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I’ve been thinking about summer a lot lately. Probably because it is colder than anything outside and we are covered with about 3 feet of snow. So I went into the archives and tried to find something that screamed, “summer”. Of course, I came up with a gelatin. Enjoy!

Let’s see a show of hands: Who out there likes canned baked beans?

I have to admit that I do enjoy baked beans, even of the canned variety. And I can understand adding a few ingredients to a can of baked beans to perk up the flavor, which is very common in mid-century recipes. However, this is the first time I’ve ever “perked up” the flavor of canned baked beans with tomato juice and GELATIN.

Behold, Barbecue Bean Mold.

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This recipe was submitted in our recent gelatin contest by Veg, aka Bob. And even though it is referred to as a “peppy salad” in the recipe description, I can’t imagine that it would taste like anything but baked beans.  It seems like the “pep” is all from lemon juice and Worcestershire sauce.

AuthorRetroRuth
Rating

Tested Recipe!

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 2 envelopes unflavored gelatin
 2 cups tomato juice
 2 tbsp brown sugar
 3 tbsp lemon juice
 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
 2 pounds canned mixed beans in barbecue sauce

1

Soften gelatin in 1 cup of the tomato juice in a 2-cup measuring cup.

2

Combine remaining 1 cup tomato juice, brown sugar, lemon juice, and Worcestershire sauce in a large saucepan; heat to boiling; simmer 5 minutes. Stir in gelatin mixture until dissolved; remove from heat. Stir in beans and mix well.

3

Spoon into a 6-cup mold. Chill several hours, or until firm.

4

Just before serving, run a sharp-tip, thin-blade knife around the top of the mold, then dip mold very quickly in and out of a pan of hot water. Invert onto serving plate; lift off mold. Serve plain, or with mayonnaise or salad dressing, if you wish.
Yield: 6 servings

Ingredients

 2 envelopes unflavored gelatin
 2 cups tomato juice
 2 tbsp brown sugar
 3 tbsp lemon juice
 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
 2 pounds canned mixed beans in barbecue sauce

Directions

1

Soften gelatin in 1 cup of the tomato juice in a 2-cup measuring cup.

2

Combine remaining 1 cup tomato juice, brown sugar, lemon juice, and Worcestershire sauce in a large saucepan; heat to boiling; simmer 5 minutes. Stir in gelatin mixture until dissolved; remove from heat. Stir in beans and mix well.

3

Spoon into a 6-cup mold. Chill several hours, or until firm.

4

Just before serving, run a sharp-tip, thin-blade knife around the top of the mold, then dip mold very quickly in and out of a pan of hot water. Invert onto serving plate; lift off mold. Serve plain, or with mayonnaise or salad dressing, if you wish.
Yield: 6 servings

Barbecue Bean Mold

 

By the way, I halved this recipe because I couldn’t see Tom and I trying to choke down two pounds of cold baked beans.

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I have to admit, by the time I started working on this salad I was pretty sick of gelatin, so Tom and I didn’t have a lot of witty banter going back and forth while we were making this. It was mostly just me sighing and Tom looking forlornly at the mixture of tomato juice and baked beans.

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I perked up a little bit when I got to use my favorite gelatin mold.

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I didn’t know how it would turn out with the chunky texture of this crazy thing, but it ended up not looking too bad.

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If you ignore all the beans.

So many, many beans.

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“Look at the all the beans in this thing.”

“It could have been worse. This is only half a recipe.”

Tom Tasting

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“Wow…that doesn’t look like it is good at all.”

“It tastes like baked beans.”

“Well, that’s not so bad.”

Cold baked beans.”

“Ew.”

The Verdict: Cold baked beans

From the Tasting Notes:

The initial taste is rough, very tomato-y and strong. After that it just tasted like cold baked beans. Not totally disgusting, but not very good either. The whole things is sort of ridiculous and a waste of time because you could just open a can of beans and warm it up and it would taste better. But if you love cold baked beans and tomato juice, then maybe this is the gelatin mold for you!

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