The Baked Bean Supper Cookbook Commemorating 10 Years of Community Suppers Baked Bean Supper Cookbook Editorial Team Mount Desert Island Historical Society Program Committee Kathy MacLeod, Committee Chair William Horner, M.D., Board President Pauline Angione Peter Collier Elise Frank Nicole Ouellette Leah Lucey, Director of Operations Raney Bench, Executive Director Special thanks to the community members who contributed their recipes and donated their dishes over the past 10 years. ©2021 by Mount Desert Island Historical Society. All rights reserved. Please address all inquiries to: Mount Desert Island Historical Society PO Box 653 Mount Desert, ME 04660 [email protected] www.mdihistory.org 2 IN MEMORIAM RAYMOND STROUT <> An Extraordinary Man On Friday, November 6, 2020 our island communities lost a giant of our collective history. Raymond Strout, Class of 1959, Bar Harbor High School died quietly in his home on Russell Farm Road in the Emery District of rural Bar Harbor, whence he had come. He had a passion for island history. It was, simply put, his life’s work. He was an oracle of sorts and was the go-to man for anything to do with Bar Harbor history, in particular. He had a mysterious collection that was sequestered away in an unpretentious building down behind the old Ahlblad’s Paint Shop. He presided over this mostly hidden trove from an old tilt -back wooden office chair, from which he would answer softly and knowingly your question and inevitably offer you a “teaser” about a rare document or photograph he had come by. “Oh, would you like to see the guest register from the 1856 season of the Agamont House?” Raymond was extremely generous to people of all stripes, from organizers of the latest Bar Harbor High School Reunion to the serious researcher. He gave of his time and expertise to the Board of the Mount Desert Island Historical Society. He regularly attended our Baked Bean Suppers. Indeed, he was more than a resource—he was an institution. More than that, perhaps, he was precious—as precious as history and memory and islands and place. Although Raymond is gone, his legacy of institutional memory will live on in his sons, Peter and Michael. We are lucky to have them and they are lucky to have had Raymond. We wish them Godspeed. 3 Introduction New Englanders, especially the more northerly sort, adjust to the weather and, historically at least, relied on prediction standards like the Old Farmer’s Almanac to gauge their winter activities. Here on Mount Desert Island and in other collections of small communities, winter travel and temperatures could make life difficult, and opportunities for social gathering were challenging. But, gather they did, in Grange Halls, town halls, church basements, or any other warm public place where people could drive away the cold and dark by reacquainting with their neighbors, catching up on the news, dancing at a wayback ball, telling stories, and having a community meal together. And, of course, the mother of all gatherings here in Northern New England was the Baked Bean Supper. The Mount Desert Island Historical Society’s 10th annual supper will be held, despite Covid-19 contingencies, on January 28th at 6 PM. The past year has presented challenges like no other and the Society has adroitly shifted much of its programming and public engagement to innovative digital technology, with gratifying results. Our Program Committee, led by Kathy MacLeod and staffed by Leah Lucey and Raney Bench, hatched the idea of producing an online collection of traditional recipes for beans, brown bread, mustard pickles, pies, and cookies to which many of you have contributed. We thank you! And we hope you will download and use this cookbook during winters to come. But wait! There’s more. The official Baked Bean Supper will take place via Zoom at 6 PM on Thursday, January 28th. The miraculous internet will compress space and time into a single event that will allow us to see and hear one another in the comfort of our homes, as the smell of whatever you have prepared from the cookbook stirs olfactory memories of more normal times. Our Master of Ceremonies will be Dennis Damon who, with author and storyteller Earl Brechlin, will spin a few yarns and provide a semblance of organization as you talk with each other. Author Sharon Joyce will provide historical context for culinary practices here in Maine and on MDI. Lastly, your president will briefly comment on the science of bean consumption. Hold fast gentle people. Our present condition is not without precedent. It was Alfred Lord Byron who said, “Ring out old shapes of