Pork and beans
Pork and beans is a culinary dish that uses pork and beans as its main ingredients. Numerous variations exist from Fabada Asturiana[1] to Olla podrida to American canned pork and beans.[2]
[edit] American canned pork and beans
The recipe for typical American canned pork and beans varies considerably, but generally consists of navy beans stewed with pork or rendered pork fat. At present, pork and beans is usually also stewed with tomatoes, but this is a 19th century development. Pork and beans is a dish that is routinely purchased canned and reheated on a stove or in a microwave oven.
Although the time and place of the dish's invention is unclear, it was well established in the American diet by the mid-19th century. The 1832 cookbook The American Frugal Housewife lists only three ingredients for this dish: a quart of beans, a pound of salt pork, and pepper.[3] According to the 1975 Better Homes and Garden Heritage Cookbook, canned pork and beans was the first convenience food. According to Conagra Foods, Gilbert Van Camp, in partnership with his wife Hester, sold salt pork and beans with stewed tomatoes to the US Army during the American Civil War.[4]
Commercially canned pork and beans were introduced in the United States during the 1880s, but did not become popular until H. J. Heinz produced their version in 1895. Indianapolis grocer Frank Van Camp discovered his customers still enjoyed his parents' old family recipe for salt pork and beans in tomato sauce, and opened a canning company. Van Camp's Pork and Beans became widely popular, and is sold to this day.
Pork and beans is a stereotypical cowboy food dish as mentioned in the song "The Old Chisholm Trail": "Oh, it's bacon and beans most every day/I'd as soon be a-eatin' prairie hay."
It is, "an American canned classic, [and] is recognized by American consumers generally as an article of commerce that contains very little pork."[5] This is due to the high fat content of the salt pork traditionally used for the last 180 years in American pork and beans, which often renders into solution when sufficiently heated.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Food and wine Asturian Pork and Beans Recipe
- ^ Caterersearch article Full of beans
- ^ The American Frugal Housewife pg 51 - Project Gutenberg free ebook
- ^ Conagra Foods
- ^ New York Times article That's What and Beans? Pork Defends Its Image published April 1, 1998
