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These Old-Fashioned Baked Beans are made from scratch with tender navy beans and a rich, sweet, and savory sauce. Passed down from my Papa, this family recipe has been a staple at cookouts and holiday meals for generations.
Serve these homemade baked beans alongside classic burgers, BBQ chicken breast, or your holiday ham. Or grab a bag of plain potato chips and eat them straight from the dish, which was always my Papa's favorite way.
Old-Fashioned Baked Beans at a Glance
- Serves: 10 as a side dish
- Time Needed: 8-12 hours to soak dried beans, 45-60 minutes to simmer, and 2½-3 hours to bake. Using canned beans eliminates the soaking and simmering time.
- Use Dried or Canned Beans: Use dried navy beans for the most classic texture, or canned navy beans when you need a shortcut.
- Make-Ahead Side Dish Perfect For: Summer cookouts, potlucks, and holiday meals
- Stand-Out Flavor: Molasses, maple syrup, and brown sugar create a rich, balanced sauce that is sweet without being cloying.
What Makes These Baked Beans So Good
After watching my Papa and then my mom make these for countless family gatherings, I learned that the best baked beans come down to three things: tender beans, a balanced sauce, and slow baking.
- Start with tender beans. Whether you use dried navy beans or canned beans, they need to be tender before folding into the sauce. Either soak and simmer dried beans first, or use canned navy beans that are already tender.
- Build a balanced sauce. Molasses, maple syrup, brown sugar, tomato sauce, dried mustard, vinegar, and apple juice combine to keep the sauce sweet, tangy, savory, and a bit smoky.
- Bake covered first, then uncovered. Covered baking gives the beans time to absorb the sauce without drying out. Removing the lid (or foil) at the end lets the sauce reduce until it is thick, glossy, and clings to the beans.
Happy Cooking! xo Kristen
5-Star Reader Review
This is by far the best baked beans from scratch recipe. Following the recipe as written results in a perfect outcome. The beans are rich, sweet and paired with brown bread and ham, a perfect wintery Saturday night supper.-Cynthia C.⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Notes on Ingredients
These old-fashioned baked beans use simple pantry staples, but each ingredient helps build their signature flavor.
- Navy Beans: This recipe includes instructions for both dried beans and canned beans, so you can choose what works best for your schedule. If using dried beans, check the expiration date on the bag. Older beans can remain tough no matter how long they cook.
- Bacon (optional): Pork bacon adds the richest smoky flavor, but you can omit it entirely if you'd like to keep the recipe vegetarian..
- Maple Syrup, Brown Sugar & Molasses: Using all three sweeteners creates a deeper flavor than relying on brown sugar alone. Maple syrup adds warmth, brown sugar contributes caramel notes, and molasses delivers the classic flavor associated with old-fashioned baked beans.
- Dried Mustard: Dried mustard balances the sweetness and adds depth. You can skip it, but the flavor won't be quite the same.
- Apple Juice: Apple juice adds moisture and natural sweetness while helping create the signature saucy consistency without making the beans taste watered down.
- Apple Cider Vinegar: I prefer apple cider vinegar over other varieties here, as it pairs well with the apple juice and molasses already in the baked beans and helps cut through the sweetness, making the flavors pop.
How to Make Homemade Baked Beans
Step One: Soak & Cook Dried Beans
If starting this recipe with dried navy beans, place them in a large bowl and cover with several inches of cold water. Let soak overnight, or for at least 8 hours.
After soaking, drain, add to a large pot, cover with fresh water, and bring to a simmer over medium-high heat. Once bubbling, reduce the heat and simmer until tender, but not falling apart, about 45-60 minutes. You should be able to easily mash a bean between your fingers. Once tender, drain and set the beans aside.
If starting with canned beans, skip this step.
Step Two: Pan-Fry Bacon (Optional)
Add diced bacon to a large skillet and cook over medium heat until fat begins to render.
Add the minced onion to the rendered fat and partially cooked bacon and continue cooking until the onion is softened and the bacon is lightly crisp, about 4-5 minutes.