foul disease: Ring out the narrowing lust for gold; Ring out the thousand wars of old; Ring in the thousand years of peace.” As we venture into a new year, let us remember that it is community that binds us. It is place that sustains us. It is in sharing our stories—our histories—that gives us confidence in a better future. Bill Horner President, Mount Desert Island Historical Society 4 Table of Contents In Memoriam | p. 3 SIDES Introduction | p. 4 Mustard Pickles | p. 30 Shirley’s Sour Pickles | p. 31 BEANS Boston Brown Bread | p. 32 New England Baked Kidney Beans | p. 7 Grammy Harrison’s Brown Bread | p. 33 Downeast Cassoulet with Venison and Pork | p. 8 Smoked Maple Baked Beans with Bourbon | p. 9 Parker House Rolls | p. 34 Traditional Baked Beans | p. 10 PIES Baked Jacob Cattle Beans | p. 11 Somesville Summer Fresh Strawberry Pie | p. 36 Vegetarian Baked Beans | p. 12 Mincemeat Pie | p. 37 Haydn S. Pearson’s Sunny Acre Baked Beans | p. 13 Pumpkin Sponge Pie | p. 37 Nana's Baked Beans | p. 14 Ore’s Awesome Beans| p. 15 Triple Cherry Pie | p. 38 Baked Beans From Away| p. 16 Apple Crisp | p. 39 Beard’s Bourbon Bacon Baked Beans in a Crockpot Mom’s Strawberry Rhubarb Pie | p. 40 for a Crowd | p. 17 Chocolate Cream Pie | p. 40 Cal’s Beans| p. 18 Fishouse Apple Pie | p. 41 Recipe from Heaven: Salisbury Yellow Eye Baked Beans | p. 29 Blueberry Cream Cheese Pie | p. 42 Chris’s Whiskeyed Pumpkin Pie | p. 43 BEANS FROM AWAY Strawberry Rhubarb Pie with Butter Pie Crust| p. 44 Chilly Tonight Chili | p. 21 Sweet Potato Pie | p. 46 Vijffshaft (Five in One) Dutch Baked Beans | p. 22 Cranberry-Apple Pie | p. 46 Cuban Black Beans over Rice | p. 23 My Grandmother’s Pie Recipe | p. 47 New Orleans Creole Red Beans and Rice | p. 24 Paper Bag Apple Pie | p. 48 Cajun Red Beans and Rice | p. 25 Strawberry Rhubarb Pie | p. 49 White Chicken Chili | p. 26 Jerk Bacon and Baked Beans| p. 27 COOKIES Mrs. Weeds’ Ginger Cookies | p. 50 Miss Sawyer's Molasses Cookies | p. 51 5 BEANS 6 New England Baked Kidney Beans Submitted by: Shari and Derry Roopenian, Salisbury Cove Recipe source: Derry’s Gloucester family This was Derry’s Swedish Great Grandma Olson’s recipe and her bean pot. The bean pot is now on the sixth generation (that we know.) Ingredients: 1 lb dry red kidney beans ½ cup molasses 1 ½ - 2 tsp dry mustard ½ -1 tsp salt (depending on the salt pork, you can adjust later) pepper chopped onion (maybe an average size) ½ lb piece of salt pork Instructions: Soak dry beans overnight. The next morning bring to a boil with just enough water to cover the beans. Mix all ingredients except the salt pork, including parboiling water. Pour into bean pot. Slice several cuts about ½ inch deep into the meaty side of the salt pork and bury with the rind up and exposed. Bake at 225 for about 6 hours until tender. Additional notes: Add salt to taste when it has cooked for a while. Don’t cover the pot. Add more water as needed but don’t flood with too much or flavor will suffer. The Bean Pot 7 Downeast Cassoulet with Venison and Pork Submitted by: Bill Horner, Bar Harbor Recipe source: Modified by Asa Hodkins from Julia Child Asa was my grandfather and schooled me in the art of baking Saturday Night Beans—always Jacob’s Cattle. He usually had a “chunk” of cooked meat in the refrigerator, could be beef or venison, to eat with the beans. This cassoulet combines the two and preserves many wonderful memories. Serves 8 Ingredients: ⅓ pound slab bacon, cut in ¼-inch pieces 2 medium yellow onions, peeled and diced 3 carrots, peeled and diced 3 leeks, diced 2 cloves garlic, minced kosher salt pepper 1 tablespoon tomato paste 4 cups parboiled Jacob’s Cattle beans, rinsed ¼ teaspoon nutmeg 2 cloves 1 bay leaf 2 sprigs thyme 6 cups beef stock 2 good-sized chunks of venison 4 fresh pork sausages 1½ cups homemade bread crumbs (day-old bread pulsed in a food processor until fine) 6 sprigs parsley, roughly chopped Over medium heat, cook bacon in a large cast-iron or earthenware pot until fat renders and bacon starts to brown. Add onions, carrots, leeks, garlic, and a pinch of salt and pepper. Cover and cook over medium-low heat until onions are translucent, 10–15 minutes. Add tomato paste and stir for two minutes. Add beans, nutmeg, cloves, bay leaf, thyme, and enough stock to cover. Simmer for 1½ hours, adding more stock if beans start to dry. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large sauté pan, heat venison over medium heat with half stick of butter. Remove venison and add sausages, turning to brown all sides, about 10 minutes. Reserve 2 tablespoons butter and sausage renderings.