I detest beans, but I’m co-hosting a couple’s shower that’s a BBQ and I was assigned to cook them. Does anyone have a true and true recipe that serves a crowd (30ish people)? Would prefer them to end up in a crock pot, but they don’t have to be exclusively cooked in one.
Despite my New England roots, I cheat and doctor up canned baked beans using diced onion, bacon, ketchup or bbq sauce, mustard, brown sugar and/or maple syrup. I prefer Bush’s Baked Beans. Cook for many hours on low but don’t let them get mushy.
I don’t use a recipe but very similar to this: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/southern-baked-beans-recipe2
You can leave out the bacon for vegetarians/vegans but it won’t taste quite as good. 
I do a lot of cooking, make my own bread, soap, jams, chutneys, baked beans went in my list of things I would never bother with again. I would be in the buy tinned group. It isn’t like there would be any appreciation of gourmet beans at a BBQ.
Yes buy the cans but doctor them up. There is Nothing worse than eating baked beans that taste like they are straight from the can.
Here is what I made for parents and college senior boys…it was gone! 25 people.
I think I felt half the recipe wasn’t enough. I had a hug casserole dish, but if you don’t, you might have to use 2 baking dishes.
4 cans great northern beans
2 cans black beans
2 cans red beans
1 cup hickory flavored BBQ sauce
1 cup ketchup
1.5 cup ketchup
2 lbs bacon (baked in oven at 400 for 12 minutes…crumble into large pieces)
2 green pepper
2 large onion
2 teaspoon dry mustard
2 teaspoon worchester sauce
Mix and bake in oven 350 for 90 minutes covered (exclude bacon). Take out, put in bacon and continue to bake 30 minutes uncovered or until thickened.
I have a recipe that I make in the crockpot which always gets rave reviews. As other have suggested, it starts with a base of canned Bush’s. Double it for a crowd of 30 (I usually double the recipe and then throw in a couple of extra cans of beans, as there is always plenty of sauce.) You can play around with the variety of beans and ratios, although that is more for a cook who actually enjoys beans and is looking for a go-to recipe. The original recipe called for garbanzo beans, but I like the butter beans and they give it more of a visual “wow, these are homemade” look. And same as above, you can omit the bacon for the vegetarians, but it won’t be quite as good without it.
Crockpot Party Beans
6 slices of bacon, cooked crisp and crumbled
1 cup chopped onion
1 28 oz can Bush’s baked beans (I use Vegetarian flavor)
1 16 oz. can pinto beans
1 16 oz can great northern beans
1 16 oz can red kidney beans
1 16 oz can butter beans
3/4 cup ketchup
1/2 cup molasses
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 TBL Worcestershire sauce
1 TBL yellow mustard
1/2 tsp pepper
Drain and rinse all beans except the baked beans. Mix all ingredients in the crockpot, cover and heat through on low for 3-4 hours.
The best baked beans I ever ate were Friend’s Baked Beans. I ate them every Friday night for years … beans and hot dogs, beans and pork chops, beans and steak. The company was bought out by B & M so I switched to that company. Their baked beans just don’t taste as good. I will add bacon and maple syrup to them to doctor them up. I don’t like Bush’s baked beans, and the worst tasting beans are Campbell’s.
www.famousfoods.com sells Friend’s Baked Beans. I’ll have to order some.
Very timely post for me, thanks all… I’ve been “assigned” baked beans for 25 for Easter. I’ll be doing a version of the above using whatever ingredients I have on hand. I think the only thing I might not have is the molasses 
I use Heinz vegetarian baked beans and add some deli mustard. If we have molasses, I throw a tiny bit in, but usually not. My kids love it. I don’t use bacon based as I was raised semi-kosher and so I find the taste of baked beans with bacon off putting, though most people probably disagree.
This is a tried and true recipe from my former neighbor who grew up in Texas. Easy peasy, no-brainer recipe that gets rave reviews. They aren’t spicy, but full of flavor. I tripled the recipe for a big crowd of college men and they loved them. You could easily transfer to a slow-cooker for ease of serving. I haven’t cooked them in a Crock Pot but don’t see why that method wouldn’t work. I usually bake them the night before and reheat before serving. As the recipe says, it takes a good 3 hours. I’ve tried to cut back on the time–They’re already cooked when you start, right? Truly got better results with the longer cooking time.