Not adding bacon? Skip this step and simply mix the raw minced onion into the beans. They will soften as the baked beans bake.
Step Three: Combine Beans + Bacon + Sauce
In a large mixing bowl, mix together the tomato sauce, brown sugar, molasses, maple syrup, salt, mustard, apple juice, and water until evenly combined.
Add the beans, bacon, and onion, then gently fold together until the beans are coated in the sauce.
At this stage, the sauce will look a little thin. That's normal. As the beans bake low and slow, the sauce thickens into that rich, glossy consistency everyone wants in classic baked beans.
Step Four: Bake
Transfer the prepared baked bean mixture to a baking dish, cover with foil, and bake at 300℉ for 2 hours. That low oven temperature gives the beans time to absorb the sauce without the liquid evaporating too quickly.
After 2 hours, remove the foil, give everything a gentle stir, and continue to bake for 30-60 minutes, or until the sauce thickens and clings to the beans.
Step Five: Serve
Let the baked beans cool for 5-10 minutes before serving. The sauce will continue to thicken slightly as it rests.
How to Make Baked Beans in the Crockpot
If you want to keep the heat out of the kitchen, you can use the slow cooker to make this homemade baked beans recipe.
- Prepare the recipe up through combining the beans and sauce, omitting the added water.
- Transfer to a slow cooker and cook on low for 4-6 hours or high for 2-3 hours, stirring occasionally.
- Remove the lid for the final 30-45 minutes so the sauce can thicken.
Variations & Modifications
- Use Canned Beans: Replace the dried beans with 4 cups of rinsed, drained canned navy beans, or three 15-ounce cans. You will also want to reduce the salt in the sauce.
- Skip the Bacon: Simply add the minced raw onion directly to the baked bean sauce and bake as directed. My kids actually prefer this baked bean recipe without bacon.
- No Navy Beans? Dried or canned Great Northern or pinto beans can be used, but the texture won't be quite as classic.
- Make them Sweeter: Add an extra ¼ cup brown sugar or swap the tomato sauce for ketchup.
- No Dried Mustard? Replace with 1 tablespoon of prepared yellow mustard.
- No Apple Cider Vinegar? Use distilled white vinegar.
Serving Suggestions
These homemade baked beans are especially popular for Memorial Day, the 4th of July, Labor Day cookouts, and Easter. But you can't go wrong serving them in the following ways:
- My Papa's Favorite Way to Serve Them: With a bag of potato chips. Lay's plain, to be specific. Although I will argue that potato chips with ridges hold up better to scooping. 😉 Either way, the beans' sweetness makes a perfect contrast to the salty chip.
- My Husband's Favorite Way to Eat Them: Piled onto a hot dog with minced onion and a squirt of ballpark mustard.
- BBQ Dinner: Baked beans naturally pair with BBQ Chicken Burgers, Crockpot BBQ Chicken Legs, Crockpot Pulled Pork, or Instant Pot Ribs.
- Holiday Meals: Serve alongside Baked Ham with Pineapple Glaze or Instant Pot Ham and a Strawberry Spinach Salad for Easter Dinner or next to Instant Pot Turkey Breast and Crockpot Mashed Potatoes at Thanksgiving.
Make-Ahead + Storage Tips
Homemade baked beans can be served warm, chilled, or at room temperature. In fact, many people, myself included, think they taste even better the next day after the sauce thickens and the beans continue to soak up the flavor.
- Make-Ahead: Make up to 3 days in advance, cover, and refrigerate. Reheat or serve cold.
- Serving at Room Temperature: If it is a particularly warm day, don't leave it at room temperature longer than 1 hour. Otherwise, 2 hours is safe.
- Leftovers: Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days or store in a freezer-safe container and freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator before reheating.
- Reheat: Transfer the refrigerated or thawed baked beans to a baking dish. Cover with foil and bake at 300℉ for 45 minutes, or until warmed through. Alternatively, microwave in a heat-safe dish, covered with a lid or damp paper towel, in 60-second intervals, stirring between intervals, until warmed through.
