Legumes
Baked Beans--No. 1 1 pint California pea beans 2 1/2 teaspoons salt 1 tablespoon molasses 2 tablespoons cooking oil Wash the beans and soak them overnight. In the morning drain off the water and put them into a bean pot. Add the remaining ingredients, and sufficient boiling water to cover them. Cover the pot, and bake them in a moderate oven for twelve hours or longer, adding boiling water when necessary. Parboiling is unnecessary, but is generally done. The beans will be better if they are baked twelve or even twenty-four hours, but the heat of the oven must be moderate.
Other pea beans than the California may be used. Sugar may be substituted for the molasses, but the molasses is necessary to give the real Boston baked-bean flavor.
One pint or less of strained tomatoes may be used in place of part of the water with which the beans are covered when put to bake.
A meatless Boston-style bean pot that relies on time rather than salt pork for its texture. The only thing that will ruin it is heat.
- Oven heat is the hinge"moderate" in books of this period is usually glossed as somewhere around 350F, though the term was never precise. Little would come through twelve to twenty-four hours at that heat; for a bake of this length hold the oven at 250-275F. The recipe itself insists twice that the heat must be moderate, and that warning is the whole method.
- QuantitiesA pint of dry beans is about 14 oz to 1 lb, roughly 2 cups, and swells to 6 cups cooked. That feeds six as a side dish or four as a main. The 2 1/2 teaspoons salt is correct for that volume, not excessive.
- The bean potA glazed earthenware pot with a narrow mouth and a close lid slows evaporation. A 3-4 quart enamelled cast iron casserole or a heavy lidded Dutch oven does the same job. Avoid thin metal, which lets the bottom layer scorch.
- WaterAlways top up with boiling water, as instructed. Cold water drops the pot temperature and toughens skins that have already begun to soften. Check every two or three hours and keep the beans just covered.
- California pea beansThese are small white beans, effectively what is now sold as navy beans. Any small white bean works; cannellini and flageolet hold up but give a softer, less traditional result.
- Molasses, not blackstrapUse ordinary unsulphured molasses. Blackstrap is bitter and will dominate. A tablespoon is a restrained amount by modern taste, so more can be added at the table.
- If you use the tomatoAcid slows the softening of bean skins. Adding a pint of strained tomatoes at the start can leave beans firm after many hours; stirring it in during the last two or three hours gives the flavour without the risk.
- No pork, by designThe two tablespoons of oil stand in for salt pork. Because there is no fat cap, the top layer dries out first; press the beans down under the liquid whenever you add water.