Pork and beans

“ First, because beans will keep all winter. Second, because beans are very nearly perfect food for robust people. They have fat in them, and that makes heat, and they have starch and gluten in them too, so that they are in fact both meat and bread. Pound for pound, dried beans are about the most perfect food possible. To make them palatable we must take some dry salted pork along. We can carry that better than pickled pork in kegs and we shall not have to carry a lot of useless brine if we take the dry salted meat."
The Doctor added some dried beef, a few hams, some bacon and a supply of sugar. ”

“ The largest beans are granulated rather than cooked, while the mealy portion of them has fallen to the bottom of the kettle and become scorched thereon, and the smaller beans are too hard to be eatable. The liquid, that should be palatable bean soup, is greasy salt water, and the pork is half raw. ”

“ Heat an old-fashioned beanpot with hot water, and wipe it dry; place a small piece of pork in the pot, and add the beans to within two inches of the top; now place a small piece of pork (properly scored on its rind) on the beans. Dissolve a tablespoonful of black molasses in a pint of warm water; add half a teaspoonful of salt and a few drops of Worcestershire sauce, and pour this over the beans; place the pot in a moderate oven, and bake for three hours, at the end of which time take them out, and add a little more warm water, to prevent them from becoming too dry. ”

“ Put beans in pot and bury pork in beans, leaving rind exposed. Mix one tablespoon salt, one tablespoon molasses, and three tablespoons sugar; add one cup boiling water, and pour over beans; then add enough more boiling water to cover beans. Cover bean-pot, put in oven, and bake slowly six or eight hours, uncovering the last hour of 239cooking, that rind may become brown and crisp. Add water as needed. Many feel sure that by adding with seasonings one-half tablespoon mustard, the beans are more easily digested. If pork mixed with lean is preferred, use less salt. ”

“ Cover with fresh water and the soda and boil, until skins break, but do not let beans become broken. Cut rind from salt pork and cut into six or eight pieces. To 1 cup of boiling water add the cayenne, salt, molasses, mustard and tomatoes. In bottom of bean pot place the onion and a piece of salt pork. Add beans. ”

“ Get a deep pot for beans. A heavy iron one is mighty good.
Take a half pound of salt pork and cut it into very small pieces. Fry them until brown.
Clean your beans and soak them for at least two hours—or more. Then boil the beans for two hours, after which add the pork and one can of Mexican Chili Sauce. If this is not available, make your own by frying with the salt pork: four tomatoes, three onions, two bell peppers and one red pepper, all chopped.
Now you’ve got your mixture and after it’s all together [124] put in six beef bouillon cubes; salt and pepper to taste. ”

“ Pork and beans are two of the principal articles of diet with miners, partly because they are comparatively cheaper than other provisions, and partly on account of their being so nutritious and wholesome. The beans, especially, are very fine; they are imported from Chili, and are superior to any I ever saw in the Atlantic States. By boiling as much at one time as the pot will hold, the miner generally saves himself the trouble of preparing these articles of food oftener{157} than twice a week. ”

“ If pork is disliked, use a large spoonful of butter instead. Cold baked beans can be warmed in a frying-pan with a little water, and are even better than at first, or they can be used in a soup as in directions given. A teaspoonful of made mustard is sometimes stirred in, and gives an excellent flavor to a pot of baked beans. Double the quality if the family is large, as they keep perfectly well in winter, the only season at which so hearty a dish is required, save for laborers. ”

“ When the beans have become tender enough to crack, take out the pork and mash the beans into a paste with a wooden masher or the bottom of a large bottle. Then put all back and boil slowly an hour longer. If no soda is used, longer boiling will be necessary. Bean soup will burn if not constantly stirred. Not much salt, but plenty of pepper should be used for seasoning. ”

“ But pork it appears to be the common impression that man cannot do without. Certainly he must have partaken somewhat of its nature to make him so greedy; and there would seem to be animals enough on land and sea, without devouring the swine. If pork be important anywhere, it is so in the old Puritan dish of baked beans; yet those who have tasted baked beans prepared with fine rich beef instead have voted them quite sumptuous, and possibly rich enough for people who live at restaurants. ”

