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Baked Bean Salad
2 cups baked beans 2 cups shaved cabbage 5 tablespoons diced onion 2 tablespoons diced pimientos 1 cup mayonnaise, or boiled dressing Mix lightly all ingredients, and serve on lettuce leaves, garnished with parsley and pimiento rings.
A cold salad built on canned or leftover baked beans, of the sort that travelled well to a picnic ground before ice chests were common. It needs no cooking, only restraint in the mixing.
- Fold, do not stirBaked beans collapse into paste the moment they are worked. Add the dressing last and turn the mixture over two or three times with a broad spoon, stopping while the beans are still whole.
- Which beansA standard 15-16 oz can of baked beans in tomato or molasses sauce gives roughly 1 3/4 cups, near enough to the 2 cups called for. Drain off the loose sauce first or the mayonnaise will thin and separate.
- Shaved cabbageCabbage sliced very thin, in fine ribbons; a knife or slaw cutter gives cleaner shreds than a box grater, which bruises the leaf and draws water. Slice it just before assembling.
- Five tablespoons of onionRoughly a third of a medium onion, raw, and it is assertive in the bowl. Soaking the dice in cold water for ten minutes and draining takes off the harshest edge without losing the flavour.
- PimientosJarred pimiento peppers, mild and already cooked, sold in small jars near the olives. Drained roasted red pepper is the closest substitute; fresh red bell pepper is sharper and crunchier but works.
- Boiled dressingThe period alternative to mayonnaise: a cooked dressing generally of egg, vinegar, mustard, sugar and a little flour or butter, tarter than mayonnaise. Many will find it suits the sweet beans better.
- Yield and holdingMakes about 5 cups, enough for six as a side. Being egg-dressed, it should be kept cold and eaten within a few hours, particularly outdoors in warm weather.
Bean salad of this kind belongs to the long American run of "made" salads, in which cooked or canned food was bound with mayonnaise or boiled dressing and set on a lettuce leaf to give it standing at table. Such a dish is practical rather than sentimental: canned baked beans were among the cheapest and most reliable provisions a family could carry, cabbage kept for days without ice, and jarred pimientos supplied colour when nothing fresh was to hand. The garnish of parsley and pimiento rings reflects the era's fondness for presenting even a plain dish, and the boiled dressing option is a reminder that dressings were still commonly made at home.