Revolutionary Food: Boston Baked Beans

[@greendeane1]

As a kid growing up in a Mayflower family in southern Maine (1950’s) baked beans were a Sunday staple. On a cold winter day my father would stoke a wood cook stove in the basement. After soaking beans overnight my mother put them in a ceramic pot, adding pepper, some dry mustard, water to cover, a chunk of salt pork, and a hug dollop of molasses. It would go in the cook stove oven by mid-morning. She also started bread. Then late in the afternoon the risen bread would go into the oven and around 4 or 5 we would have baked beans and home-made baked bread for supper.

[@scoruja]

🥲

[@FreeThink1984]

Based

[@SlapStyleAnims]

Cozy

[@uwebowlingforcolumbine3295]

I grew up in Central Maine(Somerset) and still remember Bean Pole Bean Suppers at the local church, they’d cook the beans in coals in a bean pot in a hole in the ground , from local belief that the baker wouldn’t fire the oven and some homes would observe Sundays as a Sabbath and not work or run home ovens. They were a big community event to go to a Bean Pole Supper even when I was growing up there in the 90’s. I still make home made Beans at home with double the amount of Salt Pork (so every bite has pork bits) and a whole large onion for flavor, molasses , pepper, dry mustard, of course, and home made Brown Bread.

[@uwebowlingforcolumbine3295]

*Hole … got the names mixed up.

[@sticklepaw]

I am an Arizona 1950s baby, and in the winter Mother frequently made B&M canned brown bread (steamed) served with B&M canned Boston baked beans. It was her go to meal when she was in need of a quick dinner. The whole family loved it. Last year, when caring for my toothless father aged 95+, I was having great difficulty preparing meals for him. Suddenly I remembered! Many of his last meals were Brown bread and Boston beans. He loved it, and so did I!

[@adelem432]

Boston 50s baby and my mom did too. She opened the cans, but I’ve made baked beans many times, but yet to make brown bread.

[@ericwillard2364]

Brown bread is awesome and I’m continually shocked that it’s mostly a New England thing.

[@ramencurry6672]

Canned baked beans are not good and very generic tasting and almost tastes like school cafeteria food. But in my experience adding bacon to it improves it.

[@denisedaisy3357]

I think she has a reduced cooking time because she precooked them by keeping them by the fire overnight. Thanks for the video.

[@Chickston]

This is like 2 episodes in 1! The Indian Pudding recipe is the spoon cornbread without canned corn I've been looking for.

[@BrendaJBarNett]

Indian pudding is the best❤

[@benjaminscribner7737]

As a New Englander, Boston baked beans were on the menu on Saturday night with hot dogs. Great video, Ryan really inspires with his presentation and overall personality.

[@jimlacefield7176]

My grandmother made a pot every saturday

[@georgerobartes2008]

It's common in my part of England ( East Anglia) to eat peas pudding and saveloys . Saveloys have been known since the early 18th century, a highly seasoned red skinned sausage made from pork offal ( brain , lights , etc) but nowadays any meat from pork to chicken or a mix .

[@benjaminscribner7737]

@@georgerobartes2008 it sounds like something I would try

[@georgerobartes2008]

@@benjaminscribner7737 Quite delicious. We use chick peas ( known as Ramsciches in the old journals) for the pudding , not sure whether saveloys are available in the US . They are ether boiled separately, steamed over the pudding while cooking or fried .

[@bayman49]

and home made cole slaw..

[@mh6975]

This guy is a national treasure

[@Sam-lm8gi]

20 years ago, this could've been a History Channel show; it's that good.

[@robertmurdock4233]

History channel is too busy putting out non history like ancient aliens.

[@justinjanecka3203]

People still watch TV?

[@christianvillanueva1133]

Ya it's sad to see what history channel is now compared to what it used to be

[@bostonrailfan2427]

Food Network would have had it on if they ignored it

[@Sam-lm8gi]

@@justinjanecka3203 No, 20-30 years ago people watched TV. Today they watch KZbin instead, which is my point. Channels like Townsends have replaced TV which is now just trash and propaganda.