Old-Fashioned Baked Beans FAQs
Yes! Follow my Instant Pot dried beans recipe to cook the soaked navy beans. Alternatively, you can follow my Instant Pot Baked Beans recipe to use the Instant Pot start to finish.
This usually happens because the dried beans were old, were not simmered until fully tender before baking, or lost too much moisture during baking. Use a relatively fresh bag of beans, cook them until they mash easily between your fingers, and keep the dish covered for the first 2 hours so the liquid does not evaporate too quickly.
Yes! Combine 32 ounces of prepared canned baked beans (or canned pork and beans) with 2 teaspoons of dried mustard powder and ¼ cup minced onion. Omit the maple syrup, and start with 1-2 tablespoons each of brown sugar and molasses, then adjust to taste, since prepared baked beans vary widely in sweetness. Bake as directed for a shortcut that still tastes homemade.
More Picnic-Worthy Recipes
If you love my Papa's old-fashioned baked beans recipe, don't miss these other family favorites. They were the recipes that always showed up on our summer cookout menus.
- Old Fashioned Potato Salad -- another summer staple from my Papa
- Sour Cream Cucumber Salad -- my mom's contribution to every summer picnic
- Pasta Salad with Italian Dressing -- it didn't matter who, but someone had to bring this!
- Mini Cheesecakes with Vanilla Wafer Crust -- my cousin always made these and they are perfect for individual servings
Did you make this recipe?
If you enjoyed this recipe, please leave a comment with a 5-star review at the bottom of the post. Thank you!
Baked Beans from Scratch
Ingredients
- 1⅓ cups dried navy beans, soaked overnight
- 3 slices thick bacon, chopped
- ¼ cup minced yellow onion
- ½ cup tomato sauce, or ketchup
- ¼ cup molasses
- ¼ cup brown sugar, use up to ½ cup if you like REALLY sweet beans
- ¼ cup pure maple syrup
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 teaspoons dried mustard
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
- ½ cup apple juice, or water
- ½ cup water
Instructions
Prepare Navy Beans
- Place 1⅓ cups dried navy beans in a large bowl that can be fitted with a lid. Pour fresh water over the beans until the water is at least 1 inch above the beans. Seal the container shut. Soak at room temperature for 8-12 hours.
- After soaking, drain the beans. Add the soaked beans to a large stock pan. Add enough fresh water to cover beans by 1 inch. Bring water to a rapid boil then reduce to a simmer. Simmer for 1 hour or until beans are tender but not falling apart. Drain cooked beans well.
- Alternatively, you can speed up the process by cooking the soaked beans in the Instant Pot after they have been soaked (Navy beans' texture is best if soaked before cooking.)
For the Baked Beans
- Preheat oven to 300℉ (150℃).
- Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add in the diced bacon and cook until bacon begins to render fat and then stir in the minced onion. Sauté bacon and onions together until onions begin to soften and the bacon is browned and slightly crisp. This should take about 5-6 minutes. After browned, drain off the excess grease that the bacon has rendered.
- In a large bowl, mix together ½ cup tomato sauce, ¼ cup molasses, ¼ cup brown sugar, ¼ cup pure maple syrup, 1 teaspoon kosher salt, 2 teaspoons dried mustard, 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar, ½ cup apple juice, and ½ cup water until well combined. Gently fold in the beans, bacon, and onions.
- Pour the bean mixture into a 2-quart oven-safe dish. Beans should be pretty well submerged in liquid and the mixture should be relatively loose. If there does not seem to be enough liquid in the baking dish, add up to ½ cup of additional water or juice. Cover the pan with foil or an oven-safe lid.
- Bake covered for 2 hours. After 2 hours, remove the lid or foil, and bake for another 30-60 minutes, or until thickened.
Equipment
- Large skillet (my favorite non-toxic nonstick pan)
- 2-Quart Dish (I have owned this dish for 20+ years!)