“ Butter, 2 oz.; flour, 1 dessertspoonful; salt and pepper; veal gravy, small cupful; yolks of eggs, 2; lemon-juice, a dessertspoonful.
TO BOIL WINDSOR BEANS. When young, freshly gathered, and well dressed, these beans, even with many persons accustomed to a luxurious table, are a favourite accompaniment to a dish of streaked bacon, or delicate pickled pork. Shell them only just before they are wanted, then wash, drain, and throw them into boiling water, salted as for peas. ”

“ Baked beans, too, make a prime dish for camp life, partly, I suppose, because, like corn meal and pea and bean soups, potatoes and the heartier kinds of food, they are so satisfying to the camper’s appetite. It isn’t necessary to cook your beans with pork, substitute [60] some kind of nut butter, peanut butter or almond butter, or plenty of fresh dairy butter. The quart of pea beans should be soaked in cold water over night. In the morning these beans must be put into fresh water and allowed to cook until they are soft but not broken. ”

“ I wonder how many people are now left in Beverly Farms who ever tasted food cooked in a brick oven. I am sure there are not many. But those of us who ate of an Indian pudding or a pot of baked beans from that ancient source of supply will never forget the deliciousness of that kind of cookery.
The pudding would stand straight up in its earthen pan, a quivering red, honey-combed mass, surrounded with a sea of juice to be eaten with rich real cream in clots of loveliness. The beans would be brown and whole, with the crisp home cured pork on top. ”

“ Dried beans or peas should be soaked before boiling; they make very good soup with a small piece of bacon or salt pork boiled with them; put them to boil in plenty of water, and after they have boiled an hour, pour it off, and put in cold water--and the meat or bones, and let them boil an hour longer; stir in a little thickening, with pepper, salt, parsley and thyme; mix up some dumplings, and drop in half an hour before the soup is done. Where you have a large family, you should always be provided with dried beans for winter use. ”

“ It is criminal to smother the kidney bean with melted butter at table. A little oil, vinegar, and pepper agree with him much better.
In the great continent of America, the kidney-bean seed, dried, is freely partaken of. Pork and “Borston” beans, in fact, form the national dish, and right good it is. But do not attempt any violent exercise after eating the same. The Mexicans are the largest bean-eaters in the [Pg 121] world. They fry the vegetables in oil or stew them with peppers and onions, and these frijoles form the principal sustenance of the lower orders. ”

“ The nutritive qualities of beans are very well known, and very much exaggerated too. Even Professor Liebig once said that "four quarts of beans and two pounds of corned beef or pork boiled to rags, in fifty quarts of water, will furnish a good meal for forty men." ”

“ The thick pieces of belly meat, packed in a two-gallon jar and covered with salt or brine, will make a supply of fat pork to cook with beans and other vegetables. The tenderloin makes good roasts, the head and feet may go into head cheese or scrapple, and the trimmings and other scraps of lean meat serve for a few pounds of home-made sausage. In some large families it is found profitable to "corn" a fore quarter of beef for spring and summer use. Formerly it was a common farm practice to dry beef, but now it seems to be more usual to purchase beef which has been dried in large establishments. ”

“ One pint of red kidney beans, one pint of tomatoes, one onion chopped fine, one clove of garlic, one tablespoonful of oil, one-half pound of bacon or pork, one-half pound of beef cut in dices, one tablespoonful of powdered Spanish pepper, and a little salt and pepper. Soak the beans over night, parboil, and drain. Add the tomatoes, onion, garlic, meat, etc., season with salt and pepper, and pour in enough water to keep it from being too sticky, or thick. Cook slowly all day, or until the meat is tender, and the beans thoroughly cooked. ”

“ It is not a little provoking under all our privations to know that we have on board the bark a sufficient quantity of wholesome food to make us comfortable. In addition to good beef, pork, codfish, beans, potatoes and hard-bread, we have a quantity of flour, sufficient to give us a reasonable supply of soft-tack, besides rice, dried apples, raisins and sugar. ”

