A Comfort Food - Beans & Franks
a cousin of mac&cheese in the comfort food category is beans & franks.
I set about (re)-creating the dish I remembered as a kid, but in the process found a few flavor kicker-uppers that have replaced the old "open a can . . ." recipes of yore.
it goes:
one pound of canned baked beans
small can (8 oz by wt) tomato sauce
medium onion, medium diced
six strips of smoked bacon, diced to about half inch chunks
five aka half-pound hotdogs - sliced on the bias
1/4 to 1/2 cup dark brown sugar
2 tsp dry mustard
mention of brand names is not an endorsement nor am I "paid" to recommend them - it's for informational purposes - 'cause differ brands have different "tastes / flavors"
the beans: I used Bush's Maple Cured Bacon flavor - Bush's has many many different flavor profiles in beans - the Maple Cured Bacon is my preference. Campbell's Pork & Beans also works but does not seem to have the same depth of flavor as Bush's. tried adding real maple syrup... just never quite got as good as the Bush's.
start a slow heating of the beans in a heavy pot
the bacon: hardwood smoked
in a fry pan, a slow rendering
when the bacon is most of the way to crisp, add the diced onion.
the water in the onion will sweat out and prevent the pan from getting too hot / hot enough to crisp the bacon - so don't add onion too soon or you'll have soggy fatty bacon chunks.
when the onion has sweated down and the water has boiled off, add the sliced hot dogs
the hot dogs: we use Oscar Mayer "Classic" - there's a few zillion flavors in hot dogs now-a-days, so take your pick. when I was a kid, there was no such thing as a 'turkey hot dog' - or 'low fat' or 'all beef' or. . . , gosh, anything. there was hot dogs.
continue the pan fry until the hot dog slices have some brown on them - as if they had been grilled. it can be tricky to get the temp right so you get some grilling on the hot dogs but don't burn the onion/bacon. if you run into issues, dump out the whole thing into a bowl, fish out the hot dogs and put them back in the pan to brown/grill a bit.
I tried grilling the hot dog slices separately - they lacked the "steeped in onion & bacon fat" nuance - so I'd recommend at least starting them in the bacon/onion mix.
about the time the hot dogs are ready to go in for grilling/browning, the beans should be hot & thinned out - stir in the dry mustard, brown sugar and the tomato sauce.
the brown sugar:
volume: is "lightly packed"
dark is recommended.
quarter cup I think is minimum - half-cup produces a definitely sweet note.
depending on the baked beans you start with and you personal preferences, increase of decrease the sugar amount.
when the bacon/onion/dog mix is ready - dump it into the beans and mix.
you'll notice that the bean/bacon/onion/dog mix is a bit on the thin side.....
put it into a (approximate) 9x9 casserole dish, pop it into a 350'F oven for two - four hours.
here's the big secret:
about every 40-50 minutes you'll notice a "crust" has formed on the top of the mix.
bust up the crust and stir it into the mix - this is a "technique" issue I found that really makes a difference - those drier crusty chunks stirred down into the mix just whammy the tomato flavor profile.
a cousin of mac&cheese in the comfort food category is beans & franks.
I set about (re)-creating the dish I remembered as a kid, but in the process found a few flavor kicker-uppers that have replaced the old "open a can . . ." recipes of yore.
it goes:
one pound of canned baked beans
small can (8 oz by wt) tomato sauce
medium onion, medium diced
six strips of smoked bacon, diced to about half inch chunks
five aka half-pound hotdogs - sliced on the bias
1/4 to 1/2 cup dark brown sugar
2 tsp dry mustard
mention of brand names is not an endorsement nor am I "paid" to recommend them - it's for informational purposes - 'cause differ brands have different "tastes / flavors"
the beans: I used Bush's Maple Cured Bacon flavor - Bush's has many many different flavor profiles in beans - the Maple Cured Bacon is my preference. Campbell's Pork & Beans also works but does not seem to have the same depth of flavor as Bush's. tried adding real maple syrup... just never quite got as good as the Bush's.
start a slow heating of the beans in a heavy pot
the bacon: hardwood smoked
in a fry pan, a slow rendering
when the bacon is most of the way to crisp, add the diced onion.
the water in the onion will sweat out and prevent the pan from getting too hot / hot enough to crisp the bacon - so don't add onion too soon or you'll have soggy fatty bacon chunks.
when the onion has sweated down and the water has boiled off, add the sliced hot dogs
the hot dogs: we use Oscar Mayer "Classic" - there's a few zillion flavors in hot dogs now-a-days, so take your pick. when I was a kid, there was no such thing as a 'turkey hot dog' - or 'low fat' or 'all beef' or. . . , gosh, anything. there was hot dogs.
continue the pan fry until the hot dog slices have some brown on them - as if they had been grilled. it can be tricky to get the temp right so you get some grilling on the hot dogs but don't burn the onion/bacon. if you run into issues, dump out the whole thing into a bowl, fish out the hot dogs and put them back in the pan to brown/grill a bit.
I tried grilling the hot dog slices separately - they lacked the "steeped in onion & bacon fat" nuance - so I'd recommend at least starting them in the bacon/onion mix.
about the time the hot dogs are ready to go in for grilling/browning, the beans should be hot & thinned out - stir in the dry mustard, brown sugar and the tomato sauce.
the brown sugar:
volume: is "lightly packed"
dark is recommended.
quarter cup I think is minimum - half-cup produces a definitely sweet note.
depending on the baked beans you start with and you personal preferences, increase of decrease the sugar amount.
when the bacon/onion/dog mix is ready - dump it into the beans and mix.
you'll notice that the bean/bacon/onion/dog mix is a bit on the thin side.....
put it into a (approximate) 9x9 casserole dish, pop it into a 350'F oven for two - four hours.
here's the big secret:
about every 40-50 minutes you'll notice a "crust" has formed on the top of the mix.
bust up the crust and stir it into the mix - this is a "technique" issue I found that really makes a difference - those drier crusty chunks stirred down into the mix just whammy the tomato flavor profile.