Grandma didn't always share her secret recipe. But with this homemade baked beans recipe, she knew that it was too good not to pass on to another generation. These beans are far better than anything from a can with so much more flavor!
Soak beans for 8 hours in 1 quart of water and 2 tsp salt. Once soaked, drain and cook the beans in a large stockpot with 2 quarts of water and 1 tsp salt until creamy on the inside, about 1 hour.
1 lb dried navy beans
Once the beans are fully cooked, preheat the oven to 375°F.
Remove the beans from the heat. Drain and reserve the cooking liquid. Return the beans to the stockpot. To the beans, add the chopped onion, yellow mustard, ketchup, molasses, salt, pepper, reserved cooking liquid (if the cooking liquid is less than 1 ½ cups, add water to make the 1 ½ cups needed), and bacon. Stir to combine and pour into a greased 9x13-inch baking dish.
1 medium onion, 3 tbsp yellow mustard, 3 tbsp ketchup, 6 tbsp molasses, ½ tsp pepper, ½ tsp salt, 12 oz bacon, 1 ½ cups reserved cooking liquid
Cover the beans with tin foil and place them in the preheated oven. Cook for 45 minutes with the cover on and then remove the cover and cook for an additional 15 minutes. At this point, the sauce will be mostly reduced. Remove the beans from the oven and serve.