Virginia Baked Beans

1. 1

   Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2. 2

   In a skillet, fry bacon over medium heat until crispy, then remove it from the grease onto a paper towel lined plate and allow to cool enough so you can crumble bacon. Don't toss the bacon drippings. You should have about a 1/4 cup of drippings left in the pan if your bacon was fatty enough (*). Finely chop the onion and saute them (over medium heat) in the bacon drippings until onion is clear (it will brown up a little too from frying in the bacon fat). If you used very lean bacon (which I don't recommend) then you may have to add a tablespoon or so of oil. But the bacon fat is really what adds the flavor here.

3. 3

   Now mix all the remaining ingredients together in a large bowl and add the onions (with any remaining bacon fat) and the crumbled bacon and pour the mixture into a 9x13 glass baking dish (or similar size casserole dish) and bake covered with foil, for about an hour.

4. 4

   Then take foil cover off and stir beans and bake for another 20-30 minutes to get your beans to thicken up a bit. Depending on your oven this could take up to another 45 minutes. Just be sure to stir occasionally.

5. 5

   * Cooks note: If your bacon produced a large amount of grease then you may need to set aside some of it for later use. You really don't want more than about 1/4 cup of bacon grease for this recipe. Anything more and it will make greasy baked beans.

6. 6

   Stir before serving.

* Per serving · 4 servings · Values may vary.