I keep finding recipes that include lines like ;

1 cn Pork and beans; ex large

Does any have a recipe for home made pork and beans

Julian

-- Julian (julian_young@nl.compuware.com), October 25, 2001

Answers

Hi Julian!

I make a pot of bean just about every week. They are much superior to the canned beans, they just take a bit of planning ahead and some patience.

Take a pound of dried beans. Most folks around here seem to like the yellow eye beans, but my husband prefers the samll white or navy beans, so that's what I use. It doesn't matter as the flavor of the beans really comes from the recipe and slow cooking. OK, let me list the ingredients first, then I'll talk about them.

1 pound dried beans 1/2 pound salt pork or bacon 1 tsp salt 1/4 cup brown sugar 1/4 cup molasses 1-1/2 tsp dried mustard 1 medium onion, quartered

Alright now....the night before you plan to cook your beans pick over the beans to make sure there are no small stones. Put the beans in a large saucepan and fill the pan with water. Fill it right to within a couple of inches from the top. The beans will soak up a lot of water. Let the beans soak overnight. In the morning, bring the beans to a boil and simmer or boil them for about an hour, or until they are soft. Drain and rinse.

Add all the other ingredients in a bean pot or crock pot. Dump in the cooked beans and add water to cover the beans. I have a pottery bean pot and it will require more water than a crock pot. How much water to add will be a matter of trial and error plus personal preference.

If cooking in your oven, set oven to 250 and slow cook for at least 8 hours. If I get my beans in the oven at breakfast, they're ready for supper that night. If cooking in your crockpot, set it on low. My aunt cooks her beans in a crockpot and cooks them for a full 24 hours! You can't overcook them, it seems.

I have never had to stir my beans. The sugars and spices just bubble up through the beans while they cook.

We have either buttermilk biscuits or steamed brown bread with our beans. The brown bread can be steamed right alongside the beanpot during the day. So simple!

-- Nancy in Maine (paintme61@yahoo.com), October 26, 2001.

Ooops! I forgot to add something. I listed my recipe as it is written down, but I don't really measure out the ingredients anymore. As the years have gone by, I have used less and less bacon. Now I only throw in a couple of slices (chopped) and the beans are fine.

Good luck!

-- Nancy in Maine (paintme61@yahoo.com), October 26, 2001.

Nancy in Maine: Would you, please, list your steamed brown bread recipe? I remember my grandmother made that years ago and I would like to try it. I know she used coffee cans to cook the bread in. What can be used if a person doesn't have the cans? Also, I remember she had a special spread for the bread. It seems like it was sweet. Any ideas on what that might be!?! Thank you.

-- Janet in Kansas (whisperingpines@terraworld.net), October 26, 2001.

Pork and beans for one; 1 pork chop, 1 small onion diced, pressure cook until destroyed (12 to 15 minutes)in enough water to cover, let cool, add 1/4 cup molassas or less to taste, add drained sweet relish to taste, dash of soy sauce, 1 can great northern beans, 1 small can tomato paste, simmer until temtation overtakes you.

-- mitch hearn (moopups@citlink.net), October 26, 2001.

Hello Janet,

Hmmmmm........I've never heard of anything but butter on brown bread. I'm sure there's lots of spreads you could whip up - like apple butter, or honey butter (I need to get a recipe for that- honey butter) Maybe someone else can answer that question.

Here's the recipe I use for brown bread. I use a couple of old 1 pound coffee cans. If you don't have coffee cans, any can would work. You don't use the plastic tops while steaming anyhow as they'd likely melt during steaming (yuck!)

1 cup white flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 cup cornmeal

1-1/2 tsps salt

1/2 cup sugar

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 cup molasses

1-1/2 cups buttermilk

2 Tablespoons melted shortening

You can be picky and sift the flours, add ingrdients carefully one at a time, mixing well, blah-blah-blah. OR you can do it my way. Dump everything in a big bowl and mix it together 'til you don't see lumps of flour. :) Grease your cans. Watch out for those sharp edges! I spray them liberally with Pam. Divide the batter into the 2 one-pound cans. They won't be much more than 1/2 to 3/4 full, but will expand to the top of the cans while steaming. Cover the cans with tin foil and place them in a big kettle or canner. Put about 2-3" of water in the kettle. (Don't put in too much water or the cans will tip over during steaming and you'll end up with a sloppy mess. I did that ONCE) Let steam for 3 hours. 250 degree oven. Or in the winter time, you might let the kettle sit on the top of a woodstove. Lift the cans from the kettle and let cool for about 20 minutes before trying to take bread from the cans. If you simply loosen the edges a bit with a knife and hold upside down, the bread should slide right out.

I'm making a cookbook from my grandmother's old country recipes. If you're looking for that certain taste that grandma's brown bread used to have, you might also try these:

Brown Bread

2 cups corn meal 1 cup flour 2 cups sweet milk 1 cup sour milk ¾ cup molasses 2 teaspoons soda 1 teaspoon salt

Steam 3-4 hours.

