The quintessential side dish of the sugar shack season in this lovely region of Canada. Sweet, thick, and rich these oven baked beans are hearty and delicious!

They are a ubiquitous part of breakfast and brunch in Quebec, specially during the months of February to May {Cabane à sucre season!}.

A couple of weeks ago a friend decided to make these for us, for breakfast. I had always enjoyed these maple-sweetened beans elsewhere, but I had never actually cooked them myself. So I asked Stef to scour for her mom’s {family} recipe.

If you want to see it…

Keep reading!

Fèves au lard

I must admit that, since I like my beans a little meaty, I adapted the original recipe to include ham!

Ingredients	Tools
1 1/2 lb cooked* white navy beans 0.4 lb (250 g) salted pork belly (lard porc salé), rinsed and cut into thick slices 1 lb (500 g) pork ham, with bone 3 tblsp molasses 2 tblsp brown sugar 4 tblsp maple syrup 1/2 tsp dried mustard seeds, ground 1 onion, cut in slices 1 liter pork broth water salt and pepper	Dutch oven, or bean pot one pot (to cook beans) wooden spoon

In a dutch oven place onion, molasses, sugar, maple syrup, dried mustard, pork belly, ham, and beans. Lightly season with salt and pepper {the liquid will reduce throughout the cooking, and the ham and pork belly are VERY salty! After so many hours of cooking the last thing you want is an overly salted result}. Add the pork broth and water to cover the beans by about 5 cm (approx 2 in). Cook at 350ºF for about 30 minutes, then lower the heat to 200ºF and cook for a total of 8 hours. Check and stir occasionally, and add more water if needed.

Thanks for reading
et un gros merci à Stef et Diane!!

* How to cook white Navy beans:
Soak about 2 cups of dried Navy beans in 4-6 cups of water, overnight. Afterwards, boil them for 15 minutes with half an onion and a garlic clove. Now they are ready for the recipe!