Quick Bourbon Beans

I've always loved baked beans.  I blame it on my mother, not on my fondness for things western.  She essayed home-baked beans on brown bread a couple of times, using one of those cool beehive-shaped ceramic bean pots with delicious results. I can still recall the taste today.

More often though, it was canned beans to go along with bratwurst or hotdogs for a quick supper on a busy weekend night.  Since opening a can was easy, preparing the beans was often delegated to one of us kids to "teach us how to cook". As we dumped them in the pan or microwave bowl, she encouraged us to experiment with ways to make out-of-the can beans taste better.

While my brother's experiments tended along the lines of improving the ballistics of the spoon-launched projectiles he would direct my way when I antagonized him behind Mom's back, my efforts focussed around what ketchup and dijon or stone-ground mustard could do.

Recently I've been making beans as something quick and comforting on a cold wet night in the Santa Cruz mountains after getting home late from work Yet Again.  Here's my latest (and best) variation.

Quick Bourbon Beans  (Prep time: about 10 minutes)

4 strips thick-cut bacon
1/2 onion
Dash of Worchestershire sauce
2 tbsp bourbon
1 can Bush's ORIGINAL baked beans

Slice the bacon into 1" chunks.  Dice onion.  Throw the sliced bacon chunks into a large saute pan (skillet, spyder, frying pan, hubcap or what-have you) and let them heat, frying in their own fat on medium heat for about five minutes or until you judge them about halfway done.  The fat should be translucent and the meat browning but not crisp.  Add the diced onion and continue to saute until the onions are soft and translucent and the bacon looks nearly done.

Add dash of Worchestershire sauce and 2 tbsp bourbon to the pan and stir for a moment.

Now, I'm a Booker Noe man myself.  However you won't catch me putting Booker into baked beans, or into coffee or visiting ignoramuses for that matter, no matter how fancy I'm feeling.  That's showing off and doesn't impress much except your wallet.  Bulleit makes a nice, moderately priced frontier bourbon whose rougher, sharper flavor actually works better for cooking than the smooth subtlety of Booker.  I've used various amounts, from 2 to 4 tbsp, but I find that for my taste, 2 tbsp is plenty.

For the pyromaniacal among us, try the following experiment:  use more like 6 tbsp of bourbon and let it stay on the flame for a few extra seconds until it starts to evaporate, then tilt the pan and slide it halfway off the burner so that the vapors spill across the open flame.  You'll get a gratifying whoosh as the alcohol, heated past its flashpoint, goes off in a roil of flame.  If you're careful, you might even still have your eyebrows afterwards.  If not, you'll get to re-experience the adolescent delight of riding in a bright red firetruck and hanging out with the firemen.

Now stir in the beans, straight from the can and turn the heat down to low, letting it simmer for five minutes or so.  Add pepper to taste.