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Dried-Bean Soup
Soak 1 quart of kidney, field, rice, or mockturtle beans overnight. In the morning put them in a closely covered soup-pot with 2 pounds of salt pork, which has been cut up into small pieces, and 1 gallon of cold water. Boil three hours, add 1 teaspoonful of sugar. Strain, and serve with slices of lemon. Some small force-meat balls and slices of hard-boiled eggs can be dropped in the tureen at the last moment.
A pot of beans and salt pork dressed up to imitate mock turtle soup, which is why the lemon, the forcemeat balls and the sliced egg turn up at the end. Two decisions govern the result: how much salt you let the pork contribute, and whether you strain the beans away or press them through.
- The pork is the seasoningTwo pounds of salt pork in a gallon of water may well give a soup too salty to eat if the pork is a modern commercial cure. Blanch the diced pork in fresh water for ten minutes and discard that water before starting, and add no salt at all until the soup is finished.
- Quantities and yieldA quart of dried beans is about 1 lb 12 oz to 2 lb, and a gallon of water is 16 cups. This makes roughly 8 to 10 generous servings, which suits a period family table; halve everything for a household of four.
- The beansKidney beans are still sold under that name. What the book means by field, rice and mockturtle beans is less certain: "field bean" has been used for several different sorts, "rice bean" for a small pale bean rather than anything to do with rice, and "mockturtle bean" does not map confidently onto any modern name. Any small dried bean will stand in.
- Kidney beans need a hard boilRaw and undercooked red kidney beans contain phytohaemagglutinin. Soaking overnight and then boiling briskly for at least ten minutes at the start deals with it; the three-hour cook that follows does the rest. Do not shortcut this by cooking them gently from the soak.
- "Strain" means puree"Strain" probably means puree -- Read in period terms the intention is most likely to press the beans and their liquor through a sieve and return the puree to the pot rather than throw the solids out, though taken literally the word could mean discarding them. A food mill or a stick blender does the same work. If the result is thicker than heavy cream, thin it with stock or the reserved cooking water.
- Three hours, coveredThe recipe says boil three hours under a close cover, which suits old-fashioned dried beans; today's beans may be soft in 90 minutes to two hours. Cook until they crush easily against the side of the pot, then judge.
- The teaspoon of sugarAdded after the long boil, it is more likely there to round out the salt than to sweeten. Taste before adding it, and taste again before adding lemon.
- Forcemeat balls and eggThe balls are small seasoned veal or pork dumplings, poached separately in stock so they do not cloud the soup, then dropped into the tureen with the sliced hard-boiled egg. Both go in at the last moment or they break up.