Boston Baked Beans Recipe 3

Instructions

1. To be baked to perfection, the New England bean-pot should be used, with a narrow mouth and bulging sides and a cover that fits the mouth.
2. Soak overnight in cold water 1 quart of navy or pea beans.
3. In the morning pour off the water and put them over the fire in fresh water, and simmer, or parboil, until, on lifting a few on a spoon and blowing a breath over them, the skins crack slightly, but do not allow them to cook until they break to pieces.
4. Pour off the water, put them in the bean-pot with a small onion in the bottom.
5. Pour boiling water over 1/4 pound of salt pork well streaked with lean.
6. Scrape the rind well, or until it is white; score through the rind in half-inch strips.
7. Bury the pork in the beans until the rind is even with the beans.
8. Mix 1/4 of a cup of molasses with a scant teaspoon of mustard, a little salt--if the pork is very lean less salt will be required than if nearly all fat; add a cup of boiling water, mix well, and pour over the beans.
9. Add enough more boiling water to cover.
10. Put the cover on the pot and bake from six to ten hours in a moderate oven; the longer time is better.
11. Watch that the water does not cook away and leave the beans dry, adding boiling water to keep them nearly covered until an hour before they are done, when remove the cover of the pot, lift the pork slightly above the surface, and allow it to brown.
12. Cooked in this way they will be rich and juicy and of a rich red-brown color, each bean being whole, but very tender.
13. To be perfect as served on their "native soil," they should be very hot and have served with them the real Boston brown bread, steaming hot, sliced as it is served.
14. The red kidney beans are delicious cooked in the same way, as are also what are known in New England as cranberry beans, a red-speckled variety, both these latter being very rich and of a delicious flavor.