Instant Pot Boston Baked Beans—navy beans with molasses and salt pork pressure cooked in a fraction of the time it would take to cook in the oven.
Each week in 2020 I’m sharing a recipe inspired by one of the 50 states. (See all the state recipes I’ve covered so far.) Today’s recipe is inspired by the The Bay State, Massachusetts. Massachusetts has some other nicknames like The Pilgrim State, The Puritan State, The Old Colony State and The Baked Bean State.
When I think of Massachusetts I think of Harvard, MIT, Boston College, parking your car in Harvard Yard, the Boston tea party, one of the original colonies, the pilgrims and the Mayflower, Salem witch trials, The Freedom Trail, Fenway Park, Cape Cod and Fenway Park. There really is so much history in Massachusetts!
Instant Pot Boston Baked Beans
One of Massachusetts’ nicknames is The Baked Bean State and Boston is known as Bean Town. So I felt it was appropriate to choose baked beans as a recipe to represent the state. Boston Baked Beans are sweetened with molasses and flavored with salt pork. They are easy to make but a bit time consuming. By using the Instant Pot instead of cooking in the oven, on a stove top or in a slow cooker you save a lot of time.
How to make Boston Baked Beans in the Instant Pot
- Add water and dry navy beans to Instant Pot and pressure cook until skins will burst–20 minutes.
- Drain the water and add beans back into Instant Pot with more water and a mixture of molasses, salt, pepper, dry mustard and brown sugar.
- Add sliced pieces of salt pork into Instant Pot.
- Pressure cook for another 10 minutes with a full natural pressure release.
- Reduce the sauce down until thickened by using the sauté setting for 10-15 minutes.
- Taste test and add more molasses, salt and pepper as needed.
What is a controlled release and when do you use it? For this recipe (and most recipes that use dried beans) I use a controlled release. This just means that the steam is released in controlled bursts. You will switch the valve back and forth between sealing and venting, a few seconds at a time. Releasing the steam like this prevents the liquid and foam from spewing out and making a mess. I like to use this method when there is a very full pot or if the food is starchy.
What is salt pork and do you eat it? Salt pork is salt-cured fat from the belly and sides of the pig. It’s mainly used in small amounts as a flavoring in dishes like Boston baked beans and fish chowder. It looks like a really thick square piece of bacon. I found it by the other pork products at the grocery store. There is very little meat on the salt pork. It’s mainly fat. You could eat the meat parts off of the chunks of salt pork if you’d like.
More Recipes with Dried Beans…
Instant Pot Appalachian Soup Beans
Instant Pot Homemade Pork and Beans
Instant Pot Red Beans and Rice
Instant Pot Chicken and White Bean Soup
Instant Pot Boston Baked Beans
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 20 minutes
- Yield: 10–12 servings 1x
Description
Navy beans with molasses and salt pork pressure cooked in a fraction of the time it would take to cook in the oven.
Ingredients
- 1 pound dry navy beans
- 2 tsp salt
- 3 Tbsp brown sugar
- 1/4 – 1/2 cup molasses
- 3/4 tsp pepper
- 1 1/2 tsp dry mustard
- 12 oz salt pork, cut into 1 inch pieces
Instructions
- Add beans and 7 cups water into Instant Pot. Cover pot and secure lid. Make sure valve is set to sealing. Set the manual/pressure cook button to 20 minutes. Let the pressure release naturally for 10 minutes and then perform a controlled release. Drain the water and rinse off the beans.
- Add the beans back into the Instant Pot. Add in 1 ½ cups of water.
- Add 1 cup of boiling water, salt, brown sugar, molasses, pepper, dry mustard to a bowl and stir mixture. Add mixture to the Instant Pot. Rinse the salt pork well and then add it in.
- Cover the pot and secure the lid. Make sure valve is set to sealing. Set the manual/pressure cook button to 10 minutes. When time is up let the pressure release naturally for 10-20 minutes. Release any remaining pressure.
- Remove the lid. Stir the beans. Turn Instant Pot to saute setting. Let the sauce thicken and reduce down for about 10-15 minutes until it is thick. Stir every so often.
- Taste test and add more molasses or salt and pepper to taste.
Notes
A controlled release is releasing the steam in controlled bursts. You will switch the valve back and forth between sealing and venting, a few seconds at a time. Releasing the steam like this prevents the liquid from spewing out and making a mess. I like to use this method when there is a very full pot or if the food is starchy.
I used my 6 quart Instant Pot Duo 60 7 in 1*.
- Category: Beans
- Method: Instant Pot
*Karen Petersen is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.
Delicious! I had ham so I used that instead of salt pork and gave a squirt of mustard instead of powder.
Sounds like a great version!
Wow finally the correct time and technique….mine wore perfectly done with a slight chew not mushy at all…rarely write in but this was spot on tyvm!
YAY!
Hi Karen,
I made these and they are delicious. Way too much for just me and my husband. Would this recipe freeze well?
