Baked Beans from Scratch

Baked Beans
4 c. dried pinto beans, rinsed
6-7 c. water
1/2 lb. of bacon, 4-5 thick slices
1 t. salt
1-2 t. black pepper
Optional:
1/4 c. brown sugar
1 t. onion powder
mustard
ketchup
barbecue sauce
Rinse beans and put beans, bacon and water in a large pot or dutch oven. Bring to a boil an turn down heat, simmer for 2 hours. Add salt, pepper and seasonings of your choice. Serve as a meal with cornbread or these are great as a side with smoked or grilled meats.

If you are from the north, you will probably prefer your beans and cornbread to be a little sweet. In the southern US, they don't add sugar to their beans or to their cornbread. I decided to try making beans from scratch cause I saw the recipe on Pioneer Woman, have you ever been to her site? I didn't stick to her recipe, I just used it as my jumping off point.

5 slices of thick applewood smoked bacon

Normally you just put the raw bacon in the pot with the beans and water. The bacon cooks up when you boil and then simmer the pot for 2 hours, but it never gets to that crispy bacon level, which I love, so I cooked mine first.

Chopped up the CRISPY bacon

4 c. dried pinto beans, rinse with water and make sure that you only have beans and no FOs, foreign objects

Put beans, water, bacon and bacon grease in pot and boil, cover, turn down to simmer for 2 hrs.

Beans and bacon after they have been simmering for 2 hours, I used 7 cups of water, you probably only need 6. Now they are ready to season.

1 t. salt, they needed more, but then everyone can add as much salt as they prefer at the table.

1 or 2 t. ground pepper, I used about 1 1/2 t. of freshly ground, it is much stronger than store bought ground pepper.

1 t. onion powder, I used onion powder since I didn't have an onion around, you could add 1/2 an onion or so and cook it up with the beans early on.

1/4 c. brown sugar, I didn't want to get them too sweet, you could easily add more sugar, if you like sweet baked beans

Some mustard, barbecue sauce and ketchup, I just added a little of each along with all the other seasonings.

Mix up some cornbread from scratch or mix, I used a mix since I didn't have any corn meal

Bake corn bread in a skillet, heat the skillet on the stove to melt 2 T. butter in the bottom

I ran the butter around the sided to make sure the cornbread didn't stick to the pan.

Pour the batter in the pan, you can see it is already starting to bake on the edges of the hot skillet.

Bake in the oven as directed, mine said 400 for 20 min.

Mmmmm, it is so nice and crispy on the bottom

Serve with beans