VIRGINIA BAKED BEANS

VIRGINIA BAKED BEANS



½-lb. bacon
1 medium onion
3 (16-oz.) cans pork and beans
3 Tbsp. mustard (yellow or Dijon)
¾ cup maple syrup
2/3 cup ketchup1/3 cup molasses
¼ cup brown sugar
Salt and pepper to taste


Preheat oven to 350 Degrees.

In a skillet, fry bacon until crisp, then crumble bacon. Don’t toss the bacon drippings. You should have ¼ cup left in the pan if your bacon was fatty enough.

Finely chop the onions and sauté them over medium heat in the bacon drippings until onion is clear (it will brown up a little too from frying in the bacon fat). If you use very lean bacon, then you may have to add a tbsp. Or so of oil. The bacon fat is really what adds the flavor here.

Now mix all remaining ingredients together and add the onions (with bacon fat) and crumble bacon and pour into 9x13-inch glass baking dish and bake covered, with aluminum foil for about an hour or until brown and bubbly.

If you like your beans to be a little less saucy, take the aluminum foil and bake for another 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. This will take could take up to 45 minutes. Just be sure to stir the beans occasionaly. The longer you cook it the thicker it will get.

Stir before serving.