Baked Beans for Supper

When my mother was a little girl she used to visit family in Wauregan, CT which is part of the Town of Plainfield.  She had very happy memories of going to one-armed Joe's farm and Uncle Romeo's bakery.  Now, one of the most fascinating stories she told was of the French-Canadian families bringing their bean pots to the bakery in the morning on Friday.  Each family made up their own recipe and put the beans and bean liquor in the pot along with a "streak of fat/streak of lean" chunk of salt pork.

Mom told me that the coal-fired baking ovens were turned down after the days bread was baked but not all the way off because it would take too long to bring it back up for the next days baking.  Since the oven was on a steady and low temperature all night, it was the perfect way to cook the beans, and since the oven was so large, there was room for every bean pot.  In the morning when the bread went in the oven, the bean pots were moved to the top of the oven where they stayed warm and finished cooking  until someone was sent to fetch them.  This was the perfect Saturday night supper, along with a loaf of crusty bread from the bakery, or a steamed brown bread, and a ham steak if you were particularly lucky that week.

For a lot of reasons, I have always been a huge fan of baked beans, partly because of this great family memory, partly because of my early childhood visit to Durgin Park dining hall in Boston, where baked beans have been a staple on the menu for many generations.  I also learned how to make baked beans from my first two cookbooks - Fannie Farmer Boston Cooking School Cookbook and the New England Cookbook by Eleanor Early.  Both included legendary recipes for baked beans, and in my enthusiastic way, I began buying bean pots.  I  have owned many stoneware bean pots over the years, and I now have about 6 of them, most without covers.  Every time I see a bean pot in the Goodwill Store, I have a compulsion to buy it - most sell for two or three dollars, usually because the  cover is long gone.  I top my bean pots with a pyrex dish that fits over the hole.

This brings me to my supper tonight.  Last winter, I was on a bean baking spree and decided to pressure can the extra beans.  I soaked and  boiled about 6 lbs of beans and filled all 6  bean pots, 3 without meat and 3 with that great chunk of salt pork.  Once they were baked over night, I set out to can them, and was able to put up about 20 pints of Boston Baked Beans.  This to me, is like money in the bank.  They make a great side dish for a quick week night supper, and who doesn't love Franks and Beans.  I have also opened a few jars and put them back in the bean pot to heat and bring to a picnic.  I  know people swear by their "recipe" for baked beans that start with opening a can and then doctoring them up, but there is nothing quite like a pot of home made Boston Baked Beans.