Texas Baked Beans
2 large cans pork and beans* 2 onions, chopped
(1 lb., 12 oz, each) 2 T brown sugar
4 slices bacon, chopped 2 t chile powder
1 C catsup 1 C water
2 green peppers, chopped 1 small can chopped green chiles
Mix and bake in a large (at least 3 qt) casserole dish, uncovered, in a 325 degree oven for 3 hours. Stir fairly often. These really can’t be rushed. It takes a good 3 hours.
Serves 12
*This is about 3.5 pounds of beans. Size of can is really irrelevant.
I love good baked beans. I had given up on recipes but I finally found an excellent one.
http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/the-best-baked-beans-ever/
I cook from scratch so I was hesitant to try this recipe but they are delicious.
This one is called Fred’s Baked Beans and it’s from the Oregonian from about 15 years ago. If I make baked beans for a crowd, this is the one I make. It makes a ton. The directions say you can make it in a crockpot but I’ve only made it in the oven in a cast iron Dutch oven. The ginger adds some amazing flavor (especially combined with the bacon.) It take a long time to cook down and become nice and thick but once it achieves the color you’ll see that the consistency thickens up.
1 pound dried pinto beans, soaked at least 8 hours in at least 6 cups of water
1 pound meaty bacon, sliced and cut into bite sized pieces
1 cup diced onions
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup honey
1 tsp dry mustard
1 tablespoon ground ginger
1 tablespoon fresh ginger, minced
1 tsp salt
½ tsp pepper
Drain soaked beans and place in a large saucepan. Cover with 2 ½ quarts fresh water, bring to a boil, reduce heat to a simmer and cook until the beans are tender, about 45 minutes. Drain the beans, reserving the cooking liquid.
Preheat oven to 300° .
Put the beans in a 5 ½ quart casserole or Dutch oven with a lid; toss with the bacon, onion and garlic. Measure 2 cups of the reserved liquid and stir in the honey, mustard, ginger, salt and pepper. Pour the liquid over the beans, cover with lid and bake for 3 hours. Remove lid and bake for 30 minutes longer, or until most of the liquid is absorbed and the beans are a rich mahogany brown.
Can make in a slow cooker, cut liquid in half. Cook on high for 1 hour then set on low for 10 to 12 hours.
Thanks for the typo catch. My recipe say ketchup twice. It should be
1 cup ketchup
1.5 cups brown sugar.
Thanks.
I make classic New England baked beans from scratch, using an old recipe from the Boston Globe cookbook as a basis. If you aren’t up for that, I suggest buying cans of B&M baked beans and doctoring them as described above. The B&M variety that includes Kansas City BBQ sauce is good enough to use straight from the can, if you can find them.
I detest “baked bean” recipes that include kidney beans, personally. Great Northern/pea beans only.
I have a very simple recipe for a crock pot baked butter bean dish that is super easy to make. However, some folks seem to prefer a recipe using the smaller Great Northern type of bean.
4 cans of Butter Beans (drain liquid from 3 of the 4 cans)
Add the beans from the 3 drained cans and the beans with liquid from 4th can to crockpot.
Dice up about 1/2 lb of uncooked bacon and 1 onion and add to crock pot.
Add 2/3 cup of ketchup and 2/3 cup of maple syrup.
Cook on low for 5-7 hours.
Wow, some of these recipes sound really good. I am going to ask H to try a couple.
My favorite recipe is Pioneer Women’s Baked Beans. There is never any left.
http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/the-best-baked-beans-ever/
I love baked beans, so don’t take this the wrong way, but baked beans are the poster recipe for all that added sugar we’re supposed to not eat. Ketchup (which is mostly sugar), brown sugar, honey, maple syrup, molasses: every baked bean recipe is more or less take some beans and add a lot of sugar. Or take canned baked beans (which have a lot of sugar in them) and add some more sugar. I bet one could make a pretty good bean recipe by cooking beans in Coke with some bacon and onions added.
Yup, that’s why they taste good.
No offense, but please, doG, not butterbeans!!!