Brown Bread II

1 cup sweet milk 2 cups sour milk 2 cups corn meal 1 cup flour 1 scant cup molasses A little salt 2 teaspoon soda

Steam 3 hours

Crumb Brown Bread

1 ½ cups dry crumbs 1 cup boiling water ½ cup molasses 1 cup milk ½ cup corn meal 1 cup graham flour 1 teaspoon salt 1 ½ teaspoons soda

Put crumbs in mixing dish. Add boiling water and let stand 10 minutes. Add molasses, milk and the dry ingredients (sifted together). Steam 3 hours.

-- Nancy in Maine (paintme61@yahoo.com), October 26, 2001.

Hi again Janet.....my husband and I were just discussing this and he thinks maybe your grandmother made a suet pudding with a hard sauce? This isn't one of the recipes I do generally, but my grandmother had a couple of pudding recipes which might be similar to what your grandmother used to make. Here they are:

Steamed Fig Pudding (May be made early)

¾ pound (2-1/3 cup) chopped, dried, whole figs 1 ½ cups milk 1-1/3 cups suet, chopped fine 1 ½ cups soft bread crumbs 3 eggs, well beaten 1 ½ cups sifted flour 2 ¼ teaspoons baking powder 1 cup granulated sugar 1 teaspoon nutmeg ¾ teaspoon salt 3 Tablespoons grated orange rind or 2 ¾ ounces candied orange peel

Cook figs with milk in a double boiler for 20 minutes. Combine the suet, bread crumbs and eggs. Add the cooked fig mixture with the sifted dry ingredients, and the orange rind, and mix well. Pour into a well greased 2-quart steamed pudding mold. Steam for 2 hours on a "trivet" in a waterless cooker, or in a covered kettle with water 2/3 the height of the mold. Unmold and serve in slices with any pudding sauce. Serves 8-10.

Hard Sauce (Good on Plum Pudding)

1/3 cup butter 1 cup sugar 1 teaspoon orange juice 1 teaspoon grated orange rind

Cream butter, add sugar, orange juice and orange rind. Cream together well. A beaten egg white or yolk may be added if desired with nutmeg flavoring.

Plum Pudding (May be made early)

½ cup apples, chopped ½ cup suet, chopped ½ cup molasses 2 eggs, well beaten ½ cup milk 2 cups flour ¼ cup figs ½ cup raisins ½ cup currants ¼ cup citron, sliced ¼ cup candied cherries quartered 1 Tablespoon candied orange peel, chopped ¼ cup almonds, blanched and chopped 2 teaspoons baking powder ½ teaspoon salt ½ teaspoon soda ½ teaspoon cinnamon ½ teaspoon allspice ½ teaspoon nutmeg

Combine apple, suet, molasses, eggs and milk. Sift flour once, and measure. Mix ½ cup of the flour with fruit and nuts. Combine remaining flour, baking powder, salt, soda and spices, and sift again. Add to molasses mixture. Add fruit. Pour into well greased molds, filling them 2/3 full. Cover tightly. Steam 3 hours. Serve with hard sauce or lemon sauce. Serves 12.

-- Nancy in Maine (paintme61@yahoo.com), October 26, 2001.

Nancy in Maine: Thank you very much for taking the time to post the "bread" recipe. I do appreciate it and can't wait to try it. That with the beans sounds like a great fall meal to me.

-- Janet in Kansas (whisperingpines@terraworld.net), October 26, 2001.

To make honey-butter, I simply mix honey with softened butter or margarine until I like the taste.

-- Barb Fischer (bfischer42@hotmail.com), October 26, 2001.

Now you've gone and done it!!! I'm hungry. Off to the kitchen for me. Thanks for the great recipes. I have many cookbooks on Maine cooking and love drooling through them periodically. Iris

-- Iris (Sar_India@msn.com), October 26, 2001.

Thanks for the 'recipe' for honey/butter Barb! :) I never imagined it was so easy-I'm such a dope! I'll go make some and spread it on homemade bread. My father-in-law bought some delicious Maple Cinnamon Butter from The Vermont Country Store. I would imagine when I run out of my little jar that I could make my own of this as well. The ingredients are: Maple Syrup and Cinnamon.

-- Nancy in Maine (paintme61@yahoo.com), October 27, 2001.

Iris, I think the best recipes are those simple old homecooking recipes handed down. I have lots of cookbooks, but the ones I keep turning to are the ones that the church ladies or grange ladies sell. I do have a good cookbook that my mother-in-law bought me years ago. It's called, "Ideals Treasury of Country Cooking" I've found some of the best recipes inside that one. It's a favorite in my kitchen.

I hope you baked up something good!

-- Nancy in Maine (paintme61@yahoo.com), October 27, 2001.