Baked Bean Supper, just a New England tradition?

CheriVixen

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Growing up, saturday night was always franks and beans night. But not just any beans- homemade baked beans! The kind that were started the night before, soaked in a brown and tan bean pot, on the stove top. My Nana would be up early saturday morning adding the brown sugar, mustard powder, molasses, and the all important onion. Then they would cook all day in the oven.
As a kid, the "franks" were the more appreciated componant of the meal (the brown bread, too) but recieving my very own bean pot was the most memorable moment of my bridal shower, the passing on of a tradition that wasn't expected and full of nostalgia.

Anyone else have a nostalgic food memory? Are bean pot baked beans just a New England thing?
 

CheriVixen

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Sorry, how thoughtless of me not to include the recipe! I'm glad you asked.

Nana's Baked Beans Recipe

Soak 1lb. pea beans or navy beans to cover* in cold water overnight. In the morning pour, off excess water and then add cold water to cover again and heat on stove to a boil. Let them barely boil for about 1/2 hour then drain and put in bean pot. Add 1 whole peeled onion, 1 teaspoon or a couple shakes of salt, 2 Tablespoons dry mustard, 1/3 cup molasses,1/3 cup brown sugar (if you want sweeter beans use white sugar). Then fill the bean pot with hot water (either boiled or from the faucet). Stir, cover, and put on the lower rack in a 250' oven for at least 8 hours. (Nana says she usually checks the liquid in the pot after 6 hours and adds some water if needed). Enjoy! Especially on Saturday night with frankforts and cole slaw.

*enough water to cover the beans:)

My recipe card is a little yellowed and her hand writing on it is tiny,tight, and perfect. She's of that letter writing generation that took penmanship seriously:)
 

Elaine Margarett

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Growing up, saturday night was always franks and beans night. But not just any beans- homemade baked beans! The kind that were started the night before, soaked in a brown and tan bean pot, on the stove top. My Nana would be up early saturday morning adding the brown sugar, mustard powder, molasses, and the all important onion. Then they would cook all day in the oven...

Anyone else have a nostalgic food memory? Are bean pot baked beans just a New England thing?

I don't think it's a New England thing. My mom used to make homemade baked beans; usually with the leftover ham bone. She was of Irish descent but learned everything about cooking from her Italian mother-in-law. They were both from New Jesey. I love baked beans, and the closest I've come to Mom's in a can is Bush's Beans, Orginal style. I bake them to within an inch of their life; just like Mom's. <g>

I have lots of nostalgic food memories. My mom also made home made pizza. She'd raise the dough on top of the refrigerator. At the time we live in the midwest in the early sixties and no one in the region had heard of pizza! We called it tomato pie. Also meatballs with raisens, manicotti made with crepes, and Easter pie (a weird meat pie) ~something I never ate but it wasn't Easter without Easter pie.

Thanks for the trip down memory lane. I need to go make something!

EM
 

slcboston

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The only beans i really like are black beans... though in a good bean soup navy beans are fine, too.

I don't have a single food, I guess, because my family dinner's were always sort of an eclectic affair. Closest I'd come is beef stroganof, which I've been told was the first solid food I tried to eat.

Through osmosis, apparently, as it ended up all over my head, hands and arms. But the process stuck, because it's still one of my favorite foods.

... Cookies make me nostalgic, though. :)
 

CheriVixen

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"...my family dinner's were always sort of an eclectic affair."-quote sclboston

Family dinners are a definite source of nostalgia. In a familiy of 4 girls wednesday night soon became Prince Spagetti night. Not because of the pasta brand but because that was the designated night when boyfriends could come and be harrassed by the rest of the family. A very brutal vetting process to be sure. :D

sorry didnt get the partial quote thing right.:eek:
 

Shadow_Ferret

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...and put in bean pot. .
What the heck is a bean pot? Can I just use a crock pot? Or do I really have to go out and buy a special cooking pot just to make beans?

You gotta soak any kind of dry beans overnight!!!!!
I know that. That's why I've never bought any DRY BEANS before!!!!! We're not very good at meals that take any sort of time to prepare.

I buy ready-made.
 

CheriVixen

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A Crock pot? I'm sure you could but I wouldn't want to mess with tradition. Take a look at waysidecountrystore.com/beanpots.htm. I'm afraid Nana wont be bringing you one for your bridal shower, Shadow Ferret. Tough break. ;)
 

Siddow

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That's it. I'm buying a bean pot.
 

