Cowboy Baked Bean Casserole
(one version)

Many versions of this bean bake call for catsup and/or BBQ sauce. This one does not. I like both ways!

Great as a picnic side dish at potlucks. ~~~~~~ Marlene

1 large can pork & beans (31 oz), drained
2 – 16 oz. cans kidney beans, drained
1 – 16 oz. can butter beans, drained
1 large onion, diced
6 slices diced bacon
1 lb. ground beef
2 Tbsp. liquid smoke
1 cup brown sugar packed
1 tsp. dry mustard
1/3 cup cider vinegar

Fry diced bacon, take out of pan, add onion and sauté until soft, add ground beef & brown. (Drain fat). Set aside.

In a large bowl, combine beans with ground beef mixture, diced bacon and liquid smoke.

Mix together brown sugar, dry mustard and cider vinegar.

Combine all..... place in baking dish or bean pot.

Bake at 350* for 1 hour.
 

Marlene, this sounds like my kind of bean dish. Thanks for posting!

Why bother to dice the bacon? Just crumble it after it is cooked.

I'm guessing that the receipe does not contemplate frying the diced bacon to a "crisp" state. My question would be: why drain the pork & beans? I'm also guessing that Marlene has made this before, and gotten rave revues. We don't want to do anything "hinkey" here, which might discourage "shy Jeff"; our young Lothario. Do we?

When a recipe says to fry bacon it is to the crisp. For one thing you'd want to completely render the fat so you have enough of it for cooking the onion and ground meat. So which is it Marlene? I'll leave it to Maynard to say that we're waiting with bated breath for your answer.

Not going to happen. Didn't mean to start a contraversy over what the definition of "fryed bacon" might be. I've had many dishes which included bacon, procuitto, or pancetta which were not done "to a crisp". I have no idea what this receipe might invision. But I doubt that additional fat might be necessary to brown ground beef. I wish Marlene well on her rustic picnic; and will leave it at that. I meant no offense to anyone.

Maynard I did not mean anything by the last comment I made. But, I would like to know because I want to make this.

Actually, those are good questions!. Some of the recipes call for dicing the bacon first, then frying, and some call for frying the bacon in strips, then crumbling. Some recipes call for as little as 4 slices of bacon and I have another Baked Bean Casserole that calls for an entire pound of bacon!

To me, it is about which technique you want to use: either lying the individual strips down in a fry pan and then dealing with turning them one piece at a time. Or... dice the bacon, then fry it. That's the way I like to do it because then I don't have to deal with individual slices -- I just toss in the raw, diced bacon and cook it up! I always do it that way when I have to make a lot of diced/crumbled bacon, say for salads or baked potatoes for a large group of guests, where I am frying up to 2 pounds of bacon at a time. Also, when you dice the bacon before frying, you can make the pieces all the same size, unlike crumbling where the bacon sort of breaks in different sizes.

Either way you cook the bacon, when I make it (I'm sure there are variations here) I want the bacon fully rendered but not totally crisp and brittle. If you over-fry it, the drippings will have bits of burned bacon and what you want is to gently render out the fat, so you can cook the onion and ground beef in it. I'm sure there are folks out there who even put that bacon in this dish raw! My grandmother always laid several strips or raw bacon over her baked beans before cooking them! She did this, also, with her meat loaf. I also have a baked bean recipe that calls for diced salt pork -- boy, that is really raw, LOL.

Any way... good questions! This recipe is so totally forgiving. If you do a search online for "baked bean casserole with ground beef", many versions will pop up . Some call for molasses, some catsup, some bottled BBQ sauce. Some call for canned green lima beans, some for pinto beans.

To drain or not to drain the pork and beans is another question (definitely drain the other canned beans). I will be doing these today in a crockpot, so I think I will drain all the beans to take off extra liquid that doesn't cook off during while in the crockpot. If I was baking this, as called for in the recipe I posted, I would want that extra "stuff" from the pork and beans, otherwise it might be too dry. So, now that Maynard has brought this to my attention -- let's just say that it would be best TO NOT drain the pork and beans, unless you are doing it in a crockpot.

For me this recipe has sort of evolved over the years and so my instructions perhaps are not as clear and cleanly stated as they should be . However..... no matter what variation, guests always love this one!

