Baked Beans

1895

Why You Can't Get the Genuine Outside of New England.

The reason why baked beans outside of New England are so unlike the genuine article is that they are not properly cooked, and more especially because they are not cooked in the old fashioned down east bean pot. There are probably no real bean pots on sale outside of New England. They are all about the same in appearance and are made of potter's clay, which is the material flowerpots are made of.

For some reasons beans baked in any other utensil are unlike those baked in a bean pot. Just why this is so is hard to determine, but the fact remains. Possibly the thick pottery ware affects the beans in a similar manner as a meerschaum pipe affects the flavor of tobacco.

Any one can have nice baked beans if he secures a bean pot and follows these directions: First get your beans. The large red kidney variety is largely used, but the small white pea bean is more generally popular.

One quart of beans is sufficient when cooked for two meals for an average family. They should be soaked in cold water for an hour or so. Then salt and pepper should be added, together with half a teaspoonful of mustard and half a teacupful of molasses. The molasses gives the beans a delicious flavor, and at the same time it is not too pronounced nor is it possible to detect the molasses. When the beans are in the pot, half or three-quarters of a pound of pork, well streaked with lean, should be placed on top and then enough warm water poured into the pot to just cover the beans.

Beans should be baked in an oven of even temperature for either a day or a night, or, in other words, about 12 hours. It is better to bake them in the daytime, for then they can receive more attention. As the water gradually evaporates more should be added from time to time, but care should be taken to keep the beans covered. This must be done until the beans are nearly ready to be taken out, when no more water should be added, so that they will not be so moist as to be come mashed or broken.

The pot can remain in the oven, where it will simply keep hot, for an indefinite time without injury. Beans should be served in a covered dish. Beans that have been left over are delicious warmed up in a stewpan with a little water added, and many bean epicures think the more times beans are warmed over the better they are. — Exchange.

Why Beverly Was Called Beantown

1895

The town of Beverly was set off from the town of Salem more than 200 years ago. About that time, it is said, a schooner with a full cargo of beans entered that port. This supplied the whole town with beans; hence the name given to the inhabitants, "Beverly Beaners." In 1687 the town of Beverly voted to impose a tax of 10 shillings on all future absentees from town meetings. In 1754 28 slaves were owned in the town. The first Sunday school in America was established in Beverly in 1810, and the fiftieth anniversary was celebrated in that place in 1860. In 1824 General Lafayette visited Beverly, and the writer of this saw him as he rode through on horseback. We are told that up to this day those in the vicinity of Beverly call it "the bean town." — Boston Transcript.

How The Bean Brothers Woke

1916

"Here are five little Bean Brothers for you," said mother one morning dropping something into Boykin's hand. "They have been in bathing all night long."

"With their clothes on too," exclaimed Boykin; "their little white coats are all wrinkled."

"You'd better put them to bed right away," suggested mother. "Here's a flower-pot on the sunny windowsill. The fresh soft earth will make a fine bed for the Bean Brothers. And if they have a good nap, who knows what will happen?"

So Boykin put them to bed in the soft, brown earth and covered them up snugly. Day after day the Bean brothers slept soundly and showed not a single sign of waking up. Then one morning Bean Brother poked up a tiny sign of slim green back, out from under the bedclothes, but his head kept safe underneath.

"Come, get up, you sleepyhead," cried Boykin, and, taking hold of Bean Brother's back, he pulled him straight out of bed.

"Oh, see," he called to mother, "Bean Brother has a leg, too, a long spindly one."

"Better put him back again, if you can, and let the others sleep a little longer. It's not time for them to be up yet," mother told him.

Next day the other Bean Brothers had poked up their little bent backs too, but Boykin only watched them and sprinkled their bed with fresh water. Day after day the Bean Brothers pushed up their backs higher.

"A funny way to get out of bed," declared Boykin; "they hump themselves up like green caterpillars."

Then one day the strongest of the Bean Brothers ventured to pull himself away from the warm bedclothes, but he could not stand up straight, and drooped his head sleepily.

