Go to the Recipe: Baked Beans
Hmmm that seems very odd Jon. I just did a test by doubling the recipe to see if anything doesn't scale up correctly. What might be the issue is when scale up in step 1 the amount of soaked beans you should yield isn't scaling up. It's now saying "Soak 400 g dry navy beans for at least six hours. Strain and reserve the beans. This will yield about 400 g soaked beans.". The weight after soaking should be double. But maybe you caught that when you were scaling it?
When you scale this up for a pound of dried beans, does it not scale correctly? To be clear, the math works but I end up with enough juice for 2 pounds of dried beans. I feel like if I didn't soak them that it may work better.
I would like to know how to make it without a pressure cooker.
We used hot smoked bacon. You can use uncured belly, but I recommend checking the seasoning and adding a little salt and brown sugar sugar if need.
I'm way late but the question appears to be whether it was cured/smoked belly (bacon) or uncured belly. Likely a translation thing.
This recipe is a staple for me. I’ll make a batch and portion out meal sized servings and freeze them for future use. I make it as specified. It’s so damn good I see no need to make any adjustments. I made another batch tonight (July 4) to serve alongside the grilled burgers from another recipe here. It was a great Fourth of July dinner!
SO I tried the recipe, but instead of a pressure cooker, I used sous vide for about 18 hrs at 195 deg f. Added the bacon after sous vide. Got rave reviews. BTW since I was also sous vide the brisket, I transferred the beans to a dutch oven on top of my new Control Freak @ Home, set it to 195 deg with probe. WOW it worked great. Now I have 2 sous vide appliances.
Ok, but how would I do this without a pressure cooker? Seems like it could be done by cooking in a pot for some hours.
Navy beans?
A++ for presentation the pie looked just like the photos, taste profile not so great the custard was silky smooth but tasted way too much like the secret ingredient...The crust was the start just wonderful I would make it again and use a different custard.
As with most recipes here at Chefsteps, the first set of ingredients seen on a page will have a "EDIT SCALE & UNITS" bar und the "INGREDIENTS" title. Click on the black bar and the ingredients will change. Pick any one ingredient and change its amount. Every thing else will change in the list. The times however will have to be adjusted for by yourself.
Is it navel or is it cooked/smoked/ bacon
Can I use uncured navel?
how many servings is 1200 g of beans?? I'm trying to make this for a party with 50 people and I have no clue how to multiply the recipe. Help please!
Im sorry you are getting mixed results. But yes the water should scale up along with all of the ingredients.
I made this recipe last night and followed the suggested tweaks of others below. It was lovely and I will certainly make it again. The tweaks I made were: - I only used a quarter of the salt (4 g) and that was still plenty salty enough. - I halved the amount of sugar and even then it was still a little on the sweat side - but not overpoweringly so. - I used Jaggery Goor instead of molasses (20 g) as I didn't have molasses. - I used Kielbasa instead of bacon. This was lovely however the beans could have easily taken an even stronger flavour meat - maybe even Chorizo. Well done guys - a great recipe upon which to build.
Hoping someone sees this and responds. Does the water scale up at the same ratio? I’ve done this with a pound and with a pound and half of beans and have way too much liquid in the end. I’ve added canned beans and adjusted the seasoning to work it out, but mine looks nothing like the video.
I like salt, but this is way too salty from my taste- I would literally cut it in half and correct after it is done.
Hi Tina. The garlic goes bitter in high heat way too fast when it's finely minced. When you burn it in oil, 30 seconds top and then hello bitterness. When using recipes with no cooking onion & garlic in olive oil in the first step, I found it best to use garlic powder. No bitterness and no overpowering aroma
Great recipe! Some feedback:
- Like several others who provided feedback, I reduced the salt to 5 grams. Also, I used uncured pancetta instead of bacon. (Trader Joe's has some very nice pancetta already cubed the right size for this recipe) The salt level was perfect.
- I used an Instant Pot. The time for each "natural release" cool down was about 30 minutes, so the cooking time was much longer that I had anticipated. I suggest planning on 2+ hours after the beans are done soaking. Most of the time is idle time.
- The beans were slightly watery at the end of the cook, but they thickened up after a few minutes. I also added a few dollops of chopped pulled pork barbecue to get the taste/texture to my liking.
- I greatly appreciated the logic behind managing the acidity. Baking soda did the trick to facilitate browning, and the cider vinegar at the end added some nice brightness to the beans.
These beans are a perfect, minimal amount of work for vast returns. I used pink beans because, during the COVID hoarding buying, that's all I could find that’s similar to navy beans.
The bacon that is found in baked beans is a soft morsel of meat and fat. If bacon were to be completely cooked prior to adding to the beans it would become a hard and chewy bit of jerky-like meat. Think of the bacon as a pat of butter, not as a meat addition.
Hi Chefsteps - may I ask why you would cook the bacon later, and only for a short bit? This is very interesting to me. What is the basis of this technique?
