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The Melting Pot
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1900s-present - American barbecue cooks adapting baked beans for smokehouse sides
A barbecue side dish of beans baked with bacon, onion, molasses, tomato, brown sugar, mustard, and barbecue sauce until thick and smoky.
Difficulty
Easy
Prep time
15 minutes
Cook time
1 hour 15 minutes
Total time
1 hour 30 minutes
Servings
8
Region
American barbecue restaurants and cookouts
Era introduced
1900s-present
Introduced by
American barbecue cooks adapting baked beans for smokehouse sides
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Barbecue beans are baked beans after they spend time near the smokehouse. They borrow from older bean-pot traditions but lean harder on bacon, tomato, barbecue sauce, chile heat, and the sweet-smoky flavor expected beside ribs and pulled pork. Restaurants often guard their bean recipes because they can carry the flavor of trimmings, burnt ends, or leftover smoked meat.
Drafted with barbecue-bean method from Serious Eats (https://www.seriouseats.com/best-barbecue-beans-recipe), cookout bean context from Meatwave (https://meatwave.com/recipes/barbecue-beans-recipe), and baked-bean historical background from Serious Eats Boston baked beans (https://www.seriouseats.com/boston-baked-beans-recipe).
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