Historical Food Fortnightly Challenge #11 - Picnic Foods

11.  Picnic Foods (May 20 - June 2)  Some foods are just meant to be eaten in the outdoors!  Concoct a dish that is documented for al fresco dining, or foods that might particularly lend themselves to eating at a picnic.  Bonus points for putting it to the test!

Memorial Day, originally called Decoration Day, is a day of remembrance for those who have died in service of the United States of America.  Honoring our fallen through this national day is observed on the last Monday of May.  With a three-day weekend, many families travel and spend time together.  In most of the United States the weather has turned to spring and families are together outdoors.  With this togetherness there is a special time for enjoying a special outdoor meal.

Our family observed Memorial Day and included the Historical Food Fortnightly Challenge in our menu for the day.  We are still using recipes from our 100-year-old book Twenty Lessons in Domestic Science by Marian Cole Fisher copyright 1916. 

The recipe we chose in Lesson Number Twelve - Legumes - Vegetables Containing Nitrogen and Starch, Baked Beans with Tomatoes.

 

Simple 1916 ingredients:

And while the navy beans can be quickly cooked to ready them for the recipe, letting them soak overnight in the soda-infused water is our way of holding to the original recipe.

By morning the beans have doubled in size and, after draining, are ready for the rest of the ingredients.

Bacon ends cut into bite-size pieces and added to the beans, covered with water, brought to a boil, and simmered.

As the recipe advises, the beans are ready "when you can blow upon two or three beans and see the skin curl away or crack".  It works!

The recipe says that if I am the happy possessor of a fireless cooker..............whatever is a fireless cooker?  A little research and I find that this was a cooking method popular in the early 1900s.  Meant to save labor and fuel it is very much like the crock pots of today.  Here is some fun information about this great item:

http://www.hearthcook.com/aaFirelesscooker.html

Sears, Roebuck Catalog

With my faithful crock pot at the ready, I add the remaining ingredients.

The recipe calls for pimiento and I was going to use a mild pepper, but as I was leafing through the cookbook I found an interesting bit of information about pimientoes.

I have pimientos in the refrigerator!

So while deciding which to use - the sliced pimientos or my mild pepper - I like the pop of color and use a little of both.

The crock pot is covered and 5 hours later I have a wonderful aroma filling the kitchen and we are ready to put our outdoor feast together.

A classic picnic meal of corn-on-the-cob smothered in butter, bratwurst cooked on the grill and served on toasted soft rolls, and our slow-cooked baked beans with tomatoes.

Enough photos!  Let's eat!

How did our Baked Beans with Tomatoes taste?  Fantastic!  The bean flavor is so clean and sweet without the heavy sauce that is usually served with baked beans.  This recipe is definitely a keeper!

Thank you to all our fallen heroes who sacrificed everything to insure our freedoms!

With heartfelt thanks,

Jeanette