The best baked beans I ever had were made by an actor, R.A. Mihailoff who played Leahterface in TCM3! His first big role if you can call it big) was as an orderly in the original PBS production of Lathe of Heaven. Back when he lived in the foothillls of the San Gabriel Mts on the very edge of Glendale, he lent his house & garden to Dave and me for our Los Angeles wedding. A few weeks before the wedding, he had some kind of biker party and I saw him make his baked beans.

His recipe was more of "semi-homemade" variety but they sure were good.

He took various cans of beans (black beans, pinto beans, white kidney beans, red kidney beans0 and rinsed them, added them to a pot with a healthy amount of carmelized onions, tomato paste, brown sugar, molasses, dry mustard, some stone ground pub mustard, some chopped cooked bacon, one can of Heniz Chili beans with the sauce from the can, and his secret ingredient - a can of Hormel all-meat chili. He may have added some pickle relish too, I can't be sure. he let them simmer for a couple of hours before serving.

They were amazingly good beans and easy to fix too. You could do them in a crockpot easily.