With cookout season around the corner it’s time to start rounding up great recipes for summer get-togethers. What hot dog and burger cookout is complete without baked beans? It’s easy enough to heat a few cans of prepared baked beans — and there are plenty of great canned options in our aisles that meet our exacting quality standards — but have you ever made baked beans from scratch? We think our version of Classic Baked Beans is pretty awesome! It’s not a very complicated dish and you can choose to cook your beans or simply use canned white beans. Here’s what we think are the keys to great baked beans:

• Building blocks of flavor: bacon (optional) and onion
• Something sweet:  brown sugar and molasses
• Something tangy: apple cider vinegar
• Something complex: chili powder, dry mustard, tomato paste
• Great beans: Navy beans or Great Northerns are the classic choice for baked beans, but you could try other white beans or any bean for that matter.

Try our Best Ever Classic Baked Beans and see what you think for yourself. Judging from the comments posted on this recipe, we’re not alone in our high assessment of these homemade baked beans. “My all time favorite baked beans!” wrote HLTX and Yashieka said: “The BEST Baked Beans ever! I used 4 different beans and it came out FABULOUS!” Pretty high praise. Think you can top that? We’d like to see you try! We want to know: what’s your best ever recipe for baked beans? Share your great baked bean recipes and suggestions for what makes baked beans great in the comments below. Let’s see who can claim bragging rights. Happy summer cooking!