Tavern Baked Beef and Beans | The Foodie Pilgrim

By John, 23 February, 2014

Region

Description

Tavern Baked Beans and Beef A colonial-style recipe from before the days of molasses-sweetened nostalgia-food. This would have been made with the ubiquitous salt-beef available in barrels everywhere that there were cattle and salt. Most homes would have had salt pork (see Pork and Beans but commercial establishments and ships would have had access to beef.

Note that sweetening with molasses would be "in-period" but I have seen no mention of it for this recipe. This recipe is rather no-nonsense, but it is nourishing and not unpleasant. I would add dry mustard before adding any sweetening agent. The molasses does better in the Pork and Beans recipe.

Yield

20 Servings

Preparation time

6 hours

Ingredients

1 t Salt

1 lb Corned Beef (Sliced into 2-inch x .25-inch squares)

2 lb Beans (Yellow-Eye, Jacob's Cattle, Soldier, or Navy)

1 t dry mustard

2 c Boiling Water

1⁄2 Onion (chopped coarsely)

Instructions

Soak the beans overnight, then cook them until the skins burst when you blow on them.
Combine the molasses, salt, and spices, then add the boiling water.
Mix the beans with the beef, then add the water-molasses-onion-spice mixture.
Put everything into a beanpot and bake at 300 for up to 6 hours.

Notes

I made this recipe up. It isn't the sort that would be recorded, but it is the sort that would have been served in colonial times. with some brown bread.