I grow Marfax and other baking beans like Kenearly, King of the Early and Tiger’s Eye, which are elegant golden beans with a swirl of mahogany that, sadly, disappears when you cook them. Add salt and cook beans until tender, about 3 or 4 hours. Pour over the beans and mix well. Just before serving, add vinegar and molasses. State of Maine Red Kidney. Colorful Jacob’s Cattle, soldier, Marfax, and other beans still used in Maine are remnants of the hundreds of varieties once grown here, descendants of beans introduced to colonists by Native Americans, which, of course, grew more reliably in this climate than the European peas and beans settlers brought over. Add more boiling water just to cover. dry beans have been very successfully used. Brown Beans. King's Early. New England Baked Beans are simple and complex at the same time, slow baked with molasses, maple syrup, and spices for one of the richest, most versatile bean dishes I’ve ever made. Although the recipe calls for Swedish Brown Beans, the . or . Bake, covered, for 6 or more hours, checking after the first several hours to make sure the liquid is not below the beans. Native Americans were baking beans and sweetening them with maple syrup long before we ever arrived, so this recipe has definitely stood the test of time. Add the onion and salt pork, making sure the onion is slightly below he level of the beans. Wash the dry beans and soak overnight. Add enough boiling water to cover the beans by 1/2 inch.