I also use an Instant Pot...better texture when the beans are soaked...but for a quick, unplanned batch of baked beans, unsoaked beans will work
Use the bean cooking setting if it has one. The manual may have some insight since every one is a touch different. Someone below uses an Instant Pot. The first cook is a high pressure fro 25 minutes, then cooled to add the bacon and high pressure again for 3 minutes.
How would I do this with an electric pressure cooker?
Christos this is one of my family’s favorites I use half the salt and bacon and it turns out every time... I have made this about 15 times over the last 4 years? I think you should give it another chance maybe use less of the brown sugar?
Well that didn't work out well. The result was toooo sweet and a big part of the food stuck on the bottom of the pressure cooker, got burnt and everything tasted like mashed beans with bbq sauce. The recipe is a bit fail or not my taste.
I was doing three other things at the same time and decided to use the Instant Pot instead of the Kuhn Rikon, so I didn’t have to mind the heat. Also decided that I like browning the bacon first, and I threw in the onion for a couple of minutes at the end of the bacon fry. Usually use salt pork (fat back, pork belly, whatever you want to call it), but decided such a quick cook might get a better smokiness with bacon, and reduced the salt by ⅔ just to be safe. But I’m really looking forward to tweaking this recipe again and again. The basics are very versatile.
Turned out great !! I smoked my own pork belly for this. You could also add in some smoked pork too. Toss in some Red and orange sweet pepper with the bacon and stir. Don’t pressure Cook the pepper though.
Pressure cookers are just MAGIC!
A couple of questions about this recipe. I forgot the vinegar and realized this when I thought the garlic was bitter. Added the vinegar and found that really helped. Then I added a bit of oil thinking that might also tame the garlic. That also helped.
Why does garlic go bitter in dishes? How is the best way to fix this? It seems to need more sweet but I am not sure. I can fill anyone in on my choices of ingredients if those might matter. I did use all the salt, homemade bacon (less salt variation), didn’t have all the tomato paste (short by about 7% of desired amount).
I am not sure of my garlic type. It could be a variety that is more peppery or something. Thoughts?
Hawkins Futura pressure cooker. If you use one of these, no need to fear your pressure cooker.
It pulls out and reduces the sugars that cause bloating and gas during digestion. Plus as a visual element it keeps your beans from “cracking open” during the cooking process. Leaves you a smooth surfaced bean.
why is the soaking necessary? I make beans in my instant pot all the time from dry and it only takes like 20 minutes tops at full pressure. Am I missing something here?
@DJB I used to have the same style pressure cooker and pressure canner. If you have the weigh constantly wobbling/steam escaping, you have you heat too high. Your weight should barely move, just the occasional wobble to let off excess steam. If you still come by here and want to give this recipe another go, try that.
Delicious rich flavour. As per previous comments, I used only 5 gr. Salt which was sufficient for mine and my husband’s tastes. Doubled everything else as I had just over two cups unsoaked beans. Love this easy quick recipe and will make over and over again.
Definitely takes baked beans up a few notches! Doubled the recipe and did not have any issues with taste, salt or consistency. Sauce was appropriately thick and delicious. Added locally sourced double smoked bacon in cubes and it gave them a nice Smokey flavor. I used a Farberware pressure cooker with preprogrammed setting for beans and it worked perfectly. Have also used with other bean recipes to save time and have been very happy. Will definitely make again!!!
I reduced the water a bit, worked for me.
my suggestions: cut the salt in 1/3, and precook the bacon (do not re-pressure cook).
Great recipe - but unfortunately with way too much salt. I would suggest using less than half that salt.
Umami is correct! However I agree with previous posts-too much salt. I will try this again tomorrow with about half the salt and it should be close to perfect Baked Beans. ( btw- I threw some cubed ham in for good measure and it was swell).
I made this recipe yesterday and it turned out great! I didn't find any issues with too much liquid or scalding the bottom of my pot. I let my pressure cooker go up to pressure gradually on a medium heat vs blasting it with high heat and getting it up to pressure quickly. Which probably helps with not scalding the bottom of your beans. As for hydration, I'm not sure why some people are getting an overly liquid-y sauce. I did let it depressurize on its own without opening the vent. Which I assumed is what was described in step 4. If this part of the process is omitted it could be that the beans/starches don't get to absorb as much and thicken the liquid?
Some things to note: I added apple cider vinegar to taste because I have a finicky husband who doesn't like sour flavor. I also followed previous comments and cut the salt to 5g. Used dark brown sugar and increased sugar amount by 10g (because I'm a heathen and actually like sweet bbq beans lol). Besides that, followed the recipe to the T.
This recipe is going to take over my other baked beans recipe. Cook time of 28 min vs 4 hrs? Duh, stick with this. Delicious and easy.
The flavors are good, but the texture much too soft; these came out like refried beans. I need to get the hang of the pressure cooker!
I have the Presto Pressure cookers that have the weight on top, no gauge. Steam escapes with it is up to pressure. How do I do this recipe with that style of pressure cooker? I don't want all the moisture to escape and burn the beans to the pot.
I made these and they taste very good but the sauce is like soup and does not hold to the beans. I checked my measurements and it seems they were accurate. Can I reduce the sauce without ruining the beans?
