OT: Baked Bean Recipes--Lay 'Em on Me

[Josh Feltman]

I've always been a big fan of Bush's baked beans. I hadn't had them in a while, so I picked up a can last night. I was shocked at the amount of sodium in those things, which I guess is pretty common for most canned foods. Anyway, I was wondering if anyone has a good baked bean recipe that approximates the flavor of Bush's beans so that I can make them at home and leave out some of the salt. I've seen some of the online recipes, but I know we have some cooking masters here, so I thought I'd ask this in the Cantina. The Bush's can lists the type of bean as "white beans." Will I be able to find these in the store, or are they usually called something else?

--Josh

 

[Rusty]

The small "Navy" beans maybe?

 

[Bri in Chi]

Beans, beans, the musical fruit.
The more you eat, the more you toot.
The more you toot, the better you feel,
So I eat beans at every meal.

Basic bean recipe:
1. Rinse and pick over beans, discarding any odd shaped beans, broken beans and, of course, stones or mud balls. There are almost always some.
2. Never add salt or baking powder to soaking water. Use plain tap water, filtered water or if you live in a bad tasting water area, use bottled water. Salt makes 'em tough. Add it later. A few hot peppers ain't bad, though.
3. Bring beans and water to a rolling boil, cook for 15 minutes, turn off heat, cover and let sit 1 hour.
4. Do your thing.