Week 33 - Baked Beans

 Baked Beans

Week 33 of 52

Side Dish #5

    When I thought about finding a recipe for Week 33 (before I looked up which category it was), I had decided I wanted to try a recipe in my late mother's recipe box (photo below). The very, first recipe I pulled out, was this one. It was a folded piece of lined paper, with no author name or date or anything, besides the recipe. I shared the picture below with my sister, my cousin (maternal) and two of my aunts (one maternal and one paternal) and nobody recognizes the handwriting. I thought it reminded me of my maternal grandmother (whose recipe for Crazy Cake {it wasn't crazy}, was the second recipe I made for this blog). I guess it the name of the author will have to remain a mystery. Neither my sister nor my cousin ever remembered having beans this way and although I thought I'd maybe heard of beans like this, I don't think I'd ever had them. I really liked this recipe. It made a good sized amount. Perfect for toting to a picnic or pot-luck.  Note: I'm going to write it out exactly how it is written, because it is kind of charming, with it's spelling mistakes; I'll use italics to write the correct word/spelling and to add direction.

Ingredients:

1/2 lb hamburg (ground hamburger)

1/2 lb bacon (chopped before cooking)

1/2 of a large onion (diced)

1/2 cup catsup (ketchup)

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon prepared mustard

1 teaspoon vinigar (vinegar)

1 large can or 3 small cans pork & beans (Drain two of the cans if using small or half if using the large can)

1 small can kidney beans

1 small can butter beans (I substituted Great Northern Beans)

Directions:

Combine bacon and hamburger in a large pot (I used a cast iron dutch oven), and begin browning. Add onion after just a few minutes and continue cooking until hamburger and bacon are thoroughly cooked/browned. You do not want any pink showing. Drain grease and return meat & onion mixture to pan. Add the rest of the ingredients and cook on low-medium heat, until hot. 

Tip: I drained one of the cans of pork & beans, the kidney beans and the great northern beans, because I didn't want the finished product to be "soupy", so do the same thing if you don't want "soupy" baked beans. 

Baked Beans

My Late Mother's Recipe Box (One of my treasures)

The Original Hand-Written Recipe