• Baked Beans •

"Baked beans were popular Saturday supper at Green Gables when the days were chilly and there was a gentle all-day fire in the kitchen stove. Grown, dried and stored in burlap bags, yellow eye beans were flavoured for slow cooking to a mellowed richness in the oven, while the Boston Brown Bread steamed on top of the stove. These next two recipes come from Marion and Lorraine Webb's collections and Maud would have enjoyed them while visiting Green Gables. They are typical Prince Edward Island recipes, simple, wholesome and tasty."

- 2 cups yellow eye, navy or soldier beans - 1/3 lb sliced salt pork medium onion - 1 diced medium onion - 1/4 cup brown cup - 1/2 cup molasses - 1 tsp dry mustard - 1 tsp salt - 1/4 tsp pepper

*Note* Results may vary

1) Wash beans and soak overnight in water to cover by two inches.

2) Next morning bring to the boil and simmer gently for about an hour (remove foam as it gathers at the top).

3) Drain, reserving liquid.

4) Slice the salt pork and put half the slices in bottom of a crockery bean pot. Add half the beans.

5) Add rest of the salt pork, the onions and then balance of the beans (a younger generation of the Webb family liked to add a peeled, sliced apple with the onions).

6) Mix together the brown sugar, molasses, mustard, salt and pepper and about 1/2 cup of reserved bean liquid, and pour over the beans. Add more liquid to cover the beans.

7) Bake covered in a 250 Fahrenheit over for about 8 hours, adding more water as necessary to keep beans covered.

8) Uncover the beans in the last hour and stir gently once in a while to brown the beans.

Serves eight.

Reference: Crawford, E. & Crawford, K. (1996). Aunt maud's recipe book. Moulin Pub
McCabe, K. & Heilbron, A. (1999). The lucy maud montgomery album. Markham, ON: Fitzhenry and Whiteside Limited.

Last updated: December 25, 2005
Back