"Oh, see, mother," cried Boykin, "Bean Brother has grown out of his old coat and split it in two."

True enough, what Boykin had called Bean Brother's coat before he had tucked him into bed was hanging in two pieces to his side.

Pretty soon the other Bean Brothers pulled themselves out from under the bedclothes. Then little by little they all straightened up and lifted their green plumy heads. The old coats clinging to their sides shrank and shriveled and finally dropped off altogether.

Boykin picked up two of the wrinkled bits.

"His coat is all worn out," said he.

"He won't need it again," mother explained. "But it was a good coat in its day and a wonderful one too, for it not only kept Bean Brother warm when he was a tiny baby, but it gave him food so that he could grow into this nice tall Bean plant."

"And will he always live in this [bed*]."

"No," answered mother; "when he is stronger we will take him and his four brothers out of this bed and put them in a corner of our big garden, where you can watch them." — Rebecca Deming Moore, in Mothers' Magazine.

*Note: This story was reprinted in a newspaper. And it is missing a line, leaving this paragraph hanging with "live in this".

—The Fryeburg Post, Fryeburg, Maine, Sept. 26, 1916, p. 4.

Even or Odd

1910

This game is the most ancient, perhaps, that we know. The children who played in the streets of Athens and in the Roman Forum in early ages, knew and loved it, and little children find amusement in it still. It is played in this manner: One child hides in her hand a few beans, nuts, or just bits of paper, and asks her companion to guess if they are odd or even.

If the playfellow guesses odd and on opening her hand the other displays an odd number, she forfeits the articles to the guesser, who hides them in her turn. But if the guess is odd and the number even, the guesser pays a forfeit and the first hider retains the beans, etc. The guess must be right to win.

Mexican Jumping Beans Once Known as "Devil Beans"

1878

"Devil Beans"

In some of the mountainous regions of Mexico, there is a shrub which bears a triangular fruit, composed of three seeds, or beans. Into these seeds, when young a little moth deposits eggs, which hatch into larvae resembling the worms often found in the chestnut.

These beans, we are informed by a correspondent, are collected by Mexican children and brought to the sea coast to sell to sailors and passengers in steamers, which may chance to stop on the trip up or down the coast.

If one of these beans is placed in the hand, or near a stove, or even in the rays of the sun, the little inhabitants will soon begin to twist and turn in his cell, and the greenish, coffee-shaped bean will begin to roll around, sometimes skipping to quite a distance in successive jumps.

If kept in a cool place these beans can be kept several months, but when placed where it is warm for several days, there emerges a little light brown, satin-winged moth. After several months, when the beans are kept cool, the larvae die.

From the fact that these little inanimate berries will become so lively and active when held in the hand for a few moments, the Mexicans and Indians call them "devil beans."

Toads Valued in France

1925

Toads, the rotund garden variety, have a market value in France. The French gardeners claim that this warty-skinned amphibian devours its weight in injurious plant insects every 24 hours, and is encouraged to live in their gardens. Killing one of these insect hunters in France is considered the height of folly.


Bleaching Beeswax

Beeswax may be bleached by running in thin ribbons through a machine and allowing it to remain in the sunlight. Some beeswax bleaches more readily than others. It will take several weeks to bleach it.


Formation of Grand Bank

The Grand bank of Newfoundland is supposed to be composed of deposits of solid matter brought from the Arctic seas by icebergs, which gradually melt by contact with the warm water of the Gulf stream.


Ranks High in Literature

The Heimskringla has been called "the most important prose work in old Norse literature." It is a history of Norse kings. Some were mythical, others real. The author was an Icelander, Snorri Sturluson (1178-1241).


Mexican Frijol

The word frijol in Spanish connotes almost any variety of cultivated beans, but in Mexico it is applied almost exclusively to the brown or spotted varieties known in English-speaking countries as kidney beans.


Bee's Average Life Six Weeks

A bee hatched in early summer does not live to eat the honey it gathers, as its average life through the busy season is not more than six weeks. Only those born in late autumn live till the spring.

—Bedford Gazette, Bedford, Pennsylvania, August 7, 1925.