Add One Ingredient To Canned Baked Beans For Homemade Flavor

Baked beans are one of the world's greatest side dishes. Any good barbecue place should have baked beans on the menu, and if you head to the grocery store you can find well over a dozen different varieties of baked beans on shelves. That includes everything from spicy and brown sugar varieties to pork and beans. The thing is, when you eat baked beans, they often come from a can. That's not a bad thing. Baked beans take to canning incredibly well, but a homemade touch can improve any dish — and if you want to make canned baked beans taste more homemade, reach for some bacon grease.

Making baked beans from scratch can be time-consuming since dry beans need to be soaked overnight. There are plenty of recipes for homemade baked beans that include bacon grease in the preparation. The same flavor benefits apply to any kind of canned baked beans and will save you time. If you have bacon grease saved in the fridge, it can add savory, smoky notes to beans. Those flavors pair really well with the sweetness in the sauce. It also adds depth of flavor, making canned beans taste more complex.

Heat a teaspoon or two of bacon grease in a pan and use it to saute aromatics like onions, peppers, and garlic. When the vegetables have softened, mix in dry spices like paprika, turmeric, or chile powder if you like. There are plenty of other ways to boost the flavor of canned baked beans you could try, but they aren't necessary. Add the canned baked beans and heat thoroughly.

If you're looking for a quick dish with a little more flavor, you don't need to get much more complicated than opening a can. If you're not adding additional seasonings or aromatics, empty the beans into a microwave-safe dish and add a teaspoon of bacon grease on top. It only takes two to three minutes to heat a can of beans, depending on the power of your microwave. Stop after one minute to stir in the bacon grease and help it melt evenly, then stir again after another minute. Keep heating if necessary. You don't want to add too much bacon grease if it's your only addition, but a small amount will add smoky, bacon flavor without making the beans too greasy.

If you don't have any bacon grease handy, you can make some by sauteing bacon and reserving the rendered fat. Pour off most of the fat, leaving one or two teaspoons in the pan, then use the same pan to cook your beans. Crumbling a little crispy bacon on top afterwards can give you a more intense bacon flavor, plus a nice textural contrast.

If you want even more homemade flavor, a teaspoon of molasses can add a deeper, more rounded sweetness than the canned sauce alone. A squirt of prepared mustard or ketchup is another tip to make beans taste homemade we've covered before. A splash of cider vinegar can also cut through some of the richness while adding a tangy flavor that makes the beans taste more like they're made from scratch.