[@John-lx8iu]

I can't hear "Boston Baked Beans" without thinking about the candy-coated peanuts by the same name...

[@GameConnoisseur69]

I love those things man so good

[@mikejohnson8006]

As a boy growing up in Maryland (I am 79 years old) we did not eat nor make baked beans, but your recipe about Indian pudding makes me think of a dish Mama would make from time -to-time: spoon bread, which she would bake in a Pyrex casserole dish. I can see similarities to Indian pudding. We would spoon it out on our plates, add some butter, and enjoy it. We loved it. Another dish was split-pea soup, to which she would add a ham-hock and some onions. I still love it, and can see a kinship to Peas pudding. We never made peas pudding. On the other hand, my New Hampshire born wife, grew up on baked beans, but she has never tried to bake them, instead learning (very well) to make a big pot of various beans (brown, white, October beans), and black-eyed peas. She will doctor them up a bit, adding hot peppers, onions, of course the mandatory piece of pork (usually) and even some tomatoes. It's all good!

[@gregzeigler3850]

My wife, not only makes the most delicious baked beans, but also makes green beans, potatoes and meat. Also delicious soup beans. I'm blessed that my wife is a great cook, creating meals and a side dish from beans and other ingredients...

[@johnmarraffa5079]

As a lifelong resident of Massachusetts, born in Boston, it's nice to see the Townsends showing our region some love. And I'm going to have to make that Indian pudding too. 😋

[@pfranks75]

I recognize the preparation of Boston Baked Beans, I grew up in East Providence, RI born in 1956 and can remember my great aunts soaking white beans and baking all day long using molasses and Coleman’s dry mustard and an onions pierced with cloves.

[@jeromethiel4323]

That Indian pudding clearly needed some nutmeg. ^-^

[@EricHenning]

Perhaps, but nutmeg wouldn’t have been available to the average family. Asian spices were incredibly expensive and reserved for the very rich, and even then, early colonists probably wouldn’t have had access to them.

[@Tinil0]

@@EricHenning That's not entirely true, you are generalizing. Nutmeg was INCREDIBLY popular in the colonies, and while it wasn't cheap it was at least somewhat available to everyone. It would certainly be a rare occasion for the poor, but it wasn't something that only the rich had, it was more on the level of something you splurged for on special occasions if you weren't rich. Nutmeg graters were near ubiquitous in American kitchens of the time and people even walked around with small, portable graters; That's how much they loved it. In 1760 the price in London was about 80 shillings a pound for Nutmeg thanks almost entirely to Dutch manipulation, which is ~£1,000 or so in modern currency, but remember that you don't need a whole pound of nutmeg. That VERY ROUGHLY works out to a modern ~£10 per individual nutmeg. A lot to pay for a spice, at least to us, but again, not completely out of range of anyone who wasn't subsistence farming, just very special. One nutmeg goes a long way when you are grating it yourself.

[@Alas-xj8cr]

I grew up 12 miles from Boston. I remember in 1949 that my dad would bring a pot of beans to our local bakery, which I remember was in the local A&P store, on Saturday morning after 8 AM. They would use the still hot ovens that they had baked bread in to cook the beans. Dad would go back to get them at 4 PM. The beans would be hot and bubbly and showed signs of boiling over during the process. They had two metal tags, one would be attached to the bean pot and the other was given to my dad so he could pick up the right pot. The most important ingredient in Boston baked beans was molasses. Salt pork of course and some tomato paste.

[@annereilley4892]

i would think the most important ingredient would be the beans!

[@Alas-xj8cr]

LOL! You are right of course. I should have said the most important flavoring/condiment. It isn't Boston baked beans without the molasses. History is kind of lost if that is not acknowledged.

