Not an English Bean recipe but here's a good one
1 nice pottery bean pt
enough small white beans (we usually use a pound or more)
light or medium ale to cover plus more for cooking perhaps one bottle of stout
1-2 chopped onions
some ketsup
some worchestershire sauce
some brown sugar
some garlic
(adjust amounts to your tastes, when in doubt err on the side of less)
sort beans removing any stone sor bad ones
put all ingredients in pot
cook until done adding more beer as needed during cooking in oven at about 250-300 or so
Key point, never use water only beer. If you like ham add it towards the end or it become hard and inedible.
Makes a very dark almost black strong flavored baked bean that is wonderful. If you use stout for the entire cooking time they are almost too strong to eat. Lighter beers work for the early parts of the cooking with a small amount of stronger beer near the end.
Oogie McGuire