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Boston Baked Beans
1 pint pea beans 1 small onion 1/8 pound salt pork, part fat and part lean 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon dry mustard 2 tablespoons molasses Soak beans in cold water overnight; in the morning place them in fresh water to cover and simmer gently until skins begin to burst, being careful that they do not cook long enough to break. When they are soft turn them into a bean-pot. Beans may be put into the pot without this preliminary cooking. Pour boiling water over the salt pork. Scrape the rind until white, score it in half-inch strips, and bury the meat in the beans, leaving only the rind exposed. Mix together salt, mustard and molasses. Place these in a cup, fill the cup with hot water, stir until well mixed, and pour the liquid over the beans and pork. Add enough water to cover the beans, and bake eight hours, adding water to keep them covered, until the last hour, when the pork should be raised to the surface to crisp. If pork is disliked, it may be omitted, but more salt must then be used, together with one-third cup of butter or butter substitute or drippings, or half a pound of fat and lean corned beef may be substituted.
A long, slow bake with almost nothing in it: the technique carries the dish, so the temperature and the water level matter more than the ingredient list.
- Oven temperatureThe recipe gives no temperature at all. For an eight-hour bake of this kind a low oven, somewhere around 250-300F in modern terms, is the usual equivalent. Higher than that and the liquid boils away faster than you can replace it and the skins toughen before the interiors go creamy.
- A pint of beansDried beans were measured by volume in this period. A pint is 2 cups, roughly 1 lb, which serves four to six as a side dish. Pea beans are what are now sold as navy beans.
- The onionIt is listed among the ingredients but never placed. Many New England bean recipes bury it whole and peeled at the bottom of the pot before the beans go in, then discard it or leave it to collapse into the liquid.
- Salt porkAn eighth of a pound is only 2 oz for a full pot, so this is seasoning rather than meat. Salt pork varies a good deal in saltiness; scald it as directed and hold back the added half teaspoon of salt until you taste near the end.
- Water is the whole jobCheck every hour or so and top up with boiling, not cold, water so the beans stay just covered. Beans that break the surface dry out and stay hard, and no amount of later cooking fixes them.
- Molasses, not sweetenerTwo tablespoons is a restrained amount by later Boston standards. Use unsulphured dark molasses, not blackstrap, which turns bitter over eight hours.
- Skipping the parboilThe recipe allows raw beans straight into the pot. That works, but add an hour or two and expect uneven results if your beans are more than a year old.
- The bean-potAny deep, narrow, lidded stoneware or enamelled cast-iron vessel does the same work: tall and narrow reduces evaporation. Keep it covered until the final hour, then uncover and raise the pork to crisp.
- The meatless versionIf you take the pork out, the third of a cup of fat is not optional richness but the body of the dish. Butter gives a milder result than drippings.