Boston Baked Beans

Ingredients

• 500 g navy beans (pea beans), soaked overnight in cold water, drained
• 225 g salt pork, rind scored at 1 cm intervals
• 125 ml dark molasses, not blackstrap
• 1 tsp dry mustard
• 1 onion, peeled, left whole or halved
• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 tbsp cider vinegar
• 1 tsp salt
• 750 ml water, boiling, plus more to check every 2 hours

Method

1. 1
   Heat the oven to 120–135 °C. Drain the soaked beans and place them in a deep, narrow-necked ceramic bean pot (or a Dutch oven with its lid). Settle the onion among the beans.
2. 2
   In a bowl, combine the molasses, dry mustard, brown sugar, cider vinegar, and salt with the boiling water. Stir until the molasses has fully dissolved and the liquid is uniformly dark. Pour over the beans — the liquid should just submerge them.
3. 3
   Push the salt pork into the centre of the beans, rind-side up and exposed at the surface. Cover the pot tightly with its lid.
4. 4
   This is where the dish lives or dies: bake at 120–135 °C for 6–8 hours without raising the temperature. Every 2 hours, lift the lid and check that the beans remain just submerged — add boiling water as needed to maintain that level. Too high a heat breaks the beans apart and scorches the molasses; allowing the pot to dry out hardens the beans and ruins the sauce. Neither is recoverable.
5. 5
   In the final 30 minutes, remove the lid. The rind of the salt pork, now fully exposed, should blister and crisp; the sauce will tighten and darken, clinging visibly to each bean. The beans are done when they are tender throughout but intact — press one against the side of the pot with a spoon; it should yield without collapsing to paste.
6. 6
   Remove from the oven and allow to rest, uncovered, for 10 minutes. The sauce will thicken further as it cools slightly. Taste for salt. Serve directly from the pot.