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1
Place Navy beans in a Dutch oven or other stove-top and oven safe deep-sided heavy pan with a tight fitting cover.
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2
Pour 12 cups of fresh water over the beans, cover, and place over high heat.
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3
Bring to a boil and allow to cook for 2 minutes.
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4
Remove from heat and allow to sit at room temperature overnight, still covered.
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5
In the morning, remove the cover, add the bay leaf, stir the beans and return to a boil over high heat.
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6
Lower the heat to medium and simmer for about 30 minutes or until beans are just beginning to become tender, adding more boiling water if necessary.
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7
Youre not looking to get the beans totally tender, you just want them to be starting to get tender.
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8
Theyll finish cooking as they bake!
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9
Remove the beans from the heat again and pour into a colander in the sink.
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10
Fish out and discard the bay leaves.
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11
Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F.
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12
Evenly scatter the chunks of link sausage over the bottom of the pan you used to soak and cook the beans.
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13
(Rinsing the pan between steps is unnecessary!)
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14
Set aside.
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15
In a large mixing bowl, stir together the molasses, brown sugar and mustard powder and then pour the hot beans over top.
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16
Gently fold the beans and molasses mixture together and then scrape into the pan over the sausage pieces.
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17
Cut a deep x into the bottom of your peeled onion and push the onion down into the center of the beans.
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18
Pour additional boiling water over the beans to cover them by about an inch.
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19
Place the pan, uncovered, in the oven and bake for about three hours.
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20
Check the beans periodically to make sure theyre not becoming dry.
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21
As soon as the beans are tender (this could be less than three hours or more depending on the age of the beans; just check them every now and again!
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22
), stir them so that youre transferring the beans that were on bottom to the top and vice versa.
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23
Raise the ovens heat to 400 degrees F and cook, still uncovered, until the sauce around the beans is thick and bubbly.
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24
Remove from the oven, cover, and allow to cool until they are a comfortable temperature to eat.
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25
Add salt and pepper to taste.
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26
These beans are great hot, warm, room temperature or cold.
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27
In short, eat them with dinner and then sneak them from the refrigerator at midnight.
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28
I wont tell.
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29
Store leftovers, tightly covered, in the refrigerator for up to a week.
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30
They freeze and reheat well, too!
