"Dave Smith" > wrote in message
...
>I had a lot of baked beans when I was young but they were always canned and
>I never developed a great appreciation for them. A couple times I have had
>home made baked beans and they were much better. Last month my son took me
>to a BBQ joint in Buffalo and they had beans that were incredible.
>
> Realizing how good they can be, I looked up some recipes and was all set
> to give them a try. I was planning to use a recipe that called for a pound
> of bacon. Today I had to go to a store to get some things for a pot luck
> family thing tomorrow and planned to get some bacon and some beans. I
> was surprised to find they did not have navy beans. They had pinto beans,
> kidney beans, black eye peas, yellow peas, green peas, several varieties
> of lentils, but now navy beans.
>
> Dang. I was looking forward to some good beans.

Dried navy beans are hard to find here. If I can not find them, I will use
the smallest white bean I can find. Or I will start with canned beans. I
have used Great Northern or even pea beans. No difference in the end
results.

That being said, someone on another newsgroup told me years ago the secret
to really good baked beans and that is to use a ton of caramelized onions.
I find when I do that, I can cut back on the other sweeteners and the end
result is out of this world!