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What the heck is a bean pot? Can I just use a crock pot? Or do I really have to go out and buy a special cooking pot just to make beans?

I know that. That's why I've never bought any DRY BEANS before!!!!! We're not very good at meals that take any sort of time to prepare.

I buy ready-made.

I buy as close to nature as I can. One of the perks of working at home as a writer is that I have time to do stuff like soak beans and cook beans (and never, oh, never in a crockpot).

I do love my crockpot though and use it a lot.
 

Shadow_Ferret

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A Crock pot? I'm sure you could but I wouldn't want to mess with tradition. Take a look at waysidecountrystore.com/beanpots.htm. I'm afraid Nana wont be bringing you one for your bridal shower, Shadow Ferret. Tough break. ;)
That's how our crockpot is. Nice glazed brown ceramic like that.

Where's the heatsource for the beanpot? You set it on the stove?
 

CheriVixen

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I think you're messing with me, Shadow Ferret :). The bean pot is just a pot, the power comes from your oven, which you put the soaked-bean filled bean pot into at a temp of 250'.
 

Shadow_Ferret

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I think you're messing with me, Shadow Ferret :). The bean pot is just a pot, the power comes from your oven, which you put the soaked-bean filled bean pot into at a temp of 250'.
No. I didn't know you bake it. *slaps his forehead* BAKED beans. Duh. I thought you put it on a burner or something.
 

HeronW

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Growing up, saturday night was always franks and beans night. But not just any beans- homemade baked beans! The kind that were started the night before, soaked in a brown and tan bean pot, on the stove top. My Nana would be up early saturday morning adding the brown sugar, mustard powder, molasses, and the all important onion. Then they would cook all day in the oven.
As a kid, the "franks" were the more appreciated componant of the meal (the brown bread, too) but recieving my very own bean pot was the most memorable moment of my bridal shower, the passing on of a tradition that wasn't expected and full of nostalgia.

Anyone else have a nostalgic food memory? Are bean pot baked beans just a New England thing?

I've an old bean pot! (Pack up 8000 miles away) and here I thought it was a New Eng chamber pot... whups. :)

I loved that brown bread in a can, It had raisens in it. I wonder if they make that any more?
 

CheriVixen

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Brown bread from a can! With extra butter! Ayah, still make it. ("they" do, i dont :))
 

L M Ashton

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I had a bean pot, but I had to leave it in Canada, along with the rest of my cooking implements, when I left. Sad to say. But we can't get anything other than red kidney beans here, anyway, so... That would be sacrilege, wouldn't it? Baked beans with red kidney beans?
 

Elaine Margarett

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I don't think the pot matters (and a crock pot should be perfect). My mom would use a large roasting pan to accomidate the ham bone she'd used to season the beans when she made baked beans. 'Course that might be why the came out dry; but I loved them.

Her brownies were always dry too. My brother called them 'brown bricks.' To this day my favorite brownies are the corners because they're, well... dry.

My mom was a fantastic cook; despite her dry beans and brownies. My family loves my cooking but I'm half the cook my mom was. Thank goodness my Italitan grandmother took her under her wing.

When we were kids and visiting the family in NJ; because there were five of us kids, my parents would split us up. My two sisters and I stayed with the Irish side of the family; my two brothers stayed with the Italian side. On the Irish side, breakfast was stale store bought doughnuts, lunch more of the same, and dinner was something horrible that was boiled. :-(

My bothers who stayed with my Italian grandmother would have four course breakfasts, lunches of homemade soups and pastas, and dinner would be a roast of some kind with lots of sides and homemade desserts.

I loved my Irish relatives, but good God, we'd come home from a visit hungry and a few pounds lighter. LOL.

EM
 

SPMiller

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Huh, I grew up making the same sort of beans, but in Texas. So it's apparently not just a northeastern thing.

Same sort of deal: molasses, brown sugar, boring yellow mustard (as in bottled mustard, not dry), quartered onions, salt, and... bacon. That's right. Strips of bacon on the top.

When I use dry beans (as opposed to canned), I still move the beans from the pot to a big rectangular baking dish and I bake it uncovered.
 

DragonHeart

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I live in New England and I've never had homemade baked beans. Our beans for beans and dogs night are provided by Bush (and Duke). But then, I don't eat seafood either. I'm a blasphemer and proud of it! :tongue

~DragonHeart~