Long before John Adams was born in Braintree, Massachusetts, American Indians in the region were eating all kinds of beans. During severe New England winters, food stuffs were usually hard to locate, but beans were relatively easy to find, dry, store, and prepare. Food historians say that New England Indians mixed beans with maple syrup and bear fat. They then placed the mixture in an earthenware pot, buried it in a pit, and covered it with hot rocks.
After the Pilgrims arrived in Massachusetts, they may have learned how to make baked beans from Indians in the region but probably prepared them with molasses and pork fat instead of maple syrup and bear fat.
This quick and easy recipe provides plenty of the flavorful baked bean goodness you expect and are great on long summer days with grilled hamburgers and hot dogs.
3 15-ounce cans of white beans
1 medium white onion, peeled and chopped
2 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed
1 teaspoon salt
¼ cup ketchup
¼ cup molasses
3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1½ teaspoons dry mustard powder
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 slice raw thick-cut bacon
5 slices cooked thick-cut bacon, chopped
Pour beans into a large saucepan. In a separate bowl, mix together the ketchup, onions, molasses, vinegar, garlic, salt, onion, mustard powder, Tabasco sauce, and pepper. Add the mixture to the beans and stir to combine. Add one slice of raw bacon to the mix.
Bring the bean mixture to a simmer. Simmer over low heat until thick, about 20 minutes. Remove bacon slice, if desired. Add more salt to taste. Sprinkle chopped bacon over the top and serve hot.
Canned beans are a short cut that also lack some of the texture homemade beans provide.
ReplyDeleteAdditionally, colonial Americans thought that tomatoes were poisonous; therefore they would not have used tomato based products in making their baked beans. Though they did have "ketchup," the term referred to any prepared sauce that could be used as a condiment.
I know that tomato paste and ketchup has entered into many modern recopies; but these recopies are modern versions and are not historically accurate. And there has been some debate between some Bostonians in the past as to whether such beans can even be called "Boston Baked Beans."
The colonist did use salt pork in their beans; though not bacon. Most colonists cooked their beans in wood fired ovens or over a hearth, buried in coals; this would impart a smokiness to the beans. Since bacon is smoked it does provide some of this; but alternatively modern salt pork can be substituted if smoke flavoring is added to the dish.
Part of the appeal of Boston Baked Beans is the way the flavors meld over a *LONG* cooking processes. With the invention of Crock Pots (which were originally called "Bean Cookers" as that was their original purpose) there is no excuse not to give the beans a long cooking time, especially since they can improve the long they are cooked up to around 20 hours.
As an Massachusetts resident, born and raised, I feel a little defensive to see baked beans prepared as you have outlined and then called "Boston Baked Beans."