7 pieces of pork, ham, or bacon, 3/4 inch cubes
unsulphured molasses
Ingredients for desired sauce (see below)

An average of 3/4 pounds per quart. Select mature, dry seeds. Sort out and discard imperfect or split beans. Check carefully for small stones or other foreign materials.

Wash dry beans. Add three cups of water for each cup of dried beans or peas. Boil two minutes, remove from heat and soak one hour, then drain and discard liquid.

Bring to a boil in fresh water, saving liquid to make sauce. Prepare one of the sauces of your choice (below).

Tomato Sauce 1:

1 quart tomato juice
3 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon chopped onion
1/4 teaspoon each of ground cloves, allspice, mace, cayenne pepper

Combine ingredients above and bring to a boil.

Tomato Sauce 2:

Mix 1 cup tomato ketchup with 3 cups of cooking liquid from beans. Heat sauce to boiling.

Molasses Sauce:

4 cups water or cooking liquid from beans
3 tablespoons dark molasses
1 tablespoon vinegar
2 teaspoons salt
3/4 teaspoon dry mustard

Combine ingredients and bring to a boil.

Baking the beans:

Place seven 3/4-inch pieces of pork, ham, or bacon in an earthenware crock, a large casserole, or a pan. Add beans and enough molasses sauce to cover beans.

Cover and bake four to five hours at 350°F. Add water as required during the cooking so that beans do not dry out; about every hour.

Processing:

Fill jars 3/4 full with hot beans.

Add a 3/4-inch cube of pork, ham, or bacon to each jar. Fill jars with heated sauce, leaving 1 inch headspace.

Adjust lids and process pints 75 minutes or quarts 90 minutes at 10 lbs. pressure in a weighted gauge pressure canner, or 11 lbs. pressure in a gauge pressure canner.

You may need to adjust processing times if you live in a high altitude area. Check with your local extension service.

Submitted by: CM