“ For three pints of dried beans add three level teaspoonfuls salt, one-quarter pound pickled pork cut fine, six tablespoonfuls New Orleans molasses or six tablespoonfuls of C sugar, one tablespoonful standard mustard. ”

“ No roots, without a due admixture of farinaceous food, as pollard, barley-meal, peas, &c., will produce first-rate bacon, and indeed in the finishing-off, or last stage of feeding, it is better to omit the roots altogether, and give only peas, barley-meal, whey, &c. The same observations apply to pork; even young delicate dairy-fed pork requires to be finished off on a mixture of farinaceous food with the refuse of the dairy, in order that the meat may acquire a due degree of firmness. In this respect, as well as in age, pork differs from the sucking-pig ”

“ Lean, fresh meat trimmings are employed and some add a small proportion of heart, all chopped very fine. While being chopped, spices and seasoning are added, with a sufficient quantity of salt. The meat employed is for the most part beef, to which is added some fresh or salted pork. When almost completed, add gradually a small quantity of potato flour and a little water. The mixture being of the proper consistency, stuff in beef casings, tie the ends together into rings of fair length and smoke thoroughly. ”

“ Bean flour is not only thought more nutritive, but is found to be more abundant than that of oats. Beans are chiefly applied to the feeding of horses, hogs, and other domestic animals; and it is supposed that meal-men often grind them amongst wheat, the flour of which is to be made into bread. By some persons they are roasted, and adopted as a substitute for coffee. With the Roman ladies bean-flour was in much repute as a cosmetic.
Garden-beans are almost wholly confined to culinary uses. What are called French-beans, and Kidney-beans, belong to a different tribe from the present. ”

“ I think these deserve to be served in a course by themselves, even more than peas. If they are served with a joint they must simply be made hot in a tin, then drained and allowed to dry, and handed round just as they are. French beans go best with a haunch of venison or roast mutton. If, however, you serve the beans as a course by themselves, you must, after making them hot and draining off the liquid, add a couple of tablespoonfuls of good white sauce, that is béchamel sauce, or if you have none, add to a tin of beans about enough fresh butter to fill a dessertspoon ”

“ Method.—This favourite vegetable to be nice should be young and freshly gathered. After shelling the beans, put them into boiling water, salted to taste, and boil rapidly until tender. Drain them well in a colander; dish, and serve separately a boat of parsley sauce. Boiled bacon often accompanies this vegetable, but should be cooked separately. This dish is usually served with the beans laid round the bacon, and the parsley butter sauce in a tureen. Beans also make an excellent garnish to a ham: when used for this purpose they should have their skins removed. ”

“ Pierce the meat in several places with a knife, and into each hole thus made put a strip of pork; lay the beef in an earthen pan, with a bay leaf, a sprig of thyme, four sprigs of parsley, two onions, medium size, with a clove stuck in each, half a blade of mace, half a carrot and turnip, a wine-glass of cooking-sherry, and a gallon of water, with half a salt-spoonful of pepper. The pan should not be much larger than the meat. Cover closely, using a common flour and water paste round the edges to prevent the steam escaping, and set in a good oven three hours. ”

“ It is, though, considered a sign of extreme poverty to be seen eating them at any meal other than a lunch or hurried repast.
Of the vegetables, the petsae or white cabbage is the most widely cultivated.
Beans grow luxuriantly. Fully one-half of the crop is crushed for the sake of the oil, the residue being pressed into bricks and used as a fertilizer.
"Bean curds" is a very popular dish, especially for breakfast. The beans are ground to a flour, which is passed through three strainers of coarse, medium fine and very fine linen. ”

“ Empty them into a colander and then put them in the bean pot, or if you haven’t a bean pot, a deep baking dish will do. Put in a quarter of a cup of molasses and a half cup of butter and pour a little hot water over the beans. Keep them all day long in an oven that is not too hot. Don’t put any mustard in your beans; mustard is as great an enemy to the human stomach as pepper, and that is saying a good deal.
Against a rainy day when you may wish to amuse yourselves with additional dishes, or a hungry day when you are cold and ravenous, I will add a few more recipes. Corn pone is good. ”