Thanks
yes, you can freeze boston baked beans! Should be great.
Great recipe. If you want to cook straight from dried beans (which I did the second time I made it), use 4 cups of liquid total and cook at high pressure for 75 minutes with a natural release. Texture is perfect!
Thank you so much for this info!!!
Can I can these beans in a pressure can erase after making them? I am trying to learn to make things from scratch and an them for future use.
Hi, I am not sure about this question. I don’t have any experience canning. Sorry!
Can I use pinto beans instead of navy, as that’s what I have on hand. If so, so do cook for the same amount of time?
Yes you can do that. I would add 5 minutes for pintos.
At the risk of sounding completely inept. I want to double this recipe, and while clicking on the 2x , doubles the ingredients, I’m wondering about the water to soak the beans, would it be 14 cups? And then 2 cups boiling water? I have made a “normal “ batch previously , and they turned out so well, there were none left to freeze! ( not a bad problem to have).
You won’t need 14 cups of water. You’ll need just enough to cover the beans by about 2 inches. Then add the beans back into pot and use 3 cups water. Then 2 cups boiling water.
Just made these and they turned out so perfect. I cooked the beans about 5 min longer because I live at an altitude of almost 4000 ft so they take a bit longer to cook. I used bacon and seasoning salt so needed the full 2 tsps. I did add a bit more brown sugar as in canned beans Bush brown sugar beans are my go to canned bean. So very impressed. If you follow all the cooking directions they turn out perfectly.
Thank you Lenore for the 5 stars!
You’re so welcome. It turned out so perfectly. I will definitely be going to you first when I’m looking for recipes now.
I’m also from Maine! glad to hear these were Maine certified… lol we take our Saturday night beans pretty seriously here!
Trying your recipe tomorrow. Also from Maine
Thank you Karen for this recipe for baked beans! They are delicious…I added onion with all the ingredients and changed the brown sugar with maple syrup! The cooking is perfect!
My family loved them!
So glad you liked them! Thanks for the 5 stars 🙂
I had to cook my great northern beans 10 minutes longer, perhaps because their sell-by date on the bag was only 11 months in the future (so they are drier and denser than beans with a sell-by date two years or farther in the future).
In printing out your recipe, the nutrition section that shows on the computer will not print out.
Also, how much is a serving so I can count calories? I tried a different recipe today (my first use other than bone broth), a low calorie one with with celery, onion and carrots, adding fresh ginger and whole cloves, didn’t like the flavor at all, bitter. Like you said to another reviewer, maybe my beans were old, so I will buy a new bag of navy beans and will try your recipe. I had a recipe that I used in my pressure cooker many years ago, but now I can’t find it, and I hope yours will be perfect. Keeping my fingers crossed.
I used 1/4 cup sauteed onion.
Made this tonight. It is a lot quicker in the instant pot. I used kidney beans and started soaking them at about 8 am. Started cooking about 7 pm. I used half the salt and half the pepper. You can always add more of these, but you can’t remove any. Used the maximum times for cooking and releasing. They came out very good. Taste was good, consistency was good. Salt pork cooked down good. In my humble opinion adding some onions and garlic would take it over the top. I’m from Central Maine and that’s how we do it there. Usually I use yellow eye, or Jackob’s cattle beans but couldn’t find them in Florida. Thanks for the recipe 😋.
Yes I bet onions and garlic would be amazing!
I always use onions, but I did the garlic this time too. I roasted the garlic to give it less of a punch and more earthy flavor. It was magnificent.
Ron Doty
I can not wait for dinner. I’ve already tasted the beans and they’re delicious! I’m from Maine so beans on Saturday night was tradition growing up and these taste like moms Saturday beans. I usually bake my beans if I remember to soak the night before, I don’t have to worry about that anymore, I’ll use this recipe. I just read a few comments about the salt, happy I used half the amount.
I’m anxious to dive into your page for more recipes.
Thanks so much Kim! I’m glad I could remind you of home 🙂
I’m also from Maine! ad to hear these were Maine certified… lol we take our Saturday night beans pretty seriously here!
I made this exactly as stated and my beans came out hard/uncooked tasting. Otherwise it was delicious. Could this be made with canned beans? Would I just follow from Step 5 on?
Sure you could do that. I wonder if your beans were old? Sometimes old beans don’t get soft.
Can real maple syrup be substituted for molasses? How about Truvia for brown sugar?
I bet maple syrup would be good.
Oh yeah it can! Used a no carb maple syrup also. And went real wild with instead of the cup of water at the end I put some Diet Dr.Pepper Cream soda! Skipped the salt pork and in the end added THICK CUT bacon sprinkled with Truvia Brown sugar . Im diabetic so got to do things different. It came out ! Crazy great!
Came out very, very salty. I’m not sure if that was because I didn’t rinse the salt pork enough or because it and the extra salt in the sauce overpowered things. Next time I might just use regular belly pork.
