Baked Beans

choi

John Willoughby, Who Needs an Oven? Just Bury the Beans. New York Times, Nov 28, 2012.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/2 ... ury-your-beans.html

Quote:

"Insofar as a pit in the ground can be said to be an 'invention,' various East Coast Native American tribes are credited with it.

"Here’s how it works: Dig a hole big enough for the pot you’re planning to cook in, then build a fire of hardwood logs in it, dropping a dozen or so rocks into the fire once it’s well started. When the wood has burned down to embers, very carefully take out the rocks using barbecue gloves, put your pot of (presoaked and parboiled) beans into the embers, drop the rocks around and on top of the pot, cover everything with dirt and walk away. Come back in eight hours or so, and your beans should be ready.

"Chances are, though, most of us are not going to go out and dig a bean hole, even if we do have a backyard. So it’s fortunate that bean-hole beans can also be made perfectly well in the electric bean hole, a k a the oven. They won’t have bean-hole bona fides and they’ll lack that little trace of smoke, but they will still be very delicious.

My comment:
(a) We in Boston eat a lot of baked beans, of which I am always curious. Other people may not be as interested, though.
(b) There is no need to read the rest of the NYT report, which have some photos, though (but if you are familiar with the process, see quotation above, you need no photos).
(c) baked beans
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baked_beans
(sction 1 History: While many recipes today are stewed, traditionally beans were slow baked in a ceramic or cast-iron beanpot. A tradition in Maine, USA, of "bean hole" cooking, may have originated with the native Penobscot people and was later practiced in logging camps)
(d) Phaseolus vulgaris
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phaseolus_vulgaris
("Phaseolus vulgaris, the common bean, is a herbaceous annual plant domesticated in the ancient Andes, and now grown worldwide for its edible bean, popular both dry and as a green bean"/The other major type of bean is the broad bean (Vicia faba) 蠶豆; section 3 Varieties)

* Phaseolus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phaseolus
(section 1 Etymology: The generic name Phaseolus was introduced by Linnaeus in 1753, borrowed from the Latin phaseolus a combination of phasēlus and the diminutive suffix -olus, [the former] in turn borrowed from Greek [for] 'cowpea')
(e) In case you do read it, the last paragraph and a photo caption mention
andouille
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andouille