Boston Baked Beans
A dish that mixes a Medieval tradition with American ingredients and is the origin of an irritating nickname
When I started researching which were the most identitary New England dishes at the beginning of the year, Boston Baked Beans appeared in all the lists. But it then shocked me that one of the “New England dishes you must try” or “best New England dishes” was so hard to find. There’s only a couple of places in Boston where you can order it, as a side dish, almost like an afterthought.
“We’re a town with a moniker that is meaningless to most residents, unknown to many tourists, and refers to a dish that is increasingly tough to find”. Mike Ross, Boston Magazine
Local Bostonian Mark Ross is referring to the appellative of “Beantown” that Bostonians are known for. Or are they? Ross asked some foreign tourists and they had never heard of it. Neither had I until I started researching about the dish. It seems, though, that in the States, it is something well known, like Chicago is the “Windy City”.
Locals certainly don’t call themselves “Beanreasidents”, “Beaneaters” or any of the like. And as Ross suggests, many don’t even know the origin of the term. Luckily for us, it has everything to do with the dish we are discussing today. Which, by the way, I had to cook myself as I couldn’t find where to try it. It seems to survive among family dinners anyways, so it appeared appropriate for me to prepare it on a Saturday, as most people used to and still do.
What are the Boston Baked Beans
The Boston Baked Beans are a bean stew made with haricot beans (usually navy beans), salt pork, and the ingredient that sets it apart from other bean stews: molasses.
Most recipes also incorporate salt, black pepper, powdered mustard and onion. Some also add tomato paste or ketchup, aromatics, brown sugar and even Worcestershire sauce. The latter ingredients don’t seem to be very traditional (more on that later), so even if maybe they bring a more complex flavour, for the sake of research, I stuck to the original recipe.
And so I followed Daniel Gritzer’s recipe minus the aromatics he adds when cooking the beans. He had done a lot of research on how to keep a traditional flavor without the risk of burning your house down. Even if it seems the best way to prepare the dish would be to let it cook in an oven overnight, that doesn’t seem it would provide a peaceful night sleep, specially if you are an anxious being like myself.
“The extended time spent in the oven's dry heat (compared to a slow cooker) allows for more evaporation, and creates a caramelized crust on the top. Some of the beans will break down slightly, but that just adds to the structure of the dish as the molasses develops a rich complexity.” Tasting Table
Molasses also tenderise the beans very slowly, which would be ok if we don’t mind slow-cooking the stew for more than 12 hours while risking our house, but not so if we want dinner ready the same day. The acidity it has prevents the bean’s cells to break, and its sugar slows down the rate at which the bean’s starch absorbs water, so they take longer to soften. Many people solve this problem by adding the mentioned tomato paste or ketchup which help thicken the broth faster, but as I said, it’s not traditional. So what Gritzer from Serious Eats and I did was to par-cook the beans before starting the stew.
You need to start with hydrating the beans the night before. Thankfully, even if this also takes time, there’s no real risk and you can leave them in your kitchen counter without worry. The next morning or afternoon, you’ll boil the beans until they are fully-cooked. Again, I didn’t add anything to the boiling water but many people do, think: onion, carrots, garlic, rosemary, parsley… When the beans are done (completely tender), strain them (saving all the water!) and set them aside.
Then you’ll sauté the salt pork and the onions until the meat is cooked through and the onion is tender and almost golden. Salt pork is traditional, it’s the salted and cured strip of fat from the back of the animal. It adds a deep pork flavor to the stew, but it’s better to find a piece that also has muscle and it’s not all fat because it could make the dish greasy. Some people substitute it for bacon, which brings some smokiness.
In the casserole where you have sautéd the pork and onions add the cooked beans and mix. Then add the molasses mixed with salt, pepper, powder mustard and bean water to dissolve them. Add more of the bean water until completely cover the beans, but just about. Bring to a simmer and then transfer to the oven.
The beans will be in the oven (325°F/165°C) uncovered for about 4 hours. You’ll need to mix them every hour and add more liquid if they are drying out. A caramelised top will appear and by mixing it with the bottom beans, you’ll be transferring the deep flavours everywhere. During the last hour, the beans will be almost breaking apart, saucy but not brothy and a nice final crust will have formed. Then, they are done.
When was it invented
When I finished the dish, I tried it thinking I would find it sickening (I don’t do well with overly sweet food). They were sweet but also complex, quite shockingly considering the very few ingredients they had in them.
Probably the original recipe would have felt sweeter, though. It is considered to be true that the first to cook a similar dish were the Native Americans living in the region now called New England.
