Maple Syrup Rum Baked Beans
Submitted by cool_chic99
Maple syrup rum baked beans with navy beans, salt pork, dry-mustard-rubbed onion, and a layer of caramelized whole apples baked into the top. Quebec-style cabin cooking. Pure maple syrup, brown sugar, and a final pour of dark rum.
YIELD
12 servingsPREP
20 minCOOK
300 minREADY
800 minA Quebec-Style Bean Pot With Maple, Apples, and a Splash of Rum
This is the kind of baked beans recipe that doesn’t show up in modern cookbooks. Old-school Quebec sugar-shack cooking, this maple-and-rum version layers navy beans with sliced salt pork, then builds an unusual second layer near the end: whole cored apples lined up across the top, slathered with creamed brown sugar and butter that caramelizes into a sticky, jammy crust as the beans finish baking.
The maple syrup is the soul of this dish. A full cup of pure maple syrup (not pancake syrup) provides almost all the sweetness, and its woodsy, slightly smoky character pairs beautifully with the salt pork. Burying a whole onion rolled in dry mustard in the center is the old French-Canadian trick: the mustard infuses the beans slowly without making them sharp, and the onion softens into pure sweetness.
The final splash of dark rum just before serving adds a warming note and a hit of molasses-y depth. Optional, but worth it.
Pro Tips
- Soak the beans a full overnight, not just a few hours. Properly hydrated beans cook evenly and don’t blow apart in the oven.
- The blowing-on-beans test is real folklore wisdom. The skin coming loose means the beans are softened enough for slow oven cooking without being mush.
- Use a heavy ceramic bean pot or covered Dutch oven. Thin pans dry the beans out before they’re done.
- The apples should be tart and firm. Granny Smith or Cortland holds shape; soft eating apples turn to mush.
- Pour the rum off-heat just before serving so the alcohol doesn’t fully cook off and you keep that warming, boozy finish.
Variations
Ingredients
Directions
Preheat oven to 325℉ (160℃).
Cover the beans with 12 cups cold water.
Let soak overnight. In the morning pour the whole thing in a large saucepan.
Add 1 teaspoon soda and more cold water to cover the beans if necessary.
Bring to a boil, uncovered, then boil until some of the skins come off when you blow on the beans.
Line a bean pot with the sliced pork, then pour in the beans and their water.
Roll the onion in the dry mustard until all of the mustard sticks to it, then bury it in the middle of the beans.
Pour the maple syrup and coarse salt on top.
Bake 4 to 5 hours in your preheated oven.
In the last hour of cooking, cover the beans with whole apples, placed as close together as possible.
Cream together the sugar and butter, then spread the mixture on top of the apples.
This forms a most delicious topping when the beans are baked.
Pour the rum on top just before serving.
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