I know there are many choices of beans that a person can buy if they want to serve baked beans for a picnic or a potluck. Let me tell you this: after you’ve made this recipe, you won’t want to be just opening up a can of beans anymore.
I got this recipe from my friend and neighbor Joyce who concocted it with a friend a few years back. They were providing baked beans for a fundraiser for church and wanted to do more than just heat up a can of beans. (We Mennonite folk are known for our homemade goodness, after all!) So they dumped and sauteed, seasoned and stirred, mixed and tasted, and added until they got it right. Since then, everybody knows that if you’re having baked beans at a pot luck, you ask Joyce to bring them.
Pick up your favorite brand of pork and beans and you’ll be off to a start. You’ll also need an onion, pepper, bacon, brown sugar, molasses, and ketchup (did I say it would be calorie free?!). When you’re having a picnic, you don’t worry about calories anyhow.
This is a wonderful recipe if you’re serving a crowd of people. You can mix up several gallons a day ahead and heat them in a slow cooker.
- 1 gallon pork and beans
- 1 medium onion (finely chopped)
- 1 cup green pepper (finely chopped)
- ⅔ cup molasses
- 1 cup ketchup
- ⅔ cup brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 6 strips bacon (fried and crumbled)
- Fry bacon and drain; then crumble pieces
- Saute onion and pepper in bacon grease OR in margarine
- Mix together all other ingredients
- Add onion, pepper and bacon
- Put into 4 quart casserole dish
- Bake at 350 for 1½ hours, stirring every 30 minutes
