Amuse Bouche

Chanterelle

I drove up to Maine this week to hang up with my mom for a few days.  I had the week off and she is staying up there for a month. Our menfolk had to work.  I'm not sure if you have heard but it has been raining.  A lot.  That is not an understatement.

However I would like to show you the rewards of all this rain.

I picked these in about 15 minutes around our house and if the road verges weren't like small rivers when I left this morning I'd have at least a half a pound more and some lobster mushrooms. 

Since our little holiday was a washout Mom took me on the local gourmet tour of Maine.  I'll show you a few of my finds later.

Meanwhile, what should I do with those lovely chanterelle mushrooms?

A Big Fat Goose Egg

You have heard me mention Wicken Fen before.  I adore their eggs.  I stopped by Formaggio last week on my between Cambridge and create a cook and miraculously there was a parking space.  After doing a happy dance in my truck as I parked, I whizzed in for a quick dash and grab.  I had hoped to pick up some more duck eggs, which we have had and adored before, but this time all they had were quail and goose.  Really, really BIG goose eggs.

Look how big!

That egg on the left is a JUMBO egg from The Country Hen, that is as big as chicken eggs get.  That goose egg dwarfs it.  husband took one look at the egg and asked if I was trying to kill him with cholesterol.  I assured him this was a one off and I just wanted to try the egg to see how it tastes.
On Sunday I made him an egg, along with that Jumbo egg you see above.  The goose was for husband, the jumbo was for the pooper.  She gets 1 egg a week for her coat.

Just look at the two in the pan.

So, you ask, how did it taste.  Well, perhaps this method of cooking is not the best way to cook a goose egg.  The whites are rather, ummm, rubbery.  Very bouncy and rather thick.  In fact, you can literally remove the entire yolk from the cooked egg without it appearing to affect the white at all.  Having said that about the whites, the yolks taste fantastic!

I know that The Country Hen likely adds some sort of fish meal to the hens in order to get the high omega 3 ratings in the eggs.  This means the eggs don't exactly TASTE like fish, but they do have a slight undercurrent of fish to them.  Don't get me wrong, these are our go to, non-battery, free roaming, store bought eggs of choice, but they are a wee bit fishie.

The goose yolk, on the other hand, tasted amazingly good, much like the eggs we get from 'the egg lady' in Maine.  Her chickens roam about and peck and scratch and eat what they like and her eggs taste fabulous.  Would I repeat the goose egg?  not likely, but you can bet I will be back for the duck eggs, and maybe try the quail while I am at it.

Smoked Trout and Duxbury Oyster Chowder

I confess here that I never used to enjoy a variety of fish.  I was strictly a swordfish, tuna and cod kind of girl, but over the last couple of years I have made a concerted effort to branch out.  Trout was one of the fish I never thought I would like, but recently I have come to love it. 

One of the things that I have always loved was smoked foods. ANYTHING smoked = good. I cannot tolerate salmon cooked, but smoked salmon is heaven.  Smoked salt, smoked paprika, I love my single malt scotch all peaty and smoked and Islay bound. Laphroaig, Lagavulin, Caol Ila, Ardbeg all heaven, like drinking the essence of a fire.

During the summer I started picking up packages of Duck Trap smoked fish for cocktail hour because my stepdad is a big fan.  He loves the smoked mackerel, which I like as well, but my favourite is the smoked trout.  I had picked up a package in Trader Joe's a week ago and an idea for a chowder had been simmering in the back of my mind.

Yesterday out on my travels after cutting off 12 inches of my hair off and buying new clothes...what else do you do after a major haircut(?), I swung by the Whole Foods on the Winchester line and picked up some Duxbury Oysters and a few other ingredients and headed home.  Oh and in case your interested...they had cardoons!  I never, ever see cardoons.  I'm going to read up first and then go back and get some of them to try.  Anyway, back to the chowder.  While I was driving home I realised that the one tool I do not posses is an oyster knife. 

I was doing a mental inventory of husbands tools and trying to figure out how the heck I was going to open those oysters without stabbing my palm and bleeding all over them. When I spied a small knife, rather like a cheese knife in one of my drawers, you can see it in the top right of the photo above, so I wrapped each oyster in a dish towel folded thick and began to wedge away at the hinge.  It took a few tries on some of the beasts, but as you can see in the bowl I have a nice supply of oysters and the glorious liquor with them. 

When I went to start my chowder base I also remembered that I had a great fat medium in the meat drawer.  Instead of the typical salt pork or blanched bacon that most chowder bases use, I was going to use guanciale.  I picked mine up at Russo's a few weeks ago, but Bill over at John Dewar in Newton has told me that he will start carrying it again soon. Guanciale, for the uninitiated is cured pig cheek.  Like salt pork, it can be too salty to cook without removing some of the surface salt, so I did blanch it for a few seconds in boiling water. The flavour is much more intense and tasty compared to salt pork and it is the true product to use if you are making an authentic carbonara.  Don't worry, if you make this chowder you can use bacon, pancetta or salt pork, whatever you like or can find, I just happened to have some guanciale around.

