Bean Hole Beans
Some Bean-making Recollections
Alice Smith
LaChance, born in 1914, Old Town, Maine:
Beans were a big staple in our family. Mom had 14 children--8 that
lived. On Saturday night we always had a huge, humungus pot of
beans. Mom made her own brown bread, to have with the beans. On
Wednesday night we had the leftover beans. She heated them up and we
ate them again, with more brown bread. We never had anything else
with them--no salads or anything. But we didn't eat tossed salads
then, like we do now. My father always had a big garden and Momma
used to can all our vegetables. In the summer sometimes Mom would
make potato salad, but never with beans...Beans were a cheap dish
then. Now they are no longer cheap--they are expensive. Beans have
become a company dish.
Bean preparation: Soak the beans Friday night. On Saturday morning,
parboil them--”bring the beans to a boil, then pour the water off.:”
Add molasses and dry mustard. No onion (as an adult she heard of
recipes where people added onion, but her mother never did). Salt
pork-- “don't forget the salt pork!” The beans cooked all day
Saturday in the wood stove, both summer and winter.
Mother had a great big crock (18 inches from the floor, 18-20 inches
in diameter) full of salt-pork. It had some kind of liquid in it. I
guess salt pork didn't spoil. My sister and I did the dishes. Mother
cleared the table, put the food away and washed the tins. We had to
do the dishes and we fought about doing that. We all used to sing
this song when we were kids:
Peas and beans are a musical fruit.
The more you eat the more you toot.
The more you toot the better you feel,
And then you're ready for another meal.
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