Appalachian Cider Baked Beans

I'm back! I have been without a computer for over a week, thanks to a number of unfortunate events. In a single week our car needed fixed, my dryer broke (and couldn't be repaired), my glasses broke and my netbook completely broke. Needless to say it was an expensive week. Instead of buying a new netbook I decided to treat myself to a nicer computer and bought a MacBook Pro. So far I love it, so hopefully my streak of bad computers has come to an end. I hope everyone has been enjoying delicious food, I have and have a number of great recipes to share in the next week. A few weeks back I tried a new recipe for Appalachian Cider Baked Beans from the October issue of Southern Living Magazine, which looked delicious and great for a West Virginia food blogger.

This recipe has 7 ingredients. It takes a total of 5 and a half hours of cooking and prep and makes 6 cups of beans. I had no problems finding any of the ingredients at my local grocery store. Pinto beans are a stable in the West Virginian diet and you can literally find them even at convenience stores. Instead of salt pork I used sliced pork jowl. I special order my sorghum syrup, but I also have bought it at craft fairs all over my area. I had to add additional water as the beans cooked in order for the beans to not burn. I would estimate that I added an additional two cups over the course of the 5 hour cooking time. Make sure to use a Dutch oven with this recipe. It really does make a large difference in the way that the beans cook (I promise :). I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

These beans were delicious. My husband thought these were the best baked beans that he has ever had and my two boys absolutely loved them. The only thing that I would modify is the use of whole onions. I understand the idea of keeping them whole for flavor, but the end texture wasn't something my husband and I liked. Instead I would slice the onions, which would keep the flavor and improve the texture. Definitely a recipe to add to my recipe book!

For the recipe go to Appalachian Cider Baked Beans.