[@Tinil0]

@@Alas-xj8cr That's true for modern boston baked beans, but molasses wasn't added to them until the mid 18th century, when the New England triangular trade from the Caribbean ramped up and suddenly sugar, molasses, and rum flooded the area. That's why this particular recipe doesn't include it, it's the original recipe.

[@RedBone-q2v]

Boston girls never smelled good on Monday mornings. Now remembering, they usually smelled like a rotten egg and stale beer sart the rest of the week too.

[@charliemcgee9803]

My family arrived in Boston in 1630. Love seeing some history of the food. Good content as always.

[@bobg5362]

Fantastic as always. For the record: no one, and I mean no one, east of the Connecticut River calls or has ever actually called Boston "Beantown."

[@dmr6640]

Just love the tag team with John and Ryan. More like this. ❤

[@bunnyslippers191]

When my mom was in the navy the mess hall would bake beans in the oven all night long low and slow and serve them for breakfast. Mom spent the rest of her life trying desperately to duplicate that recipe, but she never managed it. Grandma very nearly got it when she had the old coal stove. The trick was the fire started out hot, but slowly and gradually cooled down overnight resulting in a unique taste and texture. Salt pork, molasses, and onions were involved she thought, but the proportions were hard to get and, of course, that variation in temperature wasn't/isn't possible with a gas or electric oven.

[@KR-hg8be]

The some navy cookbooksfrom different eras are publicly available online

[@milklover4253]

it's probably more about the pot it was cooked in than the heat source, you can feather the heat down gradually and use spacing on a gas stove to mimic the lowering heat of a fire, the pot's affinity for holding onto heat and how fast it's released into the beans might be the missing key here. maybe try cast iron? or something heavier?

[@GeschichtenUndGedanken]

That was the first thing I experienced when I was visiting Massachusetts: I was served a big portion of Baked Beans in Boston. What a great treat. 😊

[@NetTopsey]

That was an excellent episode. Very much appreciate the history of how Puritan and Native American food ways intertwined

[@TheChadPad]

Well, you'd be pleased to learn that we possibly learned Baked Beans from the Native Americans! That's what I read online, anyway. I'm not sure how they didn't catch that. Maybe it's just a rumor, but it is on Wikipedia. I guess take it with a grain of salt, but don't dismiss it!

[@JJ-xw8sv]

This is one of your best episodes. The balance of recipes, the perspectives on war, politics, and culture. All around fantastic!

[@Blrtech77]

Jon and Ryan Thank You and a Tip-of-the-Hat To the Both of You! What a great video and Be Safe.

[@CP-tm7be]

I LOVE this collaboration! That is a winning format. I wouldn't mind a little more talk at the end between the two as they eat, but really, I'm just nitpicking. I love the history and using several complimentary recipes! Great episode!!!

[@MapleRhubarb]

Love when Ryan and Jon tag team! My great aunt had a baked bean recipe that took something like 16 hours to bake in an oven. I've only ever had it once, and it was good...but I wonder if it stemmed from something like this.

[@Ostenjager]

I grew up in Mass. I cannot emphasize how much I have *hated* Boston Baked Beans my whole life, to the point of disliking beans in food in general. I learned a LOT of really interesting history watching this video though! Thanks!

[@moki7685]

Try them again

[@Ostenjager]

@@moki7685 I’ll be dead before I “try” them again. 🤢

[@eizzeeefromstupidland]

@@Ostenjagergo to Mexico 😂

[@eizzeeefromstupidland]

@@OstenjagerI come from lands where people seasoned the food - trust me. It will change your worldview being around Mexicans… especially on BEANS.

[@jgkitarel]

Eating things too regularly brings familiarity with a food, which breeds contempt for that food.

[@toryistatertot5394]

I love that you are eating and enjoying without making us listen to the chewing sounds. For some of us that is triggering to hear so Thank You. I've made baked beans for my family before. It was a time when I was feeding a family of six on 20$ a week. We were lucky in that milk, cheese and beans were some of the staples that we had access to. Still potatos, cheap cuts of meat and strict serving portions were necessary to see us through. Baked beans were perfect.

