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Polenta
Soak 1 pint dried beans overnight. Put to boil in cold salted water; when cooked drain, and press through a fine colander into a saucepan; add 1 1/2 tablespoonfuls molasses, 1 tablespoonful butter, 1 saltspoonful of pepper, a dash of cayenne, a dash or two of ground mustard, beating continuously, and last add 1 tablespoonful of vinegar. Serve in vegetable dish very hot. Cold polenta can be utilized by cutting in slices 1/4 inch thick, or 1/2 inch cubes; dip in egg, then bread or cracker crumbs, fry in boiling fat, drain, and serve.
A seasoned bean purée, stiff enough to slice and fry the next day. The seasoning is the whole point: sweet, sharp and hot at once, in the manner of Boston baked beans reduced to a paste.
- The hinge: beat it dryThe hinge: beat it smooth -- The recipe has you beat continuously as the seasonings go in; the stiffer the pur\together shape, the better it will slice cold the next day. The vinegar goes in last, as written, so the sharpness stays bright.
- A pint of dried beansMeasured dry, that is 2 cups, about 14 oz, and it yields roughly 5–6 cups cooked. No variety is named; small white beans (navy, pea bean) suit the molasses seasoning and purée most smoothly.
- SaltspoonfulA saltspoon is a quarter teaspoon. So a scant 1/4 teaspoon pepper for the whole batch, which is modest; taste and adjust once the molasses is in.
- Cooking the beansStarted in cold salted water after an overnight soak, simmered until fully tender — 1 to 1 1/2 hours for soaked white beans. Undercooked beans will not pass through a sieve, and any that resist should go back in the pot rather than through the mesh.
- \Forcing beans through a fine colander is what a food mill or ricer does in seconds; a food processor gives a smoother, pastier result that still sets. Keep a little of the cooking liquid back in case the purée stiffens too far.
- MolassesUse unsulphured dark molasses, not blackstrap, which is bitter enough to dominate 1 1/2 tablespoons' worth. \
- Ground mustardDry mustard powder, not prepared mustard. \