For baked beans, the recipe given is one very good recipe. But don't limit yourself to just one. In your next batch, sweeten with Maple Syrup and add just a touch of chili powder. Or you can omit the mustard. For meat, you can use bacon, browned breakfast sausage, Itallian Sausage, browned ground beef, sliced hot dogs, cooked corned beef, Ham, ham-hocks, salt pork, cubed fresh pork, venison (trimmed of all fat), bratwurst, ring bolgna, etc.
Try other sweeteners as well. Try adding a pinch of cloves, or cinamon. Baked beans are made in a thousand different ways. You can also make very good baked beans with dried pinto beans, black beans, great white northern beans, etc. Kidney beans and garbanzo beans (chic peas) are not good for baked beans though.
Some people like dry beans with a very rich, dark mollases flavor, while others on the other end of the spectrum prefer very saucy beans swimming in a sweet/tangy sauce flavored by sugar and brown sugar.
The best recipe for baked beans is the one you like best. My favorite depends on my mood when I'm making them. I prefer either the boston baked bean recipe given by Qsis, or a similar recipe that uses maple syrup instead of mollases. I always add about a tsp. of chili powder to my beans, but that is absolutely optional.
Seeeeya; Goodweed of the North
