It's a simple side with little labor, but you need to plan 12 hours ahead.
This is, most likely, not your mother's baked beans. At least, it's not the recipe that runs in my family. At most potlucks you can find a pot of these that contains loads of brown sugar or maple syrup.
Every permutation I've made has no added sugar, or else uses shredded carrots (parsnips) to sweeten the dish.
A half pound of Arethusa Collective's cranberry beans were rinsed and soaked in plenty of water to cover and a tsp. of baking soda overnight, then drained and rinsed again.
These were placed in a 1 1/2 quart casserole with four slices of bacon.
Covered in liquid (I used V8 Spicy, since I had it on hand). I put the lid on the casserole dish and placed it in a 300f oven for an hour, heat then reduced to 250f for two hours.
An adjustment for salt, and done! The bacon lent a mild smokiness and the spicy kick of the V8 was completely muted by the cooking process. Time for tacos, again? Yes.
