Boston Baked Beans I Made It

Boston Baked Beans

pointsevenout 15 years ago

Recipe by Chef_irish: Boston Baked Beans

Something's amiss in this recipe. Could be the 2 quarts liquid added back in to the beans or the temperature of the oven.

I ended up with bean soup.

Recipe intrigued me because of the use of whole cloves pinned into some onions.

I starved myself today waiting for the baked beans recipe. Trying to rescue it by doing a slow simmer to boil off the liquid.

If nothing else, it's bean soup.

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jimrug1 15 years ago said:

Points, I just read the recipe you are trying. You are right, the recipe is quite confusing. And some of the quantities don't make sense to me either.

My thoughts after reading this recipe:

First off, it is rather risky to do a "quick soak" on the dried beans when you are doing baked beans. If your beans are overly dry or a little extra hard, It will take forever to get them done. You should always soak them overnight and up to 24 hrs.

Second, it calls for salting the dried beans while cooking them. That will hamper their ablility to absorb liquid.

Third: Way to much water. If anything, you should be reducing some of the reserved bean cooking water not adding to it. After you mix in the molasses and seasonings. All you want is just enough water to barely cover the beans. You can always add a little during the baking.

Fourth. I don't like the idea of just putting the two onions on the bottom whole.. You will get much more flavor by chopping them fine and frying them in the pork fat. Sprinkle any powdered seasonings on the frying onions before you add the molasses..

Something to think about: There are very good quality Jarred White Beans available that are allready cooked. Put them in a colander, rinse them really well and start from the point after the beans are cooked. You will instantly save all the soaking time and 1- 2 hrs cooking time...

Just my opinoin but I'm sticking to it.... ;-)~~

PS.. I know you are trying to cook these recipes as written but geez, if you can look at it and tell its not going to work.. Why waste the energy.....

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laurieg 15 years ago said:

you guys are too funny!!!
points I think has been eating beans all week.....

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jimrug1 15 years ago said:

LOL.. Laurie... I think it has taken him a week to make them.....;-)~ Glad I'm not in that house tonight.......... ;-)~ I bet Points could fluel a rocket to Mars right now....

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pointsevenout 15 years ago said:

I'm just a beansprout in the world of cooking dry beans. Only made 4 recipes. I had all those reservations in the back of my mind you spoke about Jim. But I went ahead and made the recipe per the destructions. The author is a self proclaimed master chef so I deferred to her expertise.

The quick soak turned out quite well but I can see where extra dry beans could be a problem.

And the whole idea behind making dry beans is to get away from the expense of canned. I'm enjoying making recipes from scratch as much as I can.

I knew there was a problem when I added in the liquid just before bake.

From the brush off comment I received from the author, I'm suspecting the credentials.

I've been trying to do things this week that don't require bending over. Loading the dish washer had been problematic.

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jimrug1 15 years ago said:

"From the brush off comment I received from the author, I'm suspecting the credentials. "

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jimrug1 15 years ago said:

Bingo!!!!

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jimrug1 15 years ago said:

I understand about the expense thing. However, I am not talking about canned.. They come in clear quart jars. The cost difference for the size of dish you are making would be about $3.50 and save you 2-3 hrs. Just trying to help you find that ultimate Baked Bean Dish in the sky......;-)~

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wynnebaer 15 years ago said:

Bingo!!!

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juels 15 years ago said:

You guys are too funny! I'm still laughing reading all your bean comments!
To Jim: thanks a lot for the great bean tips! I learned a whole bunch!

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juels 15 years ago said:

By the way, I had to tweak Chef Irish's stuffed mushrooms recipe. The stuffing ingredients didn't quite add up. I had to add a bunch of stuff to it to fix it up. I'm with Jim on this one, if it doesn't sound right, don't stick too close to the instructions.

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pointsevenout 15 years ago said:

With a few more bean recipes under my belt, so to speak, I'll be more confident to question a bean recipe early on. And for now I'm still in the heavy trust mode but it doesn't take me long to look at a horseshoe.

I had another bean recipe that just wasn't up to my taste preferences from Chef_irish. But let's not turn this string into a bash the chef string.

She has just joined a little over a month ago and has added an astounding amount of recipes.

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jimrug1 15 years ago said:

Regarding your last sentense... Biting my tongue .......... ;-)~~~

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lilliancooks 15 years ago said:

Points...I know you didn't want that bean recipe to be a soup dish, but if you ever want to try an amazingly good Bean and Ham Soup, check out this one, I recently made it! I know its from that 'other ' website, but it is to die for!!!

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/The-Best-Bean-and-Ham-Soup/Detail.aspx

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pointsevenout 15 years ago said:

I just happened to have a bag of 15 bean mixture. Might give this one a go after I detox.

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jimrug1 15 years ago said:

LOL... Points!! After all that you still have beans left?? Be careful mann! Your going to blow yourself up..... ;-)~~

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lilliancooks 15 years ago said:

LOL! LOL! LOL!

You and Points should take this act on the road!!!

Thanks for the good laugh Jim! :)

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pointsevenout 15 years ago said:

Thought I had the 15 bean mix. Only beans left are navy, kidney, and pinto. One, two and two pounds respectively. Thought I had bought two bags of the 15 bean mix, apparently not.

So I have 3 new bean dishes to explore.

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juels 15 years ago said:

About my comment earlier in regards to the Chefirish's stuffed mushrooms. I wasn't trying or meaning to bash the chef string, just saying that sometimes you don't follow the recipe exactly the way it's written, if you can tell that it ain't going too well.

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pointsevenout 15 years ago said:

Understood. I wasn't trying to put anything on you juels. I was noting that this is the third Chef_irishs' that didn't turn out as advertised and could see that this string could be starting to go down the chef bashing road. Not my intention.

It's the recipes that I'm more intent on bashing. People need to take a lot of care and proofreading to get their recipes right. If the authors are proud enough to post a recipe that they hang their icon on then a couple minutes of extra care to get it right. Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy ingredient amounts and temperatures waste good food. And us beginner cooks are going a lot on faith until we get our skills built up.

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