Huntsville gazette., 1883-05-26
Boston Baked Beans.

Though Boston has acquired some
fame as large consumer of this escu-
lent, baked beans have been from time
New England. The sturdy men and
women of generations ago, who braved
dangers and hardships in planting an
independent colony, added strength to
their sinews and muscles by eating SIM
pie food of which baked beans were n
much cherished 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 is a lit
tie singular that, while New England
| is so large consumer 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 circumstance is
due to the other-that is. that where it
is not known how to bake beans prop
erlv. they are naturally not a popular
article of diet. If the method and pro-
cess of baking were patented, it could
hardly be more exclusively held by New
Englanders In New York and other
municipalities a contempt is often eX-
pressed for the Athenian love for baked
beans. and yet not long ago fashiona
BILE club house, on the occasion of a
special gathering. sent by express to
this city for forty quarts OF Boston
baked beans. This manner of obtain
ing dish they affect to despise is fire.
quently resorted to, undoubtedly with
profit to the buyer and seller. An ex-
perienced baker of this city, being asked
in New York as in Boston, said: ''Be
cause they don't know how to cook
them. They don't soak them enough,
boil them too much, and then take
them out of the oven before they are
half baked.' but it would be easy
enough for them to learn how to cook
them?' ..Well, if it is, they don't
learn That much | know
| There is lunch counter in one of the
busiest sections of New York, where
genuine Boston baked beans are served
which is reported to be doing thriving
business. Travellers in the West and
|
restaurants in cities and towns placards
announcing Boston baked beans. but on
entering, and eating dish. find but
little resemblance between it and the
"home article" Custom has prescribed
either Saturday night or Sunday morn
ing as the ''correct time to eat baked
beans. and the scene at the bakers then
is the busiest of the week. Among the
hundreds of bakers in 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 in private dwellings, will give
one a conception of how well deserving
is Boston of her fame as bean-consum-
inc city. A well-informed gentleman
estimates that the consumption of beans
in Boston is about 500 barrels per week,
or about 10,000 barrels per year One
reason why Boston baked beans are bet
ter than any others is that they are
almost invariably baked in brick ovens
over night. Besides baking quantity
to sell. the bakers, for the nominal sum
of i've cents per pot. receive and bake
the beans that are prepared by their Gus
toners. thus materially adding to then
own profit and the convenience of the
public. 1t Is fact. certainly not uni
versally known. that there is in Boston
an establishment devoted exclusively
to the baking of beans. entirely sep
1t is the only establishment of
the kind in the world, probably, and it
is exceedingly doubtful whether it could
live anywhere else. AT all events, at
tempts have been made to establish
similar institutions elsewhere and moth
ing but failure has been the result. and
it is now plain enough that a bean-eat-
ing community is requisite to support
bean-baking establishment The success
Of the Boston bean bakery was assured
from the start, and its enterprising pro-
prietor 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 delivering the
pots and their smoking hot contents
OF the customers of the bakery, fully
one-half are restaurant keepers, who
pay twenty-five cents for two quarts of
beans and then retail them at ten. fif-
teen and twenty-five cents per plate.
The bakery consumes from 900 to
$500 pounds of beans per week, and its
oven has the capacity to bake 450 pots
in a single night. 1t is, perhaps, worthy
of note that the bakery is located in a
fashionable quarter of the city, within a
stones throw of Washington street. In
conclusion it may be said that the
Athenian fondness for baked beans con-
tinues to increase rather than decrease: /:
and that, in spite Of what the world may
say. Bostonians intend to have them
Saturday nights or Sunday mornings
Boston Herald