The Gourmet Moose.

Mom's Baked Beans

Mom's Baked Beans

Ingredients

  • One large can (40 ounce) or 3 15.5-ounce cans Great Northern beans
  • ½ cup ketchup
  • 1 15 ounce can petite diced tomatoes pulsed a few times in food processor
  • 3 strips of bacon cut up, brown in skillet, drain grease
  • 3 tablespoons chopped onions
  • ⅓ cup packed brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon-1 tablespoon molasses optional
  • 1 teaspoon dry mustard
  • coarsely ground black pepper to taste I used about ¼ teaspoon

Instructions

  1. I use the 2 quart Pyrex baking dish. Add water to come nearly to the top. Cover and bake in 275°F oven until thick, stirring every hour or so. The time is trial and error as is the taste. Other than the ketchup, I don’t measure anything. You can bake them for a while one day then finish the next. They also freeze well.
  2. We’ve been using three 15.5 ounce cans of beans, plus about 8 ounces of tomato sauce. Don’t drain the beans, just add the whole can with liquid. Use dark brown sugar, or light brown with an added teaspoon of molasses. We bake uncovered for about 6-6½ hours at 275°F. We don’t add any extra water, except during the last hour; at that time ¼ cup of water might be needed, and then cover to finish cooking.

Notes

29 July 2022: We have been baking the beans uncovered for 4.5 hours. We don’t add any water; the liquid from the beans (which we don’t drain), tomatoes, and ketchup seems to be enough.

18 July 2026: Today we baked the beans for 5.5 hours (8:50am - 2:20pm). They came out very well, but were just on the verge of having the bean skins come loose. We’ll do them a little less next time.

25 July 2026: We made them again today, and baked them for 5 hours (9:00am - 2:00pm). We drained one can of beans to make them a little less wet (and a bit less voluminous since they typically come precariously close to the top of the baking dish). These were perfect! The only thing we have to remember is that when we make the beans on pizza day (Saturday) it would be better to start them a little later, like around 10:00am or a little after, so we can turn the oven up to pizza temperature as soon as the beans come out.