On the Menu: German Baked Beans

This experiment has already been interesting and it's been great to see the kids trying new foods and learning about various countries.

To be honest, I'm not quite sure how "German" these baked beans are - would a German from Germany actually recognize it as local cuisine? - but considering they were the only bean dish we could find, I was willing to bend.

These beans have two staples in German food: sauerkraut and apples. Not in a million years would I have thought to put sauerkraut in baked beans, but they offer a surprisingly nice tang to the dish. And the apples, of course, give it an excellent sweetness almost reminiscent of a dessert.

To make this dish, I modified a favorite baked beans recipe. I may make this dish again and tweak it because it was a tad too sweet. If you are worried about the dish being too sweet, decrease the amount of molasses, increase the amount of water, and use unsweetened applesauce.

German Baked Beans 
Adapted from: The Bacon Cookbook by James Villas
Makes 6 main dish servings or 8-10 side dish servings

2 cups dried beans (navy or small white beans work best)
1/2 onion
2 whole cloves
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 lb bacon, chopped
1 tbs salt
1 tbs rum
1 tsp dried mustard
1 16 oz jar sauerkraut, well drained
3/4 cup molasses (can be reduced to 1/2 cup)
1 cup unsweetened applesauce

1. Soak beans in water for about 8 hours.
2. Pierce onion half with the cloves. Put into the pot with the beans and the baking soda. Bring to a boil. Cook for 15 minutes.
3. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
4. Drain beans into a 3-4 quart casserole dish, reserving 2-3 cups of the bean water. Add bacon, salt, rum, dried mustard, sauerkraut, molasses, applesauce, and 2 cups of bean water. Mix well.
5. Cover and put in oven. Bake for about 3-4 hours, checking every couple of hours to add water as needed.