[@joshuaward5498]

Love this new format. Make more like this!

[@ThomasQuigley-p6i]

Love this program. Keep it up Chefs!

[@debbralehrman5957]

Thanks Jon,Ryan, and Crew 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼 🍂🍂🍁🍂🍁🍂🍁🍂🍁🍂🍁🍂🍁🍂

[@TheTimeTravelingChef]

Fantastic history and video as always! So much richness in the history of Boston and surrounding areas

[@andrewmogg591]

Informative documentary, as ever, thank you. Here in Blighty, mushy peas and baked beans are readily available at all good fish n' chip shops. Not forgetting salt and vinegar, of course.

[@bostonrailfan2427]

he got a bunch of basic historical facts wrong…

[@kellyzavandro456]

Haven't caught one of your videos in a while. I didn't realize how much I missed them!

[@Psychlist1972]

I no longer live in Massachusetts, where I grew up, so I love when it crops up in stories like this.

[@dr.froghopper6711]

I’m a third generation New Mexico native of primarily Irish descent. Our traditional foods came by way of Appalachia, into Texas and New Mexico. We put garlic and chile on EVERYTHING! The bean recipes from the east are accentuated by the chiles, onions, garlic and corn from below the Southern border. Mexican influences are absolutely delicious and fun to blend with the heritage of my family.

[@austinbell4685]

I could eat green chile enchiladas with beans (any beans) and Spanish rice once a day every day with a sopapilla and I'd be just fine with that.

[@moki7685]

@@austinbell4685sounds delicious. I love it

[@knight4linux]

Garlic and chiles....ahh speaking my food language man

[@MovingBlanketStudio]

Awesome, I frequently work across from where the tea party occurred. Really enjoyed the explanations in this episode!

[@OBXDewey]

This channel is way better than the History Channel or the Food Network. Great job. Baked beans and bread are in my future. ❤

[@DomenicoBettinelli]

Native Bostonian here who owns his own bean pot. I love making Boston Baked Beans and I'm grateful to you for showing the origins of this wonderful dish. Thank you for sharing so much of our history and culture.

[@DrunkenDemon]

History through food is such an amazing thing. Not just here. :)

[@jordanmorrow6922]

Loved John doing the history and Ryan doing the food part. But really loved the longer episode

[@archeantyl9452]

Fantastic episode. I love the dual presentation with Jon and Ryan! Keep up the good work guys ❤

[@thelegion_within]

when did molasses make it into the bean recipes? it always seemed like an integral component of "baked beans"

[@petergray2712]

Right around the mid-18th century. Boston was an integral part of the Triangular Trade (manufactured goods to Africa, slaves to the Americas, raw materials like molasses to Great Britain), and excess molasses was simply incorporated into the local diet.

[@porgy29]

I know Boston became a big center for rum & molasses production. I'm assuming around the time that was becoming more a thing, but it's just a guess.

[@benjaminscribner7737]

@@porgy29 I think you might be right

[@irmabickerstaff7734]

My family has Scandinavian roots, and brown baked beans have been a big part of their diets for hundreds of years. It all keeps on the shelf for a protein any time of the year.

[@cylontoaster7660]

Molasses remained a pretty big part of Boston until the early 20th century - Prohibition resulted in decreased demand for molasses and cane sugar eventually replaced molasses as a choice sweetener. Although people still like Boston baked beans and even canned brown bread exists (although no where as near as popular as it was in the early to mid 20th century)

[@michaelanderson2166]

A rye cornbread sounds absolutely amazing.

[@tlrice72]

You mean Boston baked beans aren’t candy coated peanuts? Those are my favorite beans 😂😂

[@rosemcguinn5301]

There are also very old meatless versions of baked beans, although my grandma, whose farming family usually included some bacon in their crockery bean pot, seldom made them veggie style. It's true - it's a VERY old type of food, as both Jon and Ryan say. And my grandma would bake her beans for at least 8 hours! It made the entire house smell fantastic. One antique recipe that I used to have required slow, overnight baking!

