Ahhhh, my birthday celebrations for the blog were fabulous!  It wasn’t quite how I planned it because of this.

I broke my wrist in a potato peeling incident.

I was planning to spend the blog’s birthday on my own making a batch of Bette’s beans and writing about it. In the end, Mr Rathbone made the beans and I watched – what a guy.  I was bossing him about like nobody’s business but he seemed to enjoy it and has already expressed an interest in cooking another batch sometime. Hurrah!

I was naturally pleased to have halved the cost-per-cook of my bean pot. I bought this in 2019 specifically to make Bette’s beans and it has been gathering dust ever since.

But now Mr R knows the score, maybe it will become an annual tradition.

I have a few pointers if you want to make a batch of these – and I do heartily recommend it.  The beans freeze really well, so you can eat some and save some!

Tips

• 1 quart of beans is a LOT of beans. We soaked this amount and even though my bean pot is huge, once we cooked them we decided to halve the recipe

the rest are in the freezer for next time.

• My butcher told me that in the UK no butchers carry fat salt pork these days, so after doing some research, I decided to use some belly pork with some pancetta for saltiness

• Bette’s recipe doesn’t mention this but after the beans came out of the oven

Mr R pulled put all the belly pork, separated the fat from the meat and stirred the meat back in.

• We had a lovely big portion with a jacket potato and champagne in the evening

and some with a frilly fried egg and some toast for breakfast next day.

I should have counted how many packets of beans I popped in the freezer – definitely 3 or 4 portions for two. So I would say Bette’s full recipe would furnish you with around 20 portions of beans. Get your chums over for a bean feast!

Bette would have her beans with Boston Brown Bread on Saturday nights.

Here’s a collage I did inspired by Bette’s recipe

I love them! Thanks Bette!

Bette Davis’ Boston Baked Beans

½ pound fat salt pork

2 teaspoons salt

½ cup molasses

1 teaspoon dry mustard

1 cup boiling water

1^st step: Wash beans and allow them to soak overnight in cold water to cover. 2^ndstep: In the morning, drain and cover with fresh water. Cook slowly – just below the boiling point – until skins will burst. (This is determined by taking a few beans on a spoon and blowing on them gently. When skins of these beans will break and curl back then the rest of the beans are sufficiently cooked.) 3^rd step: Fill bean pot with cooked beans. Some people also like to add a small onion, minced fine, at this point. Pour boiling water over the salt pork, scrape the rind until it is white, then score deeply at half-inch intervals. Press pork down into beans so that only the rind is exposed. Combine salt, molasses, and mustard. Add the boiling water. Pour this mixture over the beans and add enough water so that beans are just covered. Cover bean pot tightly and bake beans in slow oven (300 degrees F / 150 degrees C / gas mark 2) for eight hours. If necessary, add a little water (boiling) during the baking period so that the beans will not get too dry. Uncover pot during last hour to brown the pork. Serve in the pot in which they were cooked.

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