“The Narragansett, Penobscot, and Iroiquois wrapped navy beans in deerskins—or put them in earthenware pots, along with venison, bear fat and maple syrup and then baked the lot in hot-stone-lined pits. Puritans eschewed the deerskins, but took to bean-pot cookery because the long, slow cook times meant housewives could prepare the beans a day ahead, and in so doing, stick to Puritanical no-cooking-on-Sabbath rules.” Lost Recipes Found
The English settlers transformed the indigenous dish but they were not unfamiliar with a stew of beans and pork, actually in some parts of England it had been eaten since the Middle Ages.
“The specifically baked form of bean pottage was prevalent among Staffordshire yeomen, who soaked their dried beans overnight, then baked them along with honey-and-mustard-cured ham and onions or leeks in a narrow-necked earthenware for especially reserved for the purpose. This dark-sweet cassoulet has been identified as the immediate progenitor of New England baked beans”.1
In Vermont sometimes maple sugar is still used to make the dish, though it seems the Puritans switched it for cane sugar molasses: a dark, smoky byproduct born from refined cane sugar. Colonial Boston was a hub of the Triangle Trade. Cane sugar harvested in the Caribbean by the work of slaves arrived to the city in the form of liquid molasses and then distilled into rum to be shipped back to Africa where it was traded for more enslaved workers.
In the mid 18th century, molasses became a staple of New England pantries as it not only was ubiquitous but also was considered “an essential ingredient in American independence” (John Adams), for not being subject to British taxes. As patriotic as was chocolate, but also as stained because there was the moral tax of perpetuating the slave trade, as I mentioned in the article about the Boston Cream Pie.
“By the late 19th century, when Fannie Farmer included Boston Baked Beans in her watershed cookbook, molasses was considered a canonical ingredient, along with ground mustard and salt pork (another very shelf-stable item).”, says Paul Revere House Program Assistant Alexandra Powell. It became a popular dish in family meals and taverns where sailors and merchants passing through the region’s primary urban center would enjoy a quick, cheap and nourishing dish making it famous all around. Probably this was the beginning of the “Beantown” nickname that irritates so much Bostonians nowadays.
“By the 1880s we had the Boston Beaneaters baseball team (eventually known as the Braves), and in the early 1900s a popular tourism slogan claimed “You Don’t Know Beans Until You Come to Boston.” So as lame as the sobriquet is, “Beantown” seems to have a genuine claim on local history.” Matthew Reed Baker, Boston Magazine
Beans and Franks
I started researching New England dishes at the beginning of the year, when I started this Substack publication, and I made a plan on what I would write and publish every month. One food history essay each month about various ingredients and dishes from the region. I wrote “Boston baked beans” on my notebook and next to it a word: “winter”.
It seemed, on a quick Google search, that such a consistent stew was enjoyed during the winter months, accompanied with another traditional New England food that also incorporates molasses: brown bread. Families still prepared the bean stew to be eaten on Saturdays. Some others, wouldn’t cook it but buy it from the supermarket in the shape of a B&M can. Still, it was a Saturday dinner tradition.
I only changed my handwritten note when I discovered that “baked beans” had a dedicated month in the United Sates and even a national day: 4th of July. The most relevant national celebration was linked to this modest bean stew.
In 1981 the Michigan Bean Commission established July as the National Baked Bean Month. To understand why some organisations can establish a national month or day dedicated to a certain food could be the topic of another article, but the interesting part here is that baked beans are associated with the summer, and specially with Independence Day.
“It is National Baked Bean Month in July, and we are celebrating with a big ole helping of this delicious dish. Heated or cold, baked or simmered, baked beans are a staple in American cuisine, especially as a side dish at barbecue restaurants and cookouts.” National Today
Baked beans are a popular side dish to barbecue meetings, accompanying pulled pork, bbq ribs and specially hot dogs, which are not always eaten in a bun. “Baked beans and hot dogs, or franks as many people call them, are a natural combination”, says Diana Rattray from The Spruce Eats. And many will agree with her. Margaret King from New England magazine explains: “Being married to a Yankee meant we had franks and beans every Saturday night for years”. And in the comment section, Annette Lopes adds “As a matter of fact, we had hotdogs and beans Saturday night. it just doesn’t seem right to be a Saturday night without it.”
In the same plate, mixed up in cut chunks during winter-cold Saturday nights, or next to bunned hot dogs in outdoor gatherings during the summer months, it seems “franks” (short for frankfurters) and beans are a beloved combination in New England.
STAVELY, Keith and FITZGERALD Kathleen. America’s Founding Food: The Story of New England Cooking. The University of North Carolina press, 2004. Page.51
I enjoyed learning about the variations of this dish. Especially since I've never had baked beans. It seems like they might be even more flavorful.
Love BBB, and this Elisabet!! Let me know when you want to talk about the other BBB, Boston brown bread, which is just as special, and really needs to be eaten with your baked beans to get the full experience.