Every year at shutdown, the folks, whether vendors or Bridgestone folks, would generously provide food for the people working around July 4th. Most of the bears haven't really enjoyed that obligatory staple of cook-outs down south - the typically syrupy baked beans. This, however, is a side worth making - it can be a meal, and is delicious. On request of El Senor for a Labor Day picnic this year, I searched back and found the base of the following recipe Mama Donna generously forwarded to me a few years back. As the original was scaled to serve 300, and we were expecting 5-10 people, I had to scale it back, and, as always, work with the ingredients on hand. It met with warm approval by those present. Enjoy!
Baked Beans
For 15 – scaled down x20 from the recipe Bridgestone maintenance crew leader Bob Croyle shared ~
½ large can Bush’s brown sugar and bacon beans (7.5lb cans –
I used two 1 lb 12 oz cans)
¼ lb bacon – I used ½ lb about
½ lb ground beef – I used 1 lb
¼ large onion – I used one small to mid-sized onions
1-2 jalapenos – I used one serano and half a jalapeno, seeds
all scraped out
Garlic powder – used a light sprinkle and 2-3 cloves fresh
Cumin - used
Smoke paprika - used
Black pepper (fresh ground)
White pepper (did not have – otherwise would have used)
Seasoning blend like Essence of Emeril (used a very light
sprinkle of Tony Chashere’s)
Cayenne pepper (did not use)
Montreal steak seasoning blend - used, lightly
Worcestershire sauce (I forgot to put in – didn’t add in
later)
Cut bacon into 1 inch pieces. Cook bacon until all fat is rendered and bacon is crisp. Remove bacon. Slice jalapenos and onions thin and cook in bacon fat until nice and soft then remove. (added the fresh garlic here for about 30 seconds) Add hamburger to remaining fat and brown and crumble. Remove hamburger meat until about 1/8 - ¼ cup remains and continue cooking until just about burnt.
Add bacon, onions, jalapenos, and hamburger to the beans and mix thoroughly. Add the rest of the spices listed to your discretion. We do a liberal dusting of all spices except cayenne and just a light dusting of that. Mix again. Bake off in oven until heated.
They are even better then next day after all of the
seasonings meld together well.
