Boston Baked Beans

Serves: 4-6
Time: 1 hour work, 4 hours total, though there is overnight prep
Source: Stewed! - Alan Rosenthal
Goes with: Baked potatoes, or crusty bread, salad

Improve:

• Dark muscovado sugar tastes fine but makes the meal darker than you would expect baked beans to be - use light.  
• The original recipe contained too much water for me, it took an extra hour or two to boil off and get to the right consistency.  Other recipes want the water just to the level of the other ingredients, I've changed the recipe to try and get this right.
• Original recipe had pork belly, rind removed. This still leaves a huge amount of fat in the pork chunks, some bites are unpleasant. Cut the external fat layer off where needed.

• 400g dried haricot (or cannellini) beans
• 3 onions, quartered
• 5 cloves
• 60g light muscovado sugar (dark fine if you don't mind browner beans at the end)
• 50g black treacle
• 50g ketchup
• 1 tbsp English mustard
• 2 tbsp red wine vinegar
• 800g pork belly, rind removed
• salt and pepper

• Soak the beans overnight, check your packet but it's normally 5 parts water to 1 part beans
• Next day, drain the beans retaining the water, rinse the beans, and put them in a big casserole that has a lid.
• Cover with reserved bean water to the top of the beans, cover with a lid, simmer on the hob for 40 minutes or so, the beans should be nearly tender. Ensure the beans are covered with water at all times.
• Meanwhile, start a new bowl of ingredients.  Fill and boil the kettle.
• Cut the top, big layer of fat from the pork belly where it's too prominent and discard.  Cut it into 3-4cm cubes
• Stud the onion quarters with cloves
• Add these to new bowl with the pork, sugar, treacle, ketchup, mustard, vinegar.  Do not add any salt until the end of this recipe, it will toughen the beans.
• When the beans are done, add the new ingredients bowl into the pot. Use the hot bean water to loosen the treacle off the bowl and spoon.
• Stir the pot around, add water to just cover the top of the ingredients.
• Put the lid on, put into a 160C/gas mark 3 oven for 2.5 to 4 hours until the beans are creamy and soft and the pork completely tender. 
• Keep an eye on the water content, stir occasionally, and you may need to remove the lid to boil off some water.
• Taste and season