[@cheryl4811]

I grew up in New England with my mom's baked beans with molasses and homemade brown bread every Saturday night for years... Loved it.. My Dad would have them again for breakfast Sunday morning.

[@margarettickle9659]

So you were the people sitting behind me in church making all that noise. LOL

[@cheryl4811]

@@margarettickle9659 My Dad might have been.....not me 🥴🤣🤣

[@JeffDeWitt]

That Indian pudding reminds me a lot of the southern spoon bread I used to get at a (sadly) long closed cafeteria. (Ballentine's in Raleigh's Cameron Village).

[@aprils.]

I’m from Texas, and beans are totally different here. They’re usually pinto beans. We don’t typically soak them at all (at least not anyone I know of), just sort them to check for bad ones and small rocks, then simmer them on the stovetop for around 4 hours or more, making sure to keep the water level above the beans. Different people like to season them their own way, so that’s extremely variable. My family likes salt pork and cilantro.

[@NDFlyFisher]

Love these videos. A step back in time.

[@j.j.savalle4714]

Great video and food history as always. Love the back and forth format from info to cooking!

[@davidbaker9412]

For what it's worth, I'm an old New Englander with notes from my relatives from this time period and later on this recipe. Look into yellow eye beans, they are great for this. They were created in the region for this purpose. Try soaking overnight, then blanching them for a few minutes so when you blow on them the skin pops. Then do a cold water rinse. That's what my family did then. No idea when baking soda came into it but it's part of the rinse now. They actually did use nutmeg, mustard, and molasses in this too.

[@davidbaker9412]

OH and the type of pot impacts the amount of water you need. A 'bean pot' only needs it filled to just the top. If you use something like yours you need to watch it and add some.

[@TheCardboardPizza]

I'm a descendent of French Huguenots, and I was so interested to learn that they lived in a French speaking community in Virginia, had a French church with a French liturgy, and left a lot of signs of French culture (such as Fleur-de-lis and the Huguenot cross). I didn't realize how diverse colonial America was until I delved into my own genealogy!

[@MilitantPrepping]

Very cool! I live in Virginia in a house that was built in the 1730’s, there’s actually a plaque by the front door declaring it a Historic Site, placed by the Dept of the Interior. There’s a “House Diary” which has been kept almost uninterrupted since 1750, where visitors would have their names entered along with an introduction or a brief synopsis of their visit, to include a young G. Washington who stopped in for supper and “refreshment” in 1751 while surveying the valley. We still often cook our meals in cast iron pots over the giant kitchen fireplace, and I like to imagine I’m sitting in the same spot our first president sat, watching supper cook in the same fireplace he would have sat in front of, smoking a pipe with the Millers who lived here. Anyway, there’s an entry from 1762 from a “French Huguenot family from the area of Norfolk.” Can’t make out the name, but still pretty interesting.

[@briefcasejournal]

This man's channel is pf immeasurable value. Thank you for your valuable work and insight into our past.

[@AmericanBeautyCorset]

The Pudding with the Baked Beans would be awesome.. I can smell it...😋

[@Zelda_Thorn]

a) that is a crazy hunk of butter in that hasty pudding 😂 b) reminds me of grits. we always made grits by stirring cornmeal into boiling water - like polenta - and then once it was thick, mixing in some eggs/butter/cheese/hot sauce and pouring it into a dish and baking it.

[@JiffyMcpop-ps3he]

In Maine, we have a tradition called “bean hole beans” Dig a hole, get the fire going, add the crock of beans and bury it in the coals. Supposedly it was an old recipe dating to at least the 1800s in the logging camps.

