These 'Famous' Pitmaster-Approved Baked Beans Have a Surprising Secret Ingredient

With the summer season in full effect, it's time to bust out the bbq tools and invite your friends and family over for a cookout. We all have our favorite backyard bbq recipes, whether that's a tasty rack of ribs , freshly made coleslaw or a pan of rich and creamy macaroni and cheese . But one of our favorite summer sides, baked beans flies a little bit under the radar.

Baked beans taste pretty good straight out of the can, but it's also super easy to level them up. The addition of maple syrup, molasses, brown sugar, ketchup, mustard and even chunks of beef are all easy ways to improve a can of baked beans. We've tried many of those upgrades, but we recently ran across a new pitmaster-approved way to improve baked beans—add peaches .

Why You Should Add Peaches to Baked Beans

Often attributed to the legendary pitmaster Myron Mixon via his “Jack's Old South" Barbeque Beans recipe, the real secret to the tastiest baked beans you’ve ever had is the addition of either canned peaches or peach pie filling. Peaches add their delicate floral sweetness to the tangy, sweet and savory beans. Add a splash of bourbon and you really have something special.

How to Add Peaches to Your Baked Beans

Mixon's recipe is a great one to try, but there are also some pretty creative iterations online as well. Matt Ramsey, aka Cooker of Deliciousness on TikTok, uses Bush's baked beans, fresh peaches, barbecue sauce, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, brown sugar and a couple ounces of bourbon. He mixes all of the ingredients together in an

To take the recipe to even greater heights, Ramsey places a metal rack on top of the pan of beans and places a large ball of seasoned beef on the rack. The fats from the beef render directly into the baked beans as they cook with the lid covered, just like an over-the-top chili recipe. Once the meat is cooked to an internal temperature of 165°F, Ramsey breaks it up and mixes it directly into the baked beans.

You can find detailed instructions on how to recreate Ramsey’s take on the Myron Mixon method here , though we'd also encourage you to do your own experimenting. The beans can be made with whichever type of meat you prefer, including hot dogs, ribs, pulled pork or ham. And for the vegetarians of the bunch, simply subtract the meat and stick to the basics for a delicious meatless side dish.

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