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Bean Hole Beans
Of course we think of New England when we think of baked beans, but Camp Fire bean holes have flourished at many a camp both south and west. Here's the way they do it in Gorham, Maine, where they cook bean hole suppers to raise money for the camp, which are both a financial and gastronomical success.
Their bean hole is two feet deep and about two feet in diameter and lined with stones. On the day before their supper they build a tipi fire in the hole with fuzz sticks laid crosswise towards the outside of the hole to light the fire. Across the top they place several logs four or five inches in diameter. On these they lay fifteen or twenty good sized rocks, and with much ceremony light the fire and allow it to burn until the logs give way and let the rocks into the hole. This takes at least two hours.
While this is being done, the beans, which have been soaked, are parboiling in large iron kettles over another fire. (The kettles should be nearly full of water and have tight fitting covers.) Then comes the hot time: first the seasoning of the beans with mustard, ginger, an onion, salt, pepper, and a large piece of pork, then the raking out of all the live coals and the arranging of the rocks around the kettles of beans. If you don't think this is hot work, just try it!
Over the hole they place a large piece of zinc, and around the edge wet burlap bags. Then they shovel on dirt, watching for any little bit of steam which might escape, and immediately covering it with dirt. (If the hole is properly covered there will be sufficient heat to cook the beans and keep them hot for at least eighteen hours.) A rock on top of the kettle will keep the lid down solidly. Instead of the sheet of zinc you could lay wet burlap across the top of the kettle, the edges extending out to the sides of the hole. Shovel on the hot rocks and dirt, and then when it is time to remove them you can grasp the sides of the burlap and pull them all off.
Here is the bean hole bean recipe for an eight quart iron pot: 3 QUARTS OF DRY (YELLOW EYE OR SOLDIER) BEANS I LB. SALT PORK I CUP MOLASSES 2 TEASPOONS GINGER I TABLESPOON DRY MUSTARD (HEAPING) I ONION SALT AND PEPPER TO TASTE WATER TO COVER The Camp Fire Girls of Syracuse, New York, are also famous for their bean hole beans, since they served a bean hole supper to forty members of the Monarch Club and their wives. They tell us to dig a hole twice the size of the kettle you are to use; line the hole with stones; keep the fire burning in it for several hours before it is used so that the stones will be very hot. Then shovel the coals out of the hole, put in the kettle of beans covered with a tightfitting lid, raking the stones up around it and replacing the hot coals and then earth over the top. Leave six to eight hours or even longer, if possible. Baking in a hole is a good plan when you are to be away from camp all day. Start the beans baking early in the morning, or even the night before, and when you return at night a hot supper awaits you. Any other dish that needs long and slow cooking may be cooked in a bean hole. This is the recipe used by the Cleveland Camp Fire Girls: 2 POUNDS MARROW BEANS (SOAK OVER- NIGHT IF POSSIBLE). 14 POUND BACON OR SALT PORK 1/2 CUP MOLASSES, OR SUBSTITUTE BROWN SUGAR SALT AND PEPPER WATER TO COVER BUTTER OR 1/2 LB.
Two versions are given here — a large Gorham, Maine, pot and a smaller Cleveland one — along with the pit method itself. The quantities are for feeding a camp, and the timings assume a mass of stone and earth holding heat with no way to check it.
- The hinge: parboil before the molasses goes inThe Maine account has the soaked beans parboiling in a second kettle while the pit burns down; the Syracuse and Cleveland lists mention only soaking. Molasses is commonly said to firm the skins, so beans that go into the hole raw may stay stubborn however long they are buried. Boil until a few skins split and blow back when you breathe on a spoonful.
- Scale and yieldThree quarts of dry beans swells to fill the eight-quart pot; this is the supper-for-a-crowd version, and the Syracuse group is said to have fed forty members and their wives. The Cleveland list at 2 lb dry beans (about a quart) suits a much smaller pot.
- The beans namedYellow eye and soldier are New England heirloom baking beans, both still sold by regional growers; marrow beans are the large, round, buttery type. Navy or Great Northern will work, but they break down sooner and give a looser pot. Avoid anything thin-skinned.
- Water to cover, and then someNothing can be added once the lid is weighted with a rock and the hole is shovelled shut. Cover the beans generously and fill the pot nearly full, as the text says of the parboiling kettles; a pot that runs dry underground scorches and cannot be rescued.
- Skip the zincThe text caps the hole with a large piece of zinc. Hot zinc or galvanised metal can give off zinc oxide fumes, and it sits directly in the steam path. Wet burlap, as the second method describes, or a plain steel plate does the same job.
- Hours, not degreesSix to eight hours is the working minimum; overnight to eighteen hours is the Maine practice. Judge by the beans, not the clock — they should be tender and the liquid syrupy and dark. If a pit dug for the first time comes up short, the stones were not hot enough or the seal leaked steam.
- Salt porkSalt pork varies a great deal in saltiness. Rinse it, score the rind, and hold back the added salt until the pot comes out of the ground.
- Holding, not just cookingThe claim that a well-sealed hole keeps beans hot for eighteen hours is the part to treat with care. Beans that have finished cooking and then drift down through warm temperatures for hours are no longer safe eating. Serve the pot when it comes up, or chill any leftovers promptly rather than leaving them buried to hold.
- FuelHardwood only. Softwood burns to little coal and leaves resinous soot, and painted, treated or pallet lumber has no place in a pit that food will be buried in.