Another MA native, always made in crock in the oven….gotta say with some onion…these were quick & delicious!
Glad to hear it! Thanks Coleen!
Have made these twice already. First time with the salt pork, but the second time I used a thick cut maple bacon. Both times, the beans’ sauce did not seem as thick as I remember (a native Bostonian, so we know our beans).
I popped the beans into a bean pot (you could use any oven safe covered pot) and had them in there for 3 hours at 250F. At the end, I stir in a couple of spoonfuls of maple syrup (the real thing, baby!).
I’m glad you made it work for you. Did you reduce the sauce down in the Instant Pot? That’s what I did to thicken it.
Hi. I’m wondering approximately how long you saute them to get to a preferred thickness? If they were pressurized longer would it thicken more but be too soft? My husband prefers them all dente…at your regular time, are they all dente? 😊
They wouldn’t necessarily thicken if pressure cooked longer. I sauteed for 15 minutes.
I had the exactly the same result. Tossed out the whole batch.
Oh yeah it can! Used a no carb maple syrup also. And went real wild with instead of the cup of water at the end I put some Diet Dr.Pepper Cream soda! Skipped the salt pork and in the end added THICK CUT bacon sprinkled with Truvia Brown sugar . Im diabetic so got to do things different. It came out ! Crazy great!
Interesting. Mine wasn’t salty at all. I wonder if the difference is because of the salt pork?
Since I am not the best baked bean maker using the oven, I am going to give this recipe a try as it sounds pretty close to what my mother used to make minus the brown sugar and hers were the best. She always used lean salt port as she said beans were not the same without them. I want to make 1/2 a recipe in my 6 quart pan. Should I cut everything in 1/2 including the water and when you saute ,what setting do you use, less, normal or high?
Yes that is the way I would halve the recipe. I used high to reduce.
I’m suddenly not receiving your emails Have you stopped sending them? I miss them. Kathleen
Hi Kathleen, I still send them out! I will look into it!
Can I use diced left over ham instead of the salt pork or bacon?
I bet that would be amazing!
Have GOT to try this.
I am from Massachusetts, live close to Plymouth MA, and you are so RIGHT! SO much more history here.
Live in Tauntin, Ma…also known as the Silver City, because of Reed & Barton Silver Co. (which closed its doors not all that long ago… Sheffield Silver Co. , The Poole Silver Co, F.B.Rogets Silver Co.
It is home to one of the signers if the Declaration of Independance!!!
…and so much more
Love Baked beans, have my grandmothers BEAN JAR, & individual crocks. Have an OLD recipe for this so, I will be comparing…lol!
What a great place to live!
And I’m sure your grandmother’s recipe will be better!! Nothing beats Grandma’s cooking. But my version will most definitely take less time!
Thanks for the Baked Beans recipe, I’ve been looking for a great Baked Bean recipe and my wait has come to an end. You have posted so many great recipes that I have filled 2 notebooks and have enjoyed many great hours of cooking and eating. Your work is greatly appreciated.
Hi Roger, I hope you like it! Thanks so much for your nice words!!
Hey Karen! Looks like a solid Baked Bean recipie but I have one question? Growing up here in Maine my grandmother always fried the salt pork till crisp and set it aside.. . Then chopped a whole onion and softened them before adding all of your remaining ingredients into the pot and baked. The salt pork was ALWAYS fried up first, no extra salt was ever added. Maybe just a Maine thing…no Saturday Baked Beans without onions! Brown bread and homemade biscuits with Molasses.
Mmmm that version sounds great! Try it!
Karen,
I have the 3 quart instant pot. If I cut the ingredients in half do I follow the cooking time or lessen it.
Thank you for all the great recipes. I have tried and liked many of them.
Hi Christine, you will cut the ingredients in half and keep the same cooking time! https://www.365daysofcrockpot.com/how-to-halve-instant-pot-recipes/
I have been wanting to make my own Boston Baked Beans from scratch but have just never done it. Now you have given me reason to finally do it! I’ve been eating Bush’s Grillin Beans Bourbon and Brown Sugar and love them but I’m sure yours are so much better! Thank you!
I love Bush’s too! Hope you like my recipe 😊
Hi Karen instead of salt pork can bacon be used?
Yes! I would chop it up and add it in. Lots of good flavor!
Yay! I’ve been waiting for the MA since it’s the state I live in. I’m a New Englander through and through so I’ll be keeping my eyes out for the other New England recipes. These ingredients (with onion added) are exactly what I use in my long cooking baked beans, so I can’t wait to make them in the IP. That sure will save a lot of time. Thank you Karen!
Hi Carol, thanks so much for following along! I hope you like my version!
Boston also has a great seafood bake! Can use any type fish or shell fish!
Oh, I bet it does! I wish I had better access to fresh seafood!
Hi Karen,
First, thank you for all of the great recipes! This one looks delicious and we will be making it soon. Can we freeze or can the leftover Boston Baked Beans?
I think freezing them would work great!