1 lb navy beans, pea beans or other smal, l dried white b
1/2 lb salt pork
1 medium onion, cut in 1/2 dice
4 garlic cloves, fine chopped
1 cup tomato puree
1 tsp salt
2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup dried mustard
1/3 cup maple syrup
1/3 cup molasses
2 bay leaves
3 tbsp cider vinegar
Directions
This recipe, adapted from "Jasper White's Cooking From New England"
(Harper & Row; 1989), may well be the ultimate American baked bean,
just sweet enough from molasses and maple sugar.
Pick through beans and discard off-colored or broken ones. Rinse and
drain beans.
Remove rind from half of salt pork. Cut into 1/2" squares. Cut other
half into 3/4- to 1" thick strips to equal 4 or 5 strips, with rind
attached. Set aside.
Line bottom of earthenware crock or bean pot with 1/2" squares of
salt pork and onion. Place beans on top.
Bring 1 quart water to boil in saucepan. Add garlic, tomato puree,
salt, pepper, mustard, maple sugar, molasses, bay leaves and vinegar.
Simmer 1 minute. Mix well and pour over beans.
Score strips of salt pork crosswise, about every inch, without cutting
through. This prevents strips from curling while cooking. Place
strips on top of beans and liquid. Cover pot and bake at 250'F. 5
hours, checking occasionally (first at 2 hours, then every hour), to
be sure liquid is just barely covering beans. Add more water as
needed.
After 5 hours, remove cover of bean pot and cook 1 hour more. Remove
strips of salt pork and stir pot before serving. Makes 6-8 servings.
Servings: 8 servings
Boston Baked Beans (White) Recipe brought to you by Recipe Ideas
Categories: Bean; Vegetable
The History of Recipes
We are able to follow the history of meal recipes back into antiquity, in truth as far back into recorded history as the Egypt of the Pharoahs, and possibly even further. Interesting though that maybe, generally, these early records were just primitive hieroglyphic instructions for preparing meals.
As we move into Roman times 25BC a roman called Apicius assembled a collection of scripts showing how to cook the recipes cooked by the Romans. In his scrolls, he tells us how the roman meals were divided into appetizers, entrees and afters, something we still use today. Aspicius tells us how the Roman chefs were skilled in the use of many aromatic flavors, including some that we all recognise like bay, rue and parsley. Later, in the fifteenth century, knights returning from the crusades brought back a variety of foods and spices from the holy land, including spices such as parsley and basil. These new culinary innovations led to a surge in manuscripts on cooking, most of which are now in academic collections. By the advent of the 20th century, cooking books are greatly in demand as a result of better eduction, increased leisure time and having more disposable income. |
We hope you enjoy this Boston Baked Beans (White) recipe.
