Taking the Time-Tested Route to Homemade Baked Beans

Summary

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Well, yes, you could just open a can. But homemade baked beans offer much, much more than even the best Jay Bush can trot out. They offer a connection to the past.

One of my favorite food writers, Della Lutes, opens her 1935 classic "The Country Kitchen" with an accounting of her father's birthday feast in 1882: "A great pan of beans was baked, nice, white Michigan (or New York State) beans, soaked overnight, parboiled in the early morning with a pinch of soda, then washed in cold water and boiled again with a slab of salt pork and an onion, until the outer skin burst. They were then drained and seasoned with salt, pepper, mustard, a little vinegar and brown sugar, turned into a heavy tin pan, with the pork, slashed across the rind into small squares, adorning the centre, and baked until the beans were brought to a mealy consistency suitable for slicing when cold."

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Taking the Time-Tested Route to Homemade Baked Beans

That's the way they made baked beans in my natal Jackson County, Mich., ...

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