Baked bean suppers in Maine. Friday night in Maine growing up meat putting the yellow eye or Jacob’s cattle or soldier bean in the pot to soak.
My Mom’s Saturday morning ritual was adding the other ingredients to the overnight soaked beans for the feast that night. Often the same batch of beans made a debut at the Sunday morning breakfast along with the traditional eggs just the way you liked them. Along with the baked bread, home made jam, sizzling bacon strips, hash browns with the sliced and diced nicely onions, peppers, mushrooms.
The Saturday night supper was not the only evening meal starring the beans that rarely came out of a B&M can .
Tap the can kind offer a slew of options beyond the kind the cowboys out West whipped out of their saddle bags. To savor under the star filled sky before propping up against the saddle the horse was glad to have removed for the evening.
Where did the Saturday night bean supper tradition come from anyway?
Some say the gaseous propulsion delight can be blamed on the Pilgrims. Makes sense if you think of the Boston Baked Bean label most associated with the meal. I always heard the baked bean supper originated from Canada. My Dad’s Mom came from Burt’s Corner in New Brunswick Canada.
A full plate of beans and a piece or two of home made baked bread to help the guy or girl who will be washing dishes at the end of the meal that night.
Don’t waste a drop of the baked bean sauce juice. Not so hard to pass in a clean plate for the sink scrub or to tuck away in the dishwasher. Beans, just baked beans can be more than enough in a solo meal offering. Like how you and I love our steak cooked best…. beans recipes vary greatly. The consistency of the baked bean can be mushy, hard as rocks or somewhere in between. Beans tucked away and frozen don’t quite have the same consistency as those from a new batch in the two day to make process.
Over time, the baked beans just improve in taste in my opinion.
Or maybe it is looking forward to the pot of beans made to last longer than just the Saturday night session at the Maine farm house setting growing up with my three older brothers. The recipe your Mom, Grandmother used and past down is a big part of the tradition. But today so many classic heirloom bake bean recipes and new variety introduced to enjoy them so many new ways. Hot or cold, three bean salad, in a soup, re-fried and cheesed up with lots of accent condiments. (more…)