Boston baked beans
Photo: Victorgrigas · CC BY-SA 3.0

History

Boston baked beans evolved from Puritan New England's Sabbath cooking restrictions, which banned work from sundown Saturday to sundown Sunday. Wives prepared a slow-baked pot of beans Saturday morning, served it for Saturday supper, and ate the leftovers cold on Sunday. Molasses, abundant via the Caribbean rum trade through Boston Harbor, sweetened the dish and gave the city the nickname Beantown by the 1880s. Durgin-Park, founded 1827 and closed 2019, served the dish at long communal tables on Faneuil Hall's basement floor through the 1990s. Union Oyster House and Legal Sea Foods still offer the classic preparation. The bean of choice is small white navy beans, not large kidney or pintos.

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Common allergens: Soy

Make it at home

Yield 6Hands-on 20 minTotal 7 hrDifficulty Easy

Ingredients

  • 450g dried navy beans, soaked overnight
  • 200g salt pork, scored
  • 1 large yellow onion, diced
  • 120ml dark molasses (unsulphured)
  • 60g dark brown sugar
  • 2 tablespoons English mustard powder
  • 1 tablespoon cider vinegar
  • 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
  • Boiling water as needed

Method

  1. Drain and rinse the soaked beans. Place in a heavy pot or bean pot, cover with fresh cold water by 5cm.
  2. Bring to a boil, then simmer 30 minutes until the bean skins begin to split. Drain, reserving 480ml of the cooking water.
  3. Heat oven to 150C. In a bean pot or heavy Dutch oven, layer half the beans, the onion, the scored salt pork, and the remaining beans on top.
  4. Whisk the reserved water with the molasses, brown sugar, mustard powder, vinegar and salt. Pour over the beans.
  5. Cover and bake 5 to 6 hours, checking every hour. Top up with boiling water if the surface dries.
  6. For the last hour, uncover the pot so the top caramelises and the salt pork browns.
  7. Rest 15 minutes before serving with brown bread or a buttered roll.

Tip from the editors. A traditional ceramic bean pot retains heat better than a Dutch oven; the longer the cook, the deeper the flavour.

Where to eat boston baked beans

Boston baked beans in Boston

Union Oyster House ★ 4.2

$$$ SeafoodNorth End

Union Oyster House on Union Street has shucked oysters in Boston since 1826, the oldest continuously operating restaurant in the United States.

OrderA dozen Wellfleets at the U-shaped bar and a cup of clam chowder.

TipSkip the dining-room tables and sit at the historic raw bar. The bar is the original 1826 plank.

Directions Book

Legal Sea Foods Long Wharf ★ 4.0

$$$ SeafoodNorth End

Legal Sea Foods on Long Wharf, near the New England Aquarium in Boston, has anchored the chain's flagship since 1968. Kitchen leans seafood.

OrderA cup of clam chowder, the recipe served at five presidential inaugurations.

TipLunch with a harbor-side window is the best seat. The raw bar runs daily until 22:00.

Directions Book

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