Cowboy Beans with Beef
Navy beans baked long and slow with beef, bacon, molasses and mustard.
- Prep
- 20 min
- Cook
- 240 min
- Total
- 260 min
- Servings
- 10
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Calories
- 390 kcal
Equipment
- •Bean pot or Dutch oven
Nutrition
Per serving, approximate
- Calories
- 390 kcal
- fat
- 13 g
- carbs
- 42 g
- protein
- 24 g
- calories
- 390
Instructions
- 1
Drain the soaked beans, cover with fresh water and boil for 30 minutes, then drain again.
- 2
Fry the bacon in the pot, add the beef and brown it, then the onions for 5 minutes.
- 3
Stir in the beans, molasses, tomato paste, mustard, sugar and salt with enough hot water to just cover.
- 4
Cover and bake at 150C for 3 hours, checking every hour and topping up with hot water if they look dry.
- 5
Uncover for the last 45 minutes so the top darkens and the sauce thickens.
- 6
Taste for salt at the end — salting hard early can keep beans firm.
Chef's tips
Old beans never soften. If a batch stays hard after four hours, the beans were the problem, not the cook.
Ingredient substitutions
- navy beans → great northern or pinto beans
- molasses → half molasses, half maple syrup
Storage
5 days refrigerated, 3 months frozen.
Common mistakes to avoid
- •Letting the pot dry out
- •Adding acid too early, which keeps beans tough
Serving suggestions
Cooked Cowboy Beans with Beef?
Sign in to save this recipe to a collection. Bookmarking works without an account — it stays on this device.
Sign in for collectionsSimilar recipes
Dishes with the same spirit, spice level and course.
Recipes using similar ingredients
Use what you already bought for this recipe.
