Take a comfortable seat around the bean hole as we tell you how Kentucky’s most famous export combined with Boston’s legendary legumes create a true melting pot classic, beloved in states all across the great US of A..
“Baked beans were, and still are, an economical way to satisfy hearty appetites, and nothing beats the deep infusion of flavor that long, slow baking imparts,” explains Damon Lee Fowler, culinary historian and author of six Southern cooking books. “Down South, our version is enriched with tomato sauce and bacon, and became a popular side dish served everywhere from roadside barbecue joints to church covered dish suppers all year round.” His “Old Fashioned Baked Beans, Southern Style” recipe dates back a century, and calls for any kind of pea, red kidney or pinto beans, heated and soaked for an hour, then mixed with sweet and savory ingredients such as unsulphured molasses, dark brown sugar, tomato sauce and thick sliced bacon, and baked for at least 5 hours—some prefer to cook them overnight for as long as 10 hours. Every region adds its own touches, and every cook does too, he says, which can include a healthy dose of house-made barbecue sauce, a dash of hot sauce, chili powder, garlic, or a splash or two of bourbon…more on that later.
The granddaddy of them all, Boston Baked Beans, comes from ancient pottage, and was introduced to America by early colonists. The Puritan settlers in Boston used their nutritious, filling taste all weekend, baking them on Saturday for dinner, serving them again on Sunday for breakfast with codfish cakes and Boston Brown Bread, and one more time for lunch that day. Also popular in Maine, beans prepared in a bean hole kept the lumbering camps well fed in the late nineteenth century. The method lives on today, with baked bean aficionados like East Coast chef Chris Schlesinger (one of the first to install a live fire grill in his restaurant), who cooks them up in a “tricked-out, souped-up” pit in his backyard, according to the NY Times. He prepares them just like in the old days, by digging a hole, building a fire of hardwood logs in it, letting the wood burn down to embers, and putting a pot of presoaked and parboiled beans into the embers, covering with dirt, and leaving it for 8 hours. “The gradually declining heat perfectly melds the earthy flavor of the beans with the fatty richness of the salt pork, the sweetness of molasses and maple syrup and the gentle tang of mustard…these beans might just be worth all the effort,” reports the Times.
And then there’s bourbon, with its own spirited history, beginning in the 1700s with the Kentucky settlers. Getting crops to market over narrow trails and steep mountains was a daunting task, so they learned to convert corn and other grains to whiskey to make them easily transportable and prevent the excess grain from rotting. When farmers shipped their whiskey in oak barrels down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers to New Orleans, the long trip aged the whiskey and gave it a distinct flavor, caramel undertones, amber color, and legions of fans. Almost 200 years later, a 1964 Congressional Resolution declared bourbon an indigenous product of the US, making it “America’s Official Native Spirit.”
So why bourbon and beans? Chef Ouita Michel, owner of 3 Kentucky restaurants and nominee for James Beard Foundation Award as Best Chef, Southeast, says bourbon’s sweetness is a natural match for the brown sugar commonly used in baked bean recipes. She suggests more than a splash: “If you can’t taste the bourbon in your dish, you didn’t use enough.” Award-winning celebrity chef and restaurateur Michael Mina, calls the 3 B’s—bourbon, bacon and beans—a must for any recipe, and adds some unique touches like a ½ cup of strong coffee and a cup of fresh chopped pineapple. Too complicated? The “Five Ingredient Fix” Chef Claire Robinson keeps it simple with dried navy beans, soaked overnight in a large bowl of water, dark brown sugar, Dijon mustard, bacon slabs and 2/3 cup of bourbon, baked for 4 hours. Even simpler is “Semi Homemade Meals” host Sandra Lee’s recipe: 2 cans of baked beans, chili sauce, bacon pieces, molasses, brown sugar and bourbon, cooked for about 15 minutes over medium high heat, and served hot.
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