 1/2 c Dark molasses
1 tb Dry mustard
1 ts Salt
1/2 ts Pepper
1/2 lb Salt pork; diced
1 lg Onion; chopped

Rinse beans; in a large kettle combine beans and 24 cups (6 quarts) cold water. Bring to boiling; simmer 2 minutes. Remove from heat. Cover; let stand 1 hour. (Or, add beans to water and soak overnight.) Bring to boiling; simmer till beans are tender, about 1 hour. Drain, reserving liquid. Combine molasses, mustard, 1 teaspoon salt. 1/2 teaspoon pepper, and 3 cups reserved cooking liquid. In 6-quart bean pot, mix beans, salt pork, and onion. Stir in molasses mixture. Cover, bake at 300 degrees for 3-1/2 to 4 hours, stirring occasionally. Add more reserved cooking liquid, if needed. Serves 15.

Baked Beans

1/2 lb Bacon diced
1 Yellow onion diced small
1 ga Water
1/2 c Molasses
1/2 c Brown sugar
2 c Ketchup
2 tb Yellow mustard
1 1/4 lb Navy beans (soaked in water to cover overnight)
Salt and freshly cracked black pepper to taste

In a large pot, saute the bacon over medium heat until browned, about 5 minutes. Add the diced onions and cook until browned, about 5 minutes. Add the water,sugar, molasses, ketchup, mustard and bring to a boil. Add the beans and bring back up to a boil, then reduce to a slow simmer and cook 4-5 hours until the beans are soft, adding water from time to time if necessary and stirring often to prevent burning. Season with salt and pepper to taste. These beans will keep covered and refrigerated about one week.