[@tessat338]

"Father and I went down to camp, along with Captain Gooding, and there we saw the boys and men all eating hasty pudding! Yankee Doodle, keep it up, Yankee Doodle Dandy. Mind the music and the step and with the girls be handy!"

[@phylliscraine]

A pot of Boston Baked Beans on a cold winter day is wonderful. Toothsome, savory, smoky and a little sweet. The only thing equal on a cold day is clam chowder and a Bloody Mary.

[@roro54321]

Same could be said about chili but you don’t see me bragging about it like it’s the only option out there.

[@hoobaguy]

​@roro54321 you're such an edge lord. I bet your posts on /pol/ are the best.

[@roro54321]

@@hoobaguy oh yeah, I’m gooning right now just thinking about it. So much rizz.

[@joshinfantine8344]

Boston Native here. Thank you for covering!! My favorite foods are all local new England regional dishes so interested so see how things have evolved.

[@EdwardD-q5p]

Great combination of culinary and political history

[@GenXLostInTx]

I had a corn dish similar to this at Middleton place in South Carolina. They had a great lunch, bbq shredded pork over rice, beans, and the corn “pudding.”

[@lilykatmoon4508]

I lived in Boston for grad school in the mid 90s. Had some amazing baked beans in pubs. They all had molasses and mustard though too. Th the at Indian pudding looks amazing. I’d live to make it with maple syrup instead of sugar and , of course, nutmeg 😉

[@shiningfriday4495]

Greetings from Boston 😊

[@tckoppang]

Really love the depth of this episode.

[@CaptchaNeon]

I’m obsessed with baked beans. I often will eat them without any other food. Sometimes I add in baked beans, kidney beans, stewed tomatoes and ground beef or bison. So delicious. You just drain the kidney beans only, all other canned stuff goes in as is into a pan. Do not use any type of sprays or lard. Ground beef cooked ahead of time in a separate pan and thrown in, heat it for 4-5 mins on the stove and it’s done.

[@brandonscottcountry]

Man, Ryan really does a great job on these videos. I've been a subscriber since your beginning, and I really enjoy Ryan's appearences. He fits well.

[@amadeusamwater]

My grandmother used to bake beans that included ketchup, mustard, molasses, the pork was already in the beans. The molasses is what makes the beans extra sweet.

[@8GuthixGaming8]

I really like the food kind of being in the middle with more lore and history after

[@robzinawarriorprincess1318]

Great job! This might be a fun series...

[@goldenage]

I love New England during this time period. Nature, the food and the culture.

[@alexandriajohnson6656]

I remember going to family reunions in Maine(once part of Massachusetts commonwealth).We had about 8 to 10 separate baked bean dishes brought by family members( like it was an olde tyme bean hole suppah).😋

[@Benjamison_Franklinson]

IN MY DAY, WE WOULD HAVE CALLED YOU A 'BEAN BOY' YOUNG SQUIRE.

[@thes.a.s.s.1361]

It seems like it’s the great grandad of the modern pork and beans with molasses, onion, bell pepper, jalapeño, etc.

[@wwsuwannee7993]

This is a great channel.

[@sisyr5615]

gotta love baked beans, of all kinds

[@TootTootUSA]

Baaaaaked beans.

[@Benjamison_Franklinson]

OUR ENEMIES THE BRITISH HAVE PERVERTED OUR COUNTRY TIS OF THEE'S DISH BY REMOVING THE MOLASSES AND SUBSTITUTING IT WITH SAUCE OF TOMATO. HEAR YE HEAR YE, THE BRITISH MENACE KNOWS NO BOUNDS!!

[@parodysam]

You’re telling me, Boston baked these beans?

[@angellover02171]

Well, yes.

[@LaundryFaerie]

It's more than a feeling

[@Leah-i1e]

Follow the farts.

[@Fevebblefester]

Melvin Boston, last Tuesday.

[@FlyTyer1948]

It’s why Boston is called Beantown.

[@CheshireTomcat68]

Boston baked beans. More than a feeling.

