Saree Beans

My father-in-law calls me Saree. I love it. I made some homemade baked beans for a cookout a few summers ago because I didn’t like the ingredients in all of those cans of baked beans at the store. Since then, my father-in-law refers to them as “Saree Beans,” which I think is quite charming. I made some Saree Beans for the couple’s shower several weeks ago, and, while I’m not sure you’ll like them as much as my father-in-law does, I do think they’re delicious and much tastier than those store-bought varieties!

Saree Beans

Ingredients
1/2 pound good bacon, diced (and by “good,” I mean from a quality, preferably local and pastured source – it makes a huge difference!)
1 large onion, diced
1 pound navy beans, cooked and drained

For the sauce
1½ cups ketchup
¼ cup light or mild molasses (or brown sugar)
¼ cup apple cider vinegar
¼ sweet onion, finely diced
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon hot sauce
½ teaspoon table salt
½ teaspoon ground black pepper

Directions

Brown bacon in skillet (I prefer cast iron to get lots of extra brown bits).
After the bacon has browned, remove from heat and ladle a few tablespoons of the lard into a saucepan to make the barbecue sauce. Remove the bacon from the skillet and set aside for later.
Brown the finely diced onions in the lard in the saucepan. Once the onions are translucent, add the remaining sauce ingredients to the saucepan and bring to a slight boil for twenty minutes. After twenty minutes or so, lower the heat to a simmer until the sauce thickens up (usually takes another twenty minutes or so). Tip: double or triple the ingredients for a delicious barbecue sauce for all of those summer BBQs to come.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Once the sauce has thickened, dump the large diced onion into the skillet with the remaining bacon grease and brown bits. Cook the onions until just barely softened.
Combine the beans with the cooked onions and cooked bacon, stirring gently. Then pour the sauce over the whole mixture and stir gently to combine.
Pour the finished bean mixture into a 9×13 glass or ceramic pan and bake for 30 minutes until crispy on top.