Stephanie Alexander's Baked Beans

"Stephanie Alexander's recipe from her book 'The Cook's Companion'."
 
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Ready In:
4hrs 15mins
Ingredients:
16
Serves:
4
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ingredients

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directions

  • Preheat oven to 160⁰C.
  • Rinse soaked beans, then put into saucepan & cover with cold water. Bring to a boil, then strain & rinse with cold water.
  • Heat oil in a large enamelled cast-iron casserole & sauté onion, garlic, carrot & bacon. After 5 minutes, when onion has softened & bacon is sizzling, add red & green peppers.
  • Puree tomatoes & juice in a food processor & add to casserole with beans & remaining ingredients, except maple syrup. Mix well. Add sufficient cold water to cover beans by 4 cm.
  • Transfer casserole, tightly sealed, into oven & bake for at least 4 hours. Stir well after 2 hours, checking that it is still reasonably sloppy (if too dry, add a little water & reduce oven temp).
  • After 4 hours, stir in maple syrup, extra salt & plenty of freshly ground pepper.
  • The beans should now be in a rich sauce. If too thick, add a little water; if too runny & the beans are tender, increase oven temp & continue to cook.

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Reviews

  1. Delicious and 600% better than the tinned variety. I used Borlotti beans (no probs) and also 100gms of lean bacon rather than 2 slices, omitted the maple syrup by mistake and cooked it in my electric New Wave 5:1 cooker for 5 hours. I soaked the beans in boiling water for half an hour before putting them into the cooker. The beauty of this cooker, compared with a conventional oven as per Stephanie's recipe, is that the lid is sealed tightly (even with vent open) so you need much less liquid. I will definitely cook this again.
     
  2. Finally got hold of some dried Roman beans, since I didn't want to try the recipe with the kidney kind, then pretty much followed the recipe right on down, baking them at 320 degrees F, & they were great in the taste department, & a nice change of pace from the usual baked beans! Thanks for posting the recipe! [Made & reviewed for one of my adoptees in this fall's round of Pick A Chef]
     
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