Summer Pork & Beans

If there’s one food that just screams “summer picnic” or “summer barbecue,” it’s pork and beans served alongside a hamburger or hot dog. The side dish has been part of the American diet since the 1800s and though it’s typically purchased pre-made from a can, it’s not so hard to make your own!

In fact, a 1832 cookbook titled The American Frugal Housewife lists only three ingredients needed to make the dish: a quart of beans, a pound of pork, and pepper. It instructs that the beans should be placed in cold water and hung over the fire the night before to soak, then rinsed several times the next morning before being put in a kettle with more water and the pork, and then kept scalding hot for an hour or more. Then “a little pepper sprinkled among the beans, when they are placed in the bean-pot, will render them less unhealthy,” and the whole kettle put into the oven to bake for a few hours.

Current recipes for pork and beans usually call for navy beans that have been cooked (usually stewed) with tomatoes and pork or rendered pork fat.

Barbecue Pork & Beans
from Woman’s Day

2 tsp oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 tsp minced garlic (2 cloves)
2 cans (16 oz each) baked beans
1 can (15 oz) black beans, rinsed
1⁄2 cup barbecue sauce
1 Tbsp each cider vinegar and mustard
1⁄2 tsp each chili powder and ground cumin
3 1⁄2- to 4-in.-thick chunk reserved pork loin (from Sun; about 1 lb), cubed

~ Heat oil over medium heat in large skillet or saucepan. Sauté onion and garlic 3 minutes. Stir in remaining ingredients, except pork.

~ Bring to boil, reduce heat and cover; simmer 15 minutes.

~ Stir in chopped pork, cover and simmer 5 minutes more or until pork is heated through. Serve with coleslaw and cornbread.

There are actually a bunch of things you can make with pork and beans, too!

~ Pork and bean dip
~ Pork and bean bread
~ Crockpot pork and beans
~ Spicy red pork and beans
~ Break the world record for pork and bean eating!

[image: flickr]