I hit the fridge, grabbed some more ingredients and the chowder was off.  I was really pleased with the result, base not too thick, plenty of smokiness from the trout, a hint of the Mediterranean with saffron and briny sea from the oysters all in about 30 minutes.  Go on try it, let me know what you think.

Smoked Trout and Duxbury Oyster Chowder

6 Duxbury Oysters, cleaned, shucked (keep the liquid - the liquor)

1 8 oz package of Smoked Trout, I prefer Duck Trap, skin removed and pieces broken up by hand into various sized chunks

1 ounce guanciale, chopped into small cubes and blanched in boiling water for 30 seconds, drain

1 leek, rinsed well, sliced into thin half moons

1 bunch of scallions, white and green kept separate (they go in at different times)

2 TBS flour

2 TBS chopped chives

4 cups fish fumet (if you can't find bones to make your own fish stock, substitute clam juice from the grocery store or seek out a good fishmonger, mine sells house made fish fumet(stock) frozen)

4 ounces heavy cream, I prefer HighLawn Farm as theirs is NOT Ultra Pasteurized which really ruins cream for cooking, plus it tastes amazing

1 pinch of saffron threads crushed in the palm of your hand or in a mortar and pestle

kosher salt and pepper to taste

In a large saucepan, over medium heat, sauté the guanciale until it begins to render some of the fat and the pieces begin to crisp up. When the pieces are uniformly browned, add the leek and stir.  Toss in 2 TBS water and cook, stirring occasionally, until the leeks have softened.  Add the white scallion pieces and stir again. Cook for 2 minutes and add the chopped chive and green scallion tops and stir again.  Sprinkle over the flour and stir everything well, cooking for 1 minute.  Now pour in your fish fumet, clam juice or fish stock and cream and stir, turn up the heat to medium-high and bring to a high simmer or even a low boil (180 - 212) stirring occasionally.  The base should begin to thicken slightly.  Turn the heat down to low and add the saffron threads and the smoked trout, put on a lid and cook over very low heat for 10 minutes to allow the fish to warm and the taste to permeate the chowder base.  Taste your chowder, add salt and pepper to season it and if the fish still hasn't permeated everything, put the lid back on and cook for 5 more minutes.  Just before serving, taste a final time and adjust seasonings and add the oysters.  These will cook in about a minute, so don't leave it long on the stove after they go in.

Serve with a nice crusty bread and a bottle of Conclass Rueda - 2006.  So good.

Thanksgiving: Sausage and Dried Sour Plum Stuffing

Happy Thanksgiving!  I trust that you are all deep in the throes of cooking or talking or fighting with siblings or ensconced in a football toss in the front lawn or any number of family and holiday related events.
It's just husband and I here today.  Later we'll take the pooper to the local dog park for a stroll around and then we'll have dinner much later this afternoon.  I hope that you all have a happy and safe Thanksgiving and report, in detail of course, on the things you made.

Breakfast
Well, the duck eggs were delicious!  The yolks were enormous and deep yellow with very little white. We both agreed we would happily buy them again, the nest inside the box was of fresh hay and the smell was so amazing.
I cooked one beside an extra large egg from The Country Hen (our usual egg source) for size comparison.

Before I tell you about the stuffing I want to talk about those two amazing ingredients you see at the top of the page.
The first thing I fell in love with recently was the 8 Brix.  I picked it up on a whim at Russo's when I was planning on making a roast vegetable salad.  I thought I would use it as a base for my vinaigrette.  When I got home and opened the bottle I put some on a teaspoon to taste it and OH MY GOODNESS that stuff made my taste buds  jump with joy.
It tastes like jammy essence of raisin with a slight tang of vinegar.  If you have ever tasted those raisins that you can buy sometimes that are still on the vine the taste is just BIGGER than any other raisin you have ever tasted.  8 Brix is like that in a bottle.  It hails from Canada and the label itself says moût de raisins or grape must.  I will NOT tell you how much the bottle cost or the fact that the bottle was double stickered and the sticker under the price I paid was half of what I ended up paying.  But you Internet savvy folks can find it somewhere else cheaper I am sure.  Trust me here, I can think of dozens of uses for this nectar.  Buy Some.

The other item I found at Formaggio when I was waiting for my cheeses at the wall o' cheese.  It's a lovely verjuice from Barossa Valley in Australia.  Verjuice(Verjus) is the juice of unfermented grapes or sour grapes.  This one has a nice soft acidity and it works perