We were recently invited to a pot luck and I decided to take Boston Baked Beans thinking that it is a great one pot dish and that it may not be familiar to all of the folk at the event in the local village hall. I found a Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall recipe which I would happily recommend with a slight variation which was thick cut smoked bacon chunks instead of the pork belly. A week later we were back at the butchers and spotted a very inexpensive cut of beef which was a short rib so we selected the meatiest pieces and put mum’s famous Carolina rub on them and slow cooked them in the oven for about 2 hours. Upon tasting the meat we immediately decided it would make a great addition to the Boston Baked Beans instead of pork. When the ribs had cooled a little we pulled the meat and set it aside to cool while I got to work on a batch of beans. This time I decided to add some big chunks of carrot just cause I had pulled a few from our remaining supply in the poly tunnel, a stick of cinnamon and a tablespoon of mustard seeds. If you are a fan of beans on toast and have never had Boston Baked Beans then you are in for a real treat! Get yourself a nice crusty bread (there are certain occasions where white bread wins and I personally think this is one of them) toast it, smother it in butter and serve with whatever version of this recipe you decide to make. Heaven!!

My variation on this recipe – add chunks of carrot, cinnamon sticks and mustard seeds

Here is the link to the recipe

https://www.bbc.com/food/recipes/bostonbakedbeans_10471

https://www.bbc.com/food/recipes/bostonbakedbeans_10471