Have a great weekend, everyone, and thanks for all your suggestions and support for the big day, in which I am honored to cook for my niece's new guy.

Now, I better get to cookin'! They will be here in less than 8 hours and I have ALL this nervous energy pent up like a race horse on track day, LOL.

Marlene

Here's my bean recipe I have been making for at least 35 years. It's similar to the Cowboy beans except no ground beef.
I learned to cook the bacon before adding onions otherwise the bacon won't crisp up nicely.

Barbara’s Beans

¼ pound bacon
4 Bermuda onions
½ cup brown sugar
1 tsp. mustard
½ tsp. garlic powder
½ cup tomato sauce
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
½ cup vinegar
¼ cup barbecue sauce

1 pound can lima beans
1 pound can kidney beans
1 larger can baked beans (Bush’s)

Slice bacon in one inch strips & fry. Separate onions slices and add to bacon after bacon is almost fully cooked. Stir in remaining ingredients except beans & simmer 20 minutes

Drain beans; mix everything together and bake at 350 for 45 minutes.

Notes:
Great recipe to serve with any barbecue.
Better after it sits a day or so too

belaine, it sounds like another good one!

Thanks for sharing your version, Belaine. I had no idea that recipe had been around for so many years. Fun trivia! Ya know, if I am going to serve the Cowboy Bake Beans at a picnic where we are making hamburgers, I'll just leave out the ground beef, so it's more like your recipe and not ground beef overkill.

In fact yesterday I had to make the beans Kosher for my niece, so I used turkey bacon and instead of Pork and Beans, I used Bush's Vegetarian beans. Everyone loved it! I put everything in the crockpot about noon and just let it cook on low until dinner. My husband ate the beans this morning for breakfast, served over cornbread.

And Jeff survived another family gathering, LOL. Just like Maynard thought, he was so happy to have a couple of beers and a good homecooked meal. I'm so glad we didn't make anything fussy. However, I was totally blown away by Jeff's knowledge of Korean cuisine, as he lived there at one time -- and he LOVES hot and spicy foods - so our next picnic we'll heat it up a notch.

Marlene

yes, skip the ground beef if you're having burgers & I will add it when the menu calls for beef!! Good idea. I have put leftover brisket in the beans before as well.

Marlene

In a previous life, 1969-71 I met a bunch of Korean dependents of US Service personnel.
Fortunately, they drew me into their circle of society, which involved many pot-luck type meals, followed by Kareoke, and heavy drinking. (but that's another story). The thing that impressed me about Korean cuisine, was it's diversity. Much of it was to die for. Some I could not abide. I give a thumbs down to Kim Chee, which was a staple of their diet.
I recall a B B Q beef dish called "Bulgogi". I have a receipe for that if you need it.

Maynard, that is one of the Korean recipes Jeff had mentioned! Bulgogi. It stuck in my head because I thought "Bulgogi" was a funny word to hear and even funnier to actually say. I would love a recipe for it... if you can dig it up after all these years

Regarding Kim Chee, I have experimented with everything Kefir grains to Kombucha to pickled daikon radishes and loved every morsel. My oldest niece's BIL is Korean and he brought me some of his mother's Kim Chee to try -- Having never tasted the stuff, I immediately spit it out and then brushed my teeth for an hour, LOL. That was in 1992. I was so shocked that I could hate ANY food that much. It had those tiny dried shrimp in it.... and was totally nasty stuff.

However, over the years I have fallen in love with fermented foods you can make at home, from Kraut, to Kombucha, to Kefir and even fermented daikon radish. So now being familiar with the taste of fermentation, I decided to try my hand at making Kim Chee at home a few years ago. I purchased a round Korean clay crock especially made for fermenting vegetables. I left out the shrimp and the garlic, which seemed to be the most strong flavors that I didn't like when fermented. I actually liked the stuff! I used napa cabbage, ginger, hot peppers flakes and onion. Mostly cabbage, however. So it's more like Kraut with spices, if that makes sense.

......hmmmm.... thinking of making some fermented Korean vegetables again. I'll have to dust off my little crock.....

Marlene

I am amazed at how many use canned beans when it is so easy and tastes much better to make your own with dry beans. Use a pressure cooker to cook the beans and best served the next day ... like stew better the next day.