[@LaundryFaerie]

Think of this the next time you close your eyes and one slips away

[@CheshireTomcat68]

@@LaundryFaerie Paaaarp!

[@bostonrailfan2427]

i get that reference 🤣

[@WildwoodCastle]

Beans.. beans... Good for the heart... Need I go on..?

[@andrewchase9307]

Saying 'Hello' from Boston!

[@curtiserlandson5564]

Babe wake up a new Townsends video just dropped and it's about beans

[@paulschwartz2464]

THANK YOU for your continued excellent content.

[@loriloristuff]

Be sure to "pick over" the beans before washing them. Pick out any small rocks, other debris, broken or split beans.

[@roninbadger7750]

peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold peas porridge in the pot nine days old

[@ShellyS2060]

Some like it hot, some like it cold, some like it from the pot nine days old

[@LaundryFaerie]

When I learned that nursery rhyme as a kid, having been taught the importance of keeping food cold, I used to assume the people who liked the nine-day-old pease porridge would be *sitting* on "the pot," nine days old

[@poltallach]

My Scottish Dad would sing peas porridge to us, but quite honestly, he never did make it for us. He was a wonderful cook though.

[@douglashughes2331]

Great video. Love the mix of history and food. Thanks

[@BethVonStaats-mc1pl]

Great video! Just as a point of historical correction -- the English arriving in 1620 that settled in Patuxet (renamed Plimoth) were Separatists, not Puritans. The Puritans came first in 1630.

[@bostonrailfan2427]

1630 was when the capital was moved from Salem to Boston after the disastrous year in Charlestown, half of Essex County was settled between 1623 and 1629 with other places popping up south and west before then as well including Boston

[@BethVonStaats-mc1pl]

@@bostonrailfan2427 Where there any Puritans on the Mayflower? No. That was my point. That said I would love to learn a bit more of the history you are referencing as I am most happily corrected!

[@bostonrailfan2427]

@@BethVonStaats-mc1pl i was backing up what you said, i live in Chelsea which just celebrated our 400th anniversary of settlement and knew the story if Boston becoming the capital over Charlestown by heart from hearing it direct from historians and reading it online the settlement dates for municipality in Massachusetts is online, both the existing and disincorporated. i looked at the ones i knew for a fact were pre-1630 especially as i had ancestors in Ipswich and Salem then

[@BethVonStaats-mc1pl]

@@bostonrailfan2427 so interesting!!!! Thank you so much for the info... life long learner here!

[@itsawonderfullife4802]

Great episode. Multi-dimensional, wholesome entertainment: food and history is really a great match

[@hgrabows]

This recipe makes me want to try Boston Baked Beans again. I always hated the sweet flavors from the brown sugar/molasses. This omits that. Sounds perfect to me.

[@stone2k]

I always thought it was the addition of molasses that made the dish "Boston Baked Beans", especially since there was a great molasses flood in 1919 here.

[@garygood6804]

Nah, what you do is add some of that dirty water.

[@stone2k]

@@garygood6804 Ha!

[@stephaniel4679]

That vat of molasses was used primarily for munitions.

[@iac4357]

Townsends- The Best of KZbin !

[@geralynlovell5616]

A Maine bread called Anadama bread I am thinking must be a grandchild of Boston Puritan bread with corn, molasses and rye! It's amazing with Bean hole beans! 😁

[@bostonrailfan2427]

no, it’s the child…Maine was part of Massachusetts until 1820 so its traditions like that are directly linked

[@LuoJun2]

Great comments on how to prepare beans. I’ve done it in a pressure cooker, the “quick prep” method on the back of the package, and soaking overnight. Soaking overnight is definitely superior. The taste and texture of beans soaked overnight are miles above any other prep method. Likewise with the cooking methods: the longer it takes, the better it tastes. This is true for Boston Baked Beans, Navy Bean Soup, Split Pea Soup, 15-Bean Soup, etc. Bottom line, when you are going to make beans, make the time and take the time.

