Hart Stillwell's Baked Beans

Hart Stillwell, a frontier novelist, made a rough version of these beans over campfires while on fishing and hunting trips. If you like beans less sweet, reduce the amount of brown sugar.

Ingredients

• 2 pounds cooked navy beans or other white beans
• 1 1/2 cups tomato juice
• 1 cup chopped pecans, toasted
• 3/4 cup dark brown sugar (or less)
• 3/4 cup strong black coffee
• 1/2 medium red onion, chopped
• 1/2 cup ketchup
• 1/2 cup bourbon
• 4 slices slab bacon, chopped
• 1 carrot, finely grated
• 2 tablespoons unsulphured dark molasses
• 2 tablespoons dry mustard

Method

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl. Pour the mixture into a baking dish.
3. Bake the beans, uncovered, about 1 1/2 hours, or until they have thickened and cooked down, with a "skin" just beginning to form on the top of the beans.

These beans reheat well and keep refrigerated for several days.