Pork and beans is a dish largely thought of as a part of American cuisine. The recipe varies considerably, but generally consists of navy beans stewed with pork or rendered pork fat. Of the major brands, only Bush's baked beans has actual meat rather than fat or stock, in the form of a small slab of bacon in the can. It is jokingly rumored that even a Rabbi wouldn't be sinning if he ate most "pork and beans" products. 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-1800s. The 1832 cookbook The American Frugal Housewife lists only three ingredients for this dish: a quart of beans, a pound of pork, and pepper. [1] The earliest canned pork and beans were sold by Van Camp's, who were the first to include tomatoes in their recipe, to the US Army during the American Civil War. According to the 1975 Better Homes and Garden Heritage Cookbook, canned pork and beans was the first convenience food.
Popular culture
- One of professional wrestler Dusty Rhodes most famous monologues went; "I have wined and dined with Kings and Queens, but I also slept in alleys and dined on Pork and Beans"
- According to Ren and Stimpy the pork is actually the "Queen Bean" and the rest of the beans are the worker beans there to serve her.
See also
References
- ^ The American Frugal Housewife pg 51 - Project Gutenberg free ebook