[@kinjiru731]

Great video idea, guys. Well done.

[@annettefournier9655]

My dad was from Boston. We had baked beans and boston brown bread ( which is a raisin Molasses bread) on Friday's for a meatless meal. It was delicious. If we didn't have brown bread we had corn bread .

[@user-ie1ij9nr7e]

This is a quality video! Well done!

[@kimfleury]

I had no idea baked beans were baked the entire cooking time. I learned to boil the beans first, then bake them in a casserole dish with molasses and bacon. I'll have to try it this way some time. Right now Aunt Sylvia is the Baked Beans Queen in the family, so I'll have to wait until she can't cook any more to take them to family events, but may that day not come too soon.

[@karincervantes8998]

Very late, always am. But just loved this video, how you broke it into history with a cooking video in between!! Thanks everyone! Do that again please.

[@SamClemens-id3cl]

The rye & injun bread would later become Boston Brown Bread, or just Brown Bread. I have a church cookbook from 1909 on the west coast with no less that 10 differnt recipes for brown bread (compared to like 2 for regular dinner rolls). They use varying combinations of rye, corn, and/or wheat flour. On other channels, people frequently fondly remember eating baked beans, hotdogs, and brown bread typically if they grew up on the east coast.

[@wardkerckhof]

I really like this video format!

[@floydblandston108]

Part of what makes Boston/New England unique is the near complete lack of German influence of the kind that 'created' the midwest. Anything east of Utica NY feels sort of 'New England-y', but the Midwest begins in Syracuse. By the time you're in Rochester, it feels like Illinois.

[@joanwood9480]

I grew up in syracuse and we ate Boston style baked beans regularly. So I'll have to disagree with you on the Midwest bit. Although my grandmother's family all hailed from the Midwest (mostly Illinois) my father didn't. He would have definitely been considered a New Englander

[@austinbell4685]

Also explains why Pennsylvania feels so Midwestern outside of Philly and the Lehigh Valley, despite the very non-Midwestern geography...Pennsylvanian white population was already about 1/3 German in 1800.

[@hetrodoxlysonov-wh9oo]

@@austinbell4685 The 1790 census for the Appalachians states just 8 German families they came more towards the middle of the 19th century but even today there's only 1 of what you'd consider to be a typical German surname in the top 20 for Pennsylvanian, it can appear to be more because the English settlers thought themselves to be American and don't add another country to their origin i.e. Irish American, Afro American.

[@dicksargent3582]

Sorry but if your a Yankee like me you know that NY isn't in anyway part of New England,that all stops at the western boarders ofVT. MA. and CT. Seems Ethan Allen had something to do with that.

[@floydblandston108]

@@dicksargent3582 - If you'd ever been around and up north of Utica and not noticed all the towns and villages laid out and settled in 'Yankee' style all the way to the St. Lawrence, you could read the place names and guess at it. For more evidence. look into the naming of "Penn-Yan", NY! I guess that if you'd grown up and been educated in Vermont like me, you'd know that. The Connecticut born and raised Allen was no different from his neighbors except that, being of lesser means, had to squat on cheaper lands (with questionable title) than move west into the Mohawk river country with his fellows.

[@guyfaux3978]

"Hasty Pudding" -- "Polenta made sweet, not savory"

[@kirbyw.3451]

Very much enjoyed this!

[@evanadamsmanga]

Awesome video as always, thank you!

[@dbmail545]

Cornbread and beans is what I grew up on. We were grateful that there was enough to keep us full

[@michaelmanning5379]

Eight(?) years ago you folks did a baked beans recipe for a bee hive oven. I still bake my beans to that recipe. I can attest that 8+ hours is too long for beans. More than once I have woken up to a lovely aroma of baked beans in a cast iron Dutch oven that I put in before going to bed . . . only to find all the water cooked off. Six hours seems to be the Goldilocks time for folks using an electric oven that is not slowly cooling.