To speed things along, soak the beans in plenty of water overnight in a pressure cooker pan or a large spaghetti-type pot. If you forget to do this, place the beans and water in a large pot to boil, remove from the heat, cover and let stand for 1 hour OR start them dry in the pressure cooker. Drain and rinse soaked beans and then cook the beans with 8-12 cups water in a large pot for 1:15 hours or until soft OR in a pressure cooker for 4-7 minutes if soaked, 20-25 minutes if dry. When the beans are cooked, drain them and place in a bean pot or deep covered casserole dish, BUT SAVE THE COOKING LIQUID.

While the beans are cooking, in a fry pan, cook the onion until soft in either bacon drippings (after you’ve cooked and crumbled some bacon to sprinkle onto your beans when serving), the salt pork, the ham gelee or oil.

After you’ve cooked the onion in the fat, (olive oil if you’re going vegan), add in all the good stuff, the brown sugar, molasses, maple syrup, Worcestershire sauce, the dry mustard and the black pepper. Cook and stir until the sugar dissolves. Don’t add the salt until later. Then pour the contents into the bean pot with the beans.

Add two cups of the reserved bean liquid to the fry pan to “clean it out” and then pour it into the bean pot. Cover and bake at 300° for at least two hours. Add more reserved bean liquid to beans as necessary to keep them saucy throughout the baking process.

Add the salt once the beans have baked for about an hour. You are going to need some salt, but depending on the which pork product you’ve used will dictate how much salt to use, so TASTE, TASTE, TASTE!

After about two hours, the Boston Baked Beans are ready to eat, but keep them in the oven until you are ready to serve, because they will benefit from the extra cooking time. They are even better if made a day ahead and warmed in the oven.