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This Homemade Baked Beans recipe is made from scratch with a rich, sweet, savory sauce that tastes so much better than anything from a can. Made with navy beans, brown sugar, maple syrup, molasses, and bacon (if desired), this recipe delivers classic baked beans that are perfect for everything from summer cookouts to holiday dinners.
This baked bean recipe was passed down from my Papa and has been a staple at nearly every family gathering for generations. And while they are always right at home next to grilled BBQ chicken breasts and classic burgers, these old-fashioned baked beans fit in just as easily at a Sunday dinner alongside baked ham and my great-grandma's Texas sheet cake.
Homemade Baked Beans Recipe at a Glance
- Yield: 10 generous side dish servings
- Options for Prep: Start with dried beans OR canned beans for a shortcut
- Flavor: Sweet, tangy, smoky sauce that is not overly sweet
- Dietary Note: Dairy-free & easy to make vegetarian
- Heirloom Family Recipe Generations-old recipe with hundreds of 5-star reviews
Recipe Highlights
Kristen's Keys for Homemade Baked Beans
To replicate the flavor and texture that made my Papa's baked beans so well loved (and guarantees the pan is scraped clean), pay attention to the following tips:
- Do not undercook the beans before baking. The navy beans should already be tender before they go into the oven. If they are still firm, they will stay firm no matter how long they bake.
- Use a combination of molasses, brown sugar, and maple syrup to sweeten the baked beans. Together, they create a sauce that is rich and nuanced rather than overly sweet.
- Cook low and slow. Cooking the baked beans at a low temp lets the flavors develop without drying out the beans.
- Serve baked beans with potato chips. Okay this is technically optional, but the sweet and salty combination is magical. Try it once and you may forgo utensils permanently!
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.⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Ingredients for Homemade Baked Beans
These old-fashioned baked beans use simple pantry staples, but each ingredient helps build that signature sweet-and-savory flavor.
- Navy Beans: The classic choice for baked beans, as they are creamy, tender, and soak up the sauce beautifully. This recipe includes instructions for both dried beans and canned beans, so you can choose what works best for your schedule.
- Bacon (optional): Bacon adds smoky depth, but the recipe is still fantastic without it. In fact, both of my kids prefer bacon-free baked beans. (My Papa would be shocked by this!)
- Maple Syrup, Brown Sugar & Molasses: This trio creates the BEST baked bean sauce. Maple syrup adds warmth, brown sugar brings caramel-like sweetness, and molasses gives the beans richness, color, and that classic baked bean flavor.
- To Flavor: Tomato sauce, dried mustard, apple cider vinegar, and minced onion balance the sweetness and give these baked beans their rich, tangy flavor.
- Apple Juice: Sounds unexpected, but it helps create that saucy texture, while adding additional flavor that water alone can't duplicate. Be sure to use 100% apple juice, not sweetened or flavored juice.
How to Make Baked Beans from Scratch
Don't let the process of making baked beans from scratch intimidate you, it is really quite simple! I have even provided a few modifications to speed things up without sacrificing any flavor!
Step One: Soak and Cook Dried Beans
If starting this recipe with dried navy beans, place them in a large bowl and cover with cold water by several inches. 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 about. about 45-60 minutes.
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 off the bacon.
Add the minced onion to the rendered fat and partially cooked bacon and continue cooking until the onion is softened and 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 tomato sauce, brown sugar, molasses, maple syrup, salt, mustard with the apple juice and water until evenly combined.
Add the cooked (or drained canned beans), bacon, and onion and gently fold 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.
After 2 hours, remove the foil, give everything a gentle stir, and continue to bake for 30-60 minutes, or until sauce thickens and clings to the beans.
Step Five: Serve
Now grab a spoon or a bag of potato chips and dig in! The salty crunch with the sweet, saucy beans? My Papa swore by it and after one bite, you will too.
Recipe Variations & Modifications
- Baked Beans with Canned Beans: Replace the dried beans with 4 cups of rinsed and drained canned navy beans (~3 cans of navy beans). My Papa often started with canned beans himself to save time!
- Baked Beans with Pork and Beans: Combine 32 ounces of canned pork and beans (or prepared canned baked beans) with 2 teaspoons of dried mustard powder and ¼ each of brown sugar, molasses, and minced onion. Bake as directed for a shortcut that still tastes homemade.
- Slow Cooker Homemade Baked Beans: Prepare the baked bean recipe up to baking, omitting the added water. Pour the bean mixture into a large slow cooker and cook on low heat for 4-6 hours or high heat for 2-3 hours, stirring occasionally. This is especially nice in the heat of the summer!
- Vegetarian Homemade Baked Beans: Omit the bacon from the recipe and skip sautéing the onion and add it right to the baked bean sauce. The baked beans will still have plenty of flavor!
- Make them Sweeter: Add an extra ¼ cup brown sugar or swap the tomato sauce for ketchup.
- Use the Instant Pot to cook the soaked navy beans for a hand-off approach. Follow my Instant Pot dried beans recipe to cook the soaked navy beans.
- No Dried Mustard? Replace with 1 tablespoon of prepared yellow mustard.
- No Apple Cider Vinegar? Distilled white vinegar works just as well.
Storage Tips
Homemade baked beans can be served warm from the oven, at room temperature, straight from the fridge, or reheated. And honestly, the flavor actually improves after chilling as the sauce thickens and the beans continue soaking up flavor.
- Refrigerate: Store leftovers in an airtight container for up to 5 days.
- Freeze: Transfer the cooled baked beans to 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 each interval, until warmed through.
More Picnic Worthy Recipes
If you love my Papa's old-fashioned baked beans recipe, don't miss these other family favorites:
- Old Fashioned Potato Salad -- another summer staple from my Papa
- Sour Cream Cucumber Salad -- my mom's contribution to every summer picnic
- Tri Color 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 overnnight
- 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 dry 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. Cover beans by 1 inch with fresh cold water. Bring water to a rapid boil, and 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 dry 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 30-40 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.
This recipe was originally published in 2015 and updated in 2026.
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.