Saturday night supper

I think our dour New England forebears must have had some sense of humor, to come up with a tradition of serving baked beans for Saturday supper.  

Sure, I know that dried beans and salt pork were year-round staples, I understand that it was economical and nutritious, I get the whole serve-leftovers-for-Sunday-breakfast thing ensured the Puritan housewife was in compliance with the fourth commandment.  

But how could there not have been a bit of wry fun derived from packing into a small sanctuary for a three-hour church service the morning after everyone had eaten a meal consisting primarily of beans?  Particularly if any of the congregants were thirteen-year-old boys?



Baked beans & brown bread



Biscuits or brown bread – that dense, dark, steamed whole grain bread – traditionally accompanied the beans, and somewhere along the line we started serving them with hot dogs.  Anyone who is over sixty years of age and grew up around here can tell you about having beans and franks every Saturday night.  



And the tradition is still very much alive and well, though for most of us it is no longer weekly fare.  Saturday night bean suppers are a popular community event.  Diners of a certain variety still offer baked beans – and codfish cakes – on their breakfast menus.  

Saturday night supper

 Though there are any number of decent canned varieties available, when we make this, which we do a couple times a year and yes, it’s always on a Saturday night, we do it the old-fashioned way.  Both the beans and the brown bread take a bit of planning ahead, some specialty equipment and several hours to cook, but are easy to put together and require scant attention. 

Baked beans

1 lb. navy beans, sorted and rinsed

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 lb. salt pork

1 large yellow onion

1/4 cup dark unsulphured molasses

1 teaspoon dried mustard

1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

1/4 cup packed brown sugar

1 cup hot water, plus additional

Salt & pepper

Soak the beans overnight, then drain, cover with ample water, stir in the baking soda, and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes.  Drain.



The usual suspects - onions, salt pork, beans & molasses



 While the beans simmer, peel and slice the onion and dice the salt pork (discard the rind).  Combine the molasses, dried mustard, cider vinegar, brown sugar, water, salt and pepper; stir to dissolve everything.  Preheat the oven to 300. 

In a bean pot, make three layers of beans/onion/salt pork (using 1/3 of each ingredient for each layer) – ending with salt pork on top. 

Pour the molasses mixture over the beans and add additional water to just cover the beans – not too wet.  Put on the lid and tuck into the oven for about four hours.  Stir it occasionally, and keep an eye on the moisture level to keep it from drying out.  I’ve never had to add additional water but I always check.



Four hours later...



The beans will cook to a silken tenderness, the sauce cooks down to a rich brown, and the salt pork and onions melt into the beans.  


We aren’t churched people so we keep the side effects within our own four walls.

Brown bread

1 cup cornmeal

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 cup rye flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

¾ cup dark unsulphured molasses

2 cups plain whole-milk yogurt

1 cup dark raisins

Mix together the dry ingredients ...

... then add the molasses, yogurt and raisins; stir to blend.  

Pour into two well-greased 1-qt. pudding molds (the kind with a lid – I’ve never had luck with the coffee-can-and-tin-foil method).

Secure the lids.  

Place in stock pots with a cake rack in the bottom (a few balls of tin foil can work, or a handful of stainless steel forks – the idea is to keep the pudding mold from resting directly on the bottom of the pot).  

Add boiling water to come about halfway up the sides of the molds and cover.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer about 2 ½ hours.  Check the water level periodically to make sure it isn’t drying out.

Remove the pudding molds from the water bath and allow to cool slightly.  Remove lids and unmold the brown bread.  Slice and serve immediately with plenty of butter.

Leftovers are great for breakfast and also freeze well.