This dish, New England’s favorite Saturday night supper, is apt to be eaten again with codfish balls for breakfast on Sunday morning, and I doubt if a church supper has even been held here that didn’t offer big pots of beans along with baked ham, chicken pie, and cole slaw.
1 quart pea beans
1/2 pound piece salt pork
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup molasses
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon soda
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
boiling water
Wash and pick over the beans and soak them overnight in cold water. In the morning drain them and cover with fresh water. Simmer until the skins break. Put the beans in a bean pot, score the pork and press on top of the beans where it will brown, filling the pot three-quarters full. Add the sugar, molasses, salt, soda, and mustard. Cover with boiling water. Cover the pot and bake without stirring for 8 hours in a slow oven, 250 degrees F. Keep beans almost covered with water. Remove the pot’s cover for the last half hour of baking.