Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1876-11-24
GRANGE DIRECTORY.
Baked Beans.

are beans! This,is dictum that we
need not argue, in Yankee land,
where the tavorite vegetable is mis-
cooked is as many different ways as
there are to make poor bread. We
always sympathized in the jeremiade
of the outspolen Gail Hamilton
(what acoul0 have become of her if
she had kept pent up for the past
dozen yearsD over the decay of New
England knack, in modern days, in
preparing the regulation Sunday
morning breakfast. We believe she
classes it with the most to bc-lament-
ed OF the Lost Arts. There are many
manifestations Of this loss; among
which are the slippery, sloppy, yell
low beans of the corner hakery--ln-
tact, globular, perversely individual,
hich no man is justified i'll guessing
are either steamed, boiled or baked.
1t is fundamental axiom in correct
bean baking, that no dish can be
right that is "unmussed." A whole
bean is a confession of failure in the
cook. Then there are the baked
beans Of the restaurant; Il dry, I'M
derdone, waXy, aggravating mess
\ son OF Yankee, who will ''make
way with" plate OF the average
ealing-house beans, when he can get
an apple-pie line days old, or sand
witch that has been used for a sign
not more than a week, sa degenerate
scion. And then there are the clash
ionable" baked beans; served in Il
shallow, dainty platter, more adapt
ed to display the china than to do
Justice to the generous, historic dish
innocent OF pork, bleached until
they are favorless, and then cooked
to death. Beans cannot survive
''style." 1t is as fatal to them as it
is to spare-rib, or roast-oysterS, or
any of the good old time luxuries.-
We have interviewed, specially for
this occasion, a house keeper whose
baked beans are worthy of the re-
nown Of that ancestor of hers, who
helped through the war of the Revolu-
ton by seeing to it that the soldiers
home on furlough, or in adjacent
camps, always had good rye and in
jun bread and baked beans fit for a
patriot. And she says that the only
secret about it is to have them Just
right. You want to soak them over
night, or parboil them in two or three
waters until they are at the cracking
point. If your appetite is not robust
enough to eat pork, and you have art
enough to cook them without it, all
that is required is to season the dish
to the fine point of halt pinch of
salt, single shake of the pepper-box
and a lump of butter neither too
large nor too small, and have a piece
of fresh spare-rib roasted separately
to serve with them. The beans must
also be of '.just the right consistency
when put into the dish for baking"
So far we believe, it is all clear. If
you hsvc stamina enough for pork,
praise your ancestry and kind heaven;
and put the sweet cris-crossed piece
of seasoned meat, with its possibili-
ties OF crisp rinds, in the centre of
tn, dish, with slices ornamenting
the sides. All you need of the oven
is to have it neither too hot nor too
slow. The beans must then simmer
until they are just done. 70 secure
the exact shade Of brown over the
top, and the precise degree OF heat
and moisture inside needed to bring
each individual bean to the very
point of cracking and coalescing
with its NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. entirely
doing lt!-that is all the direction
one needs as to baking. If it isn't
clear, you must learn as the boy
learns to swim. And then as to
serving. 1t is the sign of an effete
and over-ripe social disposition to
'dish out" a pan of baked beans.-
Assert your independence, and pre-
serve the integrity of.your result, by
placing them upon the table in the
dish in which they were cooked
Let the servant pass around the
empty china, if you wish, to assure
the family or guest that you have it.
And have enough left to know the
luxury of cold beans that have a
heart in them! Thus shall one OF
our glorious New England institu
tons be restored, to add luster to the
Cent ennial year.-Golden Rule,