This is a printer-friendly version of an article from Zip06.com.

Works Every Time

I have had the requisite failures in the kitchen, and they may have been legion, but one I particularly remember happened decades ago.

It had to do with baked beans.

We lived in our first old house in Leicester, Massachusetts, which had massive stone kitchen fireplaces, including a beehive oven. The failure took place on a day we invited friends for dinner.

It was a cold winter, and we had taken a few classes on hearth cooking. I decided the dessert would be a bread pudding, but I would make that in the regular oven. I knew if a meal was mediocre, dessert should be a sure-fire home run, and a dessert made with buttered bread, lots of eggs and cream, a few shots of bourbon, and a caramel sauce would be such a sure-fire home run.

And it’s a good thing that dessert was terrific, because for dinner I made baked beans from scratch.

I’d read lots of recipes, some for a beehive oven, others bubbling on a cast-iron pot hanging on the side of the hot oven, another cooked right on the coals, the lid topped with more hot coals. I let the beans soak overnight in water. I used all the right ingredients along with the beans: pieces of fat, brown sugar, ketchup, onions, some mustard. I let it hold on the coals for hours. We had hot dogs with the beans. The kitchen was redolent with all the right smells.

How were the beans? It was like eating buckshot, really big pieces of buckshot. As friends worried about the fillings in their teeth, they smiled, kindly, but after a few bites, we all turned our attention to the hot dogs.

Thankfully, the bread pudding was wonderful. And there was plenty of beer and wine, another saving grace.

I no longer make from-scratch baked beans. These days, I just doctor up canned beans, often Bush Beans Original beans, even though they are pretty good right out of the can. Here is a recipe, using canned beans, that would work every time. And no one will have to worry about their fillings.

Lee White of Old Lyme has been a food editor and restaurant reviewer for more than 25 years. You can email her at leeawhite@aol.com.

Cowboy Beans

From Savory magazine

by Stop & Shop, June, 2021

(free from the supermarket)

Yield: serves 8

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 large onion, finely chopped (I always use a sweet onion)

2 jalapeños, seeded and chopped

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 pound 90 percent lean ground beef (85 percent is fine, too)

2 15.5 ounce cans pinto beans, drained and rinsed

1 15.5 ounce can reduced-sodium beans, drained and rinsed

¼ cup smoky barbecue sauce

½ cup strongly brewed coffee

2 tablespoon spicy brown mustard

In a large Dutch oven or heavy-bottomed pot, heat oil on medium-high. Add onion and jalapeños and cook 5 to 6 minutes, until tender, stirring often. Add garlic; cook 2 minutes, stirring. Add ground beef and season with salt and pepper. Cook until browned, 5 to 7 minutes, stirring and breaking up beef with oven.

To Dutch oven, add beans, barbecue sauce, and coffee. Stir to combine. Heat to a boil on high and then reduce to a simmer. Cook 15 to 20 minutes, until thickened and beef is cooked through, stirring occasionally. Stir in mustard. Season with salt and pepper.