Most baked beans are a can of beans and a squeeze of sauce, heated. That is not a side dish, that is a shortcut with a spoon in it. Build a real base first, bacon rendered slow, onion cooked down until it is sweet, and the beans have something to sit in besides sugar.

Pig Spit is the mild sauce in the line, which is exactly right here. Beans are a supporting dish next to ribs or brisket. If the side is hotter than the meat, the plate has no shape. Save the heat for the protein and let this one be sweet, smoky, and deep.

Fold the sauce in, do not stir it. Stirring beans in a hot pan breaks their skins and you end up with paste. Cut down through the pan with the edge of a spoon and turn the beans over in ribbons. They stay whole, the sauce coats instead of dissolving them, and the finished pan actually looks like beans.