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Going to try
Tasty but much too sweet. Next time l may use just a sprinkle of brown sugar, a splash each of maple syrup and apple juice, plus a bit more dried mustard and cider vinegar, plus fresher beans but my old ones best before 2 yrs ago were actually fairly soft!
Thanks for a great base recipe altho my husband says his mother never put molasses in her baked beans and l don't think my mom did either but l wasn't interested when l could have asked her. C'est la vie!
These are definitely on the sweet side. You can certainly omit the molasses to cut back on sweetness, but it adds such great flavor. I would recommend instead cutting back on the brown sugar and/or maple syrup instead.
This is a great recipe, But you are wrong about old beans. I have been cooking up beans (kidney, black beans, pinto etc. in ) I stored during the pandemic and freezing them for chili etc. They have cooked beautifully and softened perfectly. It's the way people are cooking them.that they don't turn out
Hi Sami! Can you share if you froze the dried beans or cooked and then froze the beans? Beans left in storage for years and years typically won't soften.
Hi Kristen. I cooked the Beans first and then froze them in freezer bags. I have another pot of Navy Beans right now cooking that soften from overnight soaking. Theses beans are from 2020. Going to make another batch of your recipe for super and will freeze the rest.
Thanks for sharing. I will say some brands of dried beans are better than others, so I recommend always checking the best by date for the best results.
Hey Kristen! Here's the secret to using "OLD" beans, as gleaned from those wonderful wise old ladies (whose knowledge we had better take advantage of while we still have the chance): Use BAKING SODA in your overnight soak! Add 3/8 teaspoon baking soda per each cup of "old" dried beans during the initial soaking. I regularly use old beans, two or more years past their "Best By" dates, but I've gotten "fresh" beans well within their usage dates and they've still come out tough unless I use this technique. I typically cook up 4 cups of beans when I feed myself and three of my teenagers, so that comes out to 12/8 teaspoons baking soda, or 1.5 teaspoons. Add the baking soda after you cover your beans with 2" water (for pinto beans) and stir it in. Let your beans soak for at least 8 hours (I sometimes let mine soak for 12-24 hours). Then dump the soak water beans into a colander, rinse, return to the pot and barely cover with water again. Bring the pot to boil, then reduce the heat to a lightly bubbling simmer for about an hour or more, and then Presto! Perfect tender pinto beans! You can check their progress by scooping out a bean or two after an hour and pinching it to determine their consistency. You should be able to easily pop the skins and squish them flat without any effort.
Thank you for sharing!
Terrible! I soaked the beans for 12 hours, followed the recipe, had the add a lot of extra liquid and sauce and they still were hard and flavorless.
Hi Nancy. Did you forget to pre-cook the beans after they soaked? Or was it possible they were old? Older beans will never soften or absorb flavor.
I have overcooked my beans before I even put the recipe together. Will my beans be mushy?
They likely will be on the softer side if you start with overcooked beans--but the flavor will still be good 🙂
I'm making these for a family dinner and was wondering if they can be prepared the day before I need them and then reheated in the oven?
Hi Josh! I love making these baked beans in advance myself. You can reheat them at 300 degrees for 25-30 minutes in a casserole dish covered with foil. They also taste great cold too! Enjoy!
I soaked my beans for closer to 18 hours and even simmered the beans longer than an hour. Plus I cooked them longer than it called for in the oven and the beans are still too hard. They are new beans, not old at all. Not sure what happened.
Hi Tanille! I am sorry you had issues. Did you by chance add salt to the beans when simmering? That can impact the beans ability to soften. Otherwise, it may have been that the beans were old--even if you just purchased, it is best to check the expiration date. I have myself seen beans past the best by date at the grocery store.
I followed the directions and still after soaking, simmering and baking the beans still don’t seem all the way done! The flavor is great but I just don’t know about serving them to friends tomorrow so the last thing I’m trying is the slow cooker!
Hi Gina! I am sorry your beans didn't soften. If your dried beans were old this can happen and is so frustrating--and sometimes can't be remedied. You can pop them in the slow cooker on low heat to see if that helps. If they are just about tender, they should get there.