Almost Old-Fashioned Baked Beans

Canadian baked beans have come a long way from their ancestral origins in old Québec, where huge pots of navy beans were cooked for seven or eight hours with little more than salt pork and molasses, enough to feed enormous families. Onions, mustard and ketchup add a comforting tang to these pork-free baked beans that take far less time to cook and yield a much more manageable amount — a new, vegetarian-friendly comfort food tradition for modern families. Any white bean can be used in this recipe, but I prefer to use a mixture of navy beans and white kidney beans.

I'm sending this along to Jasmine for her event celebrating Canadian foods. Jennifer of The Domestic Goddess is covering the sweet side of Canada, while Jasmine is looking for more savory creations. What is Canadian food, you might rightly ask. Well, whatever you can cook up in your kitchen with ingredients available to you, complete with requisite imagination. But I recall that maple syrup is an abundant luxury here, and that the birth of Nanaimo Bars and Butter Tarts are patriotic fodder for us Canucks.

Almost old-fashioned baked beans

2 cups dried white beans
2 medium onions, chopped
1/4 cup molasses
1/4 cup ketchup
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons dry mustard powder
1 teaspoon salt
fresh ground black pepper

Soak the beans overnight in water with a little yogurt whey or lemon juice. Bring to a boil, then cover and reduce the heat to low. Cook for 1 1/2 hours or until the beans are soft but not falling apart. Remove from heat and drain, saving a little of the cooking liquid.

Preheat the oven at 350°. Combine the beans with all the other ingredients in a large baking or casserole dish with a lid. Cover and bake for 2 to 2 1/2 hours, or until the beans have reached the desired thickness, stirring every half an hour or so. Add a teaspoon or so of the reserved cooking liquid if the beans become too dry.

Serves 6 to 8.