Tastes Like Vintage: Baked Beans

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USA pottery bean pot by Pascalene

There are some supermarket staples that are so etched in the fabric of America that the brand is the name by which the item is known. You never ask the designated shopper to bring home some chocolate sandwich cream cookies. You ask for Oreos. Nor do you ask for toaster pastries, you ask for Pop-tarts. You don't remind them that it's flu season and the facial tissues are running low, you ask them to buy Kleenex.

If you were so inclined, you could make homemade versions of each of those. It's hard to think of a reason why you would make your own Kleenex, but you probably could. Considerably easier is making your own Oreos, thanks to the industrious bakers at the King Arthur Flour company and their great recipe for Faux-reos. Boston celebrity chef Joanne Chang ups the ante further, offering recipes for homemade Oreos, Fig Newtons and Pop-tarts in her 2010 baking book named after her bakery and cafe, Flour.

Ceramic drip glaze soup crocks by WiseApple

There's another supermarket staple that hits the spot this chilly time of year that we don't often make at home: the humble and musical baked bean. We might buy a can of supermarket beans and fancy them up with a bit of molasses or chopped onion or chili sauce, but it's a hearty and dedicated few that start with a bag of dried navy beans one night and see the project through until it's ready to devour the next night.

If ever there were a time of year to experiment with making your own baked beans, January would be it. Baked beans are welcome at every July barbecue, but canned beans are absolutely acceptable as it would take a stoic soul to commit to running the oven in their already sweltering kitchen for eight hours. In January though, eight hours of slow oven warmth with the added bonus of a house perfumed with the sweet smell of slowly caramelizing onions and molasses is more like a prescription for happiness than a recipe.

The prescription/recipe below comes from the first edition of  Betty Crocker's Picture Cook Book (copyright 1950). The motto around Chez Recent History is, if you don't know how to make it, ask Betty. Happy beaning!

Betty Crocker's Picture Cook Book by mooiebloem

Boston Baked Beans

Soak overnight in cold water...
   1 qt. navy or pea beans
Simmer in the same water until tender (2 to 3 hr.). Drain, and save the liquor. Place in 2 qt. bean pot in layers...
   the drained cooked beans
   1 lb. salt pork (scalded, rind scraped)
   2 slices onion
Combine...
   1/3 cup molasses
   2 tsp. salt
   1/3 tsp. pepper
   1/2 tsp. dry mustard
Pour over beans. Add just enough bean liquor to cover beans. Cover pot. Bake. Remove cover last half of baking, draw port to top, add a little boiling water if beans seem dry.

Temperature: 300 degrees F
Time: Bake 8 hrs.
Amount: 10 servings