Boston Baked Beans Recipe

Finally, here is the Boston Baked Beans recipe. I have made this in the traditional way, in the oven, and in a crockpot, with equal success. I have an older crockpot, so I use the high setting. Your crockpot temp. may work for this on a lower setting.
If preparing in a crockpot, I find you don't need as much of the reserved bean water poured over the beans before baking/simmering either, as the oven dries out food & a crockpot doesn't.
This recipe is great as a side dish or can stand alone as a main dish, especially on those cold, cold days of winter. Serve with fresh homemade bread, biscuits or rolls.

Boston Baked Beans

Ingredients
2 cups navy beans(can use other similar type beans-navy, great northern)
1/2 lb. bacon
1 onion, diced
3 Tablespoons molasses
2 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon dry mustard
1/2 cup ketchup
1 Tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup brown sugar

Directions
*Soak beans overnight in cold water. Simmer beans in the same water until tender, approx. 1-2 hrs. Drain and reserve the liquid. (For a shortcut, you can use canned beans too. If doing so, skip this soaking & simmering step but still reserve the "juice" from the cans for later.)
*Preheat overn the 325 degrees F.
*Brown bacon. Remove from pan. Add diced onions to the bacon grease & cook about 3 min., until soft.
*Arrange the beans in a 2 Quart bean pot/casserole/dutch oven(or crockpot if using a crockpot)by placing a portion of the beans in the bottom of dish, and layering them with bacon and onion.(I cut or tear the bacon into 1 inch pieces.)
*In a saucepan, combine molasses, salt, pepper, dry mustard, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce & brown sugar. Bring the mixture to a boil and pour over the beans.
*Pour in just enough of the reserved bean water to cover the beans.(If using a crockpot, pour about 1/2 cup of that water in.) Cover the dish/pot with a lid(or aluminum foil if it has no lid).
*Bake for 3-4 hours in the oven, until beans are tender(the crockpot may take longer). Remove the lid about halfway through cooking & add more liquid if necessary to prevent the beans from getting too dry.
*Serve & enjoy. Makes 6 generous main dish portions. This dish can be doubled.