Julia Child’s 16-Hour Baked Beans in 8-Hours
By kmorganmoss • Jun 23rd, 2008 • Category: Vegetables & Sides •
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One of my requests upon returning to New England was making a batch of Julia Child’s Baked Beans. This is a 16 hour recipe, and with a little planning can be worked in to your schedule quite easily. We have so much noise going on here that I forgot to plan ahead of time and realized this while preparing the Brunswick Stew.
Knowing that the quick bean method would work. I quickly whipped up a batch of these and managed to have them done in half the time. Once I decided to move forward, I went rumaging around my mom’s and sister’s kitchen looking for a bean pot. I was dismayed that neither my mother nor my sister had such a pot on hand. How can this be? What kind of Yankee home even attempts to cook Baked Beans without a traditional bean pot?
I own a bean pot and wouldn’t attempt to make Baked Beans without it, but my pot is at home and not one of the items from my kitchen that I felt compelled to bring along with me on the trip. I improvised, doing the quick bean prep method of bringing them to a boil in water for 2 minutes and then letting them sit covered for an hour, then baking in a Le Creuset Dutch Oven.
By the time I got back from the grocery store with the rest of the ingredients the hour was up and they would soon be ready to go into a low oven 250-300 degrees for a good 7-8 hours. They came out wonderful, though I must tell you a real bean pot with the narrow base and top with the wide middle does make a difference.
At the grocery store I found sliced pork belly that looked to good to pass up so used this instead of salt pork. I like a lot of molasses and find Julia Child’s recipe shy on the quantities, so I increased it from 3 Tablespoons to 1/2 cup. I always feel self-conscious changing her ingredients. With the thoughts, Who am I to tweak one of her recipes? But half way through I knew the molasses needed to be increased and went for it. I do this every time I make her Baked Beans, as if it is the first time I tweak this element of her instructions and got away with not following her lead.
It always pays off and the result is a nutty, rich bean full of flavor and taste. I could have eaten the whole bowl and was not alone in this thought. We polished this off the first night and wanted more the next day. I did not make a double batch and was sorry. Keep in mind we ate these Baked Beans with the Brunswick Stew, Southern Cornmeal Muffins and a side of Cole Slaw. This was one of the best meals, and riveled the Lobster/Clam Bake we had over the weekend.
The nice thing about these even though I am fond of giving them a stir every half an hour is that you can make them in a crock-pot and end up with a dish to remember. There has been so much mention of Rancho Gordo beans and will next time plan to use these. This is another of those dishes that is on the money, though I imagine a fine heirloom bean would send it over the top.
Julia Child’s 16- 8 Hour Baked Beans, adapted
1 pound small dried white beans
5 cups water
6 oz. diced salt pork or pork belly
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup finely sliced onions
1-2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 cup dark molasses
2 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
2 bay leaves
1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
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Rinse beans and remove any debris.
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Cover with water and bring to a boil for 2 minutes.
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Turn off and let sit for one hour.
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In a bean pot or dutch till translucent.
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Then add garlic and cook for a minute or two.
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Drain the beans and reserve the liquid.
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Add the beans and the remaining ingredients along with 4 cups of the bean water, saving the remainder liquid to add if needed.
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Cover and bake in a 300 degree oven for 6-8 hours stirring every hour or so.
When you start with the beans and for the first 5-7 hours they will still be white. Then during the last hour or so, they take on the rich deep dark color and flavor of the molasses and other ingredients. Serve warm and enjoy.
Please note, that dispite the Yankee origin of this recipe they can be enjoyed by Southerners as well. This is most defineately is a dish worth crossing the Mason-Dixon line to feast on.
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kmorganmoss is the aspiring writer, photographer & passionate cook of ayankeeinasouthernkitchen.com; she is currently blogging and hopes to find her calling.
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OMG, they look ever so delicious! I love baked beans and yours are terribly tempting!
Cheers,
Rosa
Hi- I saw your picture on recipe muncher and decided to check out your post. These baked beans look amazing. I have always meant to make bake beans but have never gotten around to it but Julia’s recipe- with your tweaks- looks so good I think I’m going to have to try it.
They look great! You know with the RG beans, very little soaking is involved ’cause they are so fresh. I usuallu get away with a 2 hour soak.
Kim. I have a bean pot.
This sounds wonderful, I would love to make these.
oh. yeah. that julia child may have been kinda creepy to watch in her older days, but she knows what she’s doing. baked beans make me a happy gal.
I really liked the premise of this site, cooking southern. I have subscribed for a month or so now. I guess I offer to help in telling you that the use of initals is very annoying. Couldn’t you use pseodonyms? It makes it impossible to build continuing interest in the charaters… you might want to refer to orangette.com to see why this is important to blog readers.
Rosa- Cheers to you Rosa!
Jen-Thanks for stopping by and hope you come again.
Donald- I so have to order Rancho Gordo beans, eating my share of chipped beef.
Auntie Gail- Your’e a good Yank for having a bean pot.
Cathy- Kids like these too.
Grace- This is one of the best dishes to come out of the North.
Kate- Thanks for subscribing. As far as the initials go, this is something I first started a few posts ago as a spoof on initials. Who can follow a story with initials? I can’t and I know the characters. For some reason I carried this on for a few people. Thanks for the heads up as I wouldn’t want to annoy the readers I do have, you are all appreciated. As far as your suggestion goes; I presented the idea to my daughters and they love the idea of having a secret identity. This would work out well in case I should inadvertently embarrass them. Thanks for the comment.
Kim, I don’t care how hot it is outside, I can always eat a good cup of chili. Seriously. In fact, I had one yesterday and it was about 90 degrees outside. I love the long process…
If my hubbs sees this…My grandma had a theory to eat cold in winter and hot in summer not to disturb your digestion..since grandma was always right, I’d say there is no better time than right now to make those!!
mine never come out right..I will try this one.
Good to know we can use it in a southern kitchen.
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Since when did beans become sexy? The color of these beans is just incredible! I love what you’ve done with this Julia Child recipe! Thanks!
It’s wet and stormy in Boston right now, and these look fantastic. Now I want beans for dinner.
OMG they look amazing. I just love the new layout of this place
Let me start off by reminding you that I do not like baked beans.
Walking into the kitchen and smelling them made me think twice! Glad I did. They are officially the only baked beans I will eat now!