How to Make New England Baked Beans

Erin teaches Bridget how to make easy, comforting New England Baked Beans.

ABOUT US: Located in Boston’s Seaport District in the historic Innovation and Design Building, America's Test Kitchen features 15,000 square feet of kitchen space including multiple photography and video studios. It is the home of Cook’s Illustrated magazine and Cook’s Country magazine and is the workday destination for more than 60 test cooks, editors, and cookware specialists. Our mission is to test recipes over and over again until we understand how and why they work and until we arrive at the best version.

If you like us, follow us:

[phil.paulastocks]

Almost identical to my grandmother's (born in 1891) recipe.
She married my grandfather at 18.
She got the recipe from her mother.
Differences:
She used no bay leaf, probably not available in rural S. Dakota 110 years ago.
She diced a whole onion and left it in the beans.
She used a half pound of salt pork, diced in 1/2 inch pieces.
She added no salt.
A half pound of salt pork makes it plenty salty.
I still make her recipe for baked beans today.
Honestly, you can almost make a meal of just those baked beans.

[kellymycat]

My mom gave me a traditional baked bean recipe years ago. I was complaining that my very cheap apartment did not have heat. The heat would not be fixed for a few days. So I had to leave my oven on all night. She told me to bake beans. So the next morning i put beans in water to soak and went to work. I came home from work and threw all the ingredients into the bean pot she lent me. The beans baked all night. Prep time was about half an hour. I felt i had not wasted electricity for one night. I have baked my beans this way for years.

[cynthiablackwell]

Every ATK/CC recipe I’ve ever tried turned out to PERFECTION! All my cooking life I’ve wanted to try homemade baked beans, but shied away from hours of prep & just sheer waiting! Well, knowing ATK’s recipes were tried, tested & true, I dived into baked beans from scratch. I was not disappointed! These were delicious. Thanks bunches for another fantastic recipe! 😋

[libbyannstew]

Made these today and they turned out very well; I did remove the onion and promptly ate it cause it tasted too good to throw away. The reduction in sweetness still leaves loads of flavour. Only opportunity for improvement is when the beans sit they get really sticky so will have to add a bit of water to loosen them up before serving. I found the fond scraping a bit of a pain and don’t try using a silicone spatula - it just drags the fond around the pot but does not work for scraping it off. I suspect Erin tried many utensils before deciding on the wooden spoon. She is very thorough. Thanks ATK for the recipe. Love your PBS show too!

[russellramsay]

Absolute bomb ladies...Native Texan that made New England my hub after 9yrs. in the USN for 25 yrs. Trust me when I say...the best recipe I've had .BRAVO

[veronicalombardi]

My mother did these just like this every Saturday, and sold them at a store near us. We enjoyed her beans for supper every Saturday evening.

[brendad.]

I made this recipe for a large family get together last year, and everyone loved them.
I am now the designated baked bean maker. We have another family party this weekend and I was asked to double the recipe,
This I will be my fourth time making them. 🙂

[katherineradke]

All those years boiling my beans before adding the sauce. I made your recipe last night and they were amazing. I did make extra sauce and added them at the end. So good!!! Thanks

[liamsworld]

I don't have 10 hours to spend making bake beans, do you?

Why yes I do...

[dianeschuller]

I serve baked beans when we have a crowd over. Coincidentally, we have a big gathering for neighbours on Friday and my baked beans are what several of the neighbours say they are looking forward to!

[Fernando-oxmo]

I just made them with red instead of white beans and they turned out delicious as well. Thank you so much for this recipe!

[WatchesTrainsAndRockets]

One other thought: The onions were AMAZING. I wish that I had added more. Would make a great side dish.

[AtmcPunk]

Extra cool points to Bridget for wearing Todd Rundgren's Something/Anything? album as a top!

[davemoss]

So far that's the best-looking product I've seen yet on these Bean videos.

[armeyf]

Wow! One thousand years ago when I took HomeEc, my teacher insisted you did not salt dry beans until after it was cooked tender. She said that adding salt prior to then would prevent the beans from softening. Thanks

[shalom]

Thank you, this recipe is absolutely delicious. My whole family loved them. After many tries at cooking with dry beans, this recipe yielded the best tasting, creamiest, dry bean I have ever. I am grateful to you.

[Lizzy]

Great recipe but I would want to eat that caramelized onion - no way I would be taking it out of the dish. I would cut it up into chunks instead and leave it in.

[barbaraschubert]

I can’t wait to start cooking these. My families going to love them I can already tell . Thank you.

[maryannequinn]

I made baked beans with our family recipe which is almost the same, but over the years have made them in the crock pot, and also mainly on the stovetop-they just didn’t brown as much. Still yummy!

[momuv]

As a native Vermonter, I would have to add (real) maple syrup to this recipe. Probably reduce the molasses a bit so not to be too sweet. Will have to give this a try for sure.