The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1880-08-13
BOSTON BAKED BEANS.
rhe New England Ctay's FavOrite Dlsh.
Herald 4


Bosom Herald.
Though Boston has. acquired some
fame ms alarge consumer of this esculent,
baked beans have been from time i'm
memorial favorite dish throughout
New England. The sturdy men and wo-
men of generations ago, who braved dam
gers and hardships in planting an indie
pendent colony, added strength to their
sinews and muscles 10y eating simple food
of which baked beans were much cher
ished ingredient, and of all ancient dishes
none have stood better the test of time
and the caprices of the appetites of the
people. But it lis little singular that
while New England is SO large a consum-
CT of baked beans, and New Englanders,
more especially the residents of Boston,
have acquired the mystery of cooking
them perfectly the dish is not in much
favor elsewhere, and that the knowledge
of baking them properly is exceedingly
limited 1t may be said that one circum-
stance is due to the other-that is, that
where it is not known how to bake beans
properly, they are naturally not popu-
lar article of diet. If the method and
process of baking were patented it could
hardly be more exclusively held by New
Englanders. In New York and other
municipalities, contempt is often ex-
pressed for the Athenian love for baked
beans, and yet not long ago fashionable
clubhouse on the occasion of n special
gathering, sent by express to this city
for 20 two-quart pots of Boston baked
beans This manner of obtaining dish
they affect to despise is frequently re-
sorted to, undoubtedly with profit alike
to the buyer and seller An experienced
baker of this city, being asked why baked
beans were not as popular in New York
us in Boston, said: "Because they don't
know how to cook them. They don't
soak them enough, boil them to much,
and then take them out of the oven be-
fore they are half baked.
Custom has prescribed either Saturday
or Sunday morning as the "correct time"
for eating baked beans, and the scene at
the bakers then is the busiest Of the
week. Among the hundreds of bakers
III the city there are but few who do not
"put to soak" on Friday night from one
to five barrels of beans, which, added to
the number cooked i'll private dwellings,,
will give one conception of how well
deserving is Boston of her fame as beam
consuming city. A well-informed gentle
man estimates that the consumption of
beans in Boston is about 200 barrels per
week, or about 10, 900 barrels per year.
One reason why Boston baked beans are
considered better than any others is that
almost invariably they are baked in brick
ovens over night. Besides baking n
quantity to sell, the bakers, for the
nominal sum of 5 cents per pot, receive
and bake the beans that are prepared by
their customers, thus adding materially
to their own profitand the convenience of
the public. 1t is a fact, certainly not
universally known, that there is i'll Bos-
ton an establishment devoted exclusively
to the baking of beans, entirely separate
from canning institution. 1t is the only
establishment of the kind in the world.
probably, and il is exceedingly doubtful
whether it could live anywhere else. At
all events, attempts have been made to
establish similar institutions elsewhere,
and nothing but failure has been the re-
suit, and it is now plain enough that a
bean-eating community Is requisite to
support bean eating establishment The
success of the Boston bean bakery was
assured from the start, and its enterpris-
ing proprietor has climbed up the road
to wealth by the bean alone, without as
sistance from the pole. Every night in
the week the fire under the spacious brick
oven is in full blast, and two teams are
kept busy daily in delivering the pots and
their smoking-hot contents. OF the
customers of the bakery, fully one-half
are observation-disclosures, who pays 20 cents
for two quarts of beans, and then retail
them at 10, Is, and % cents per plate.
The bakery consumes from /, 900 to 800
pounds of beans per week, and its oven
has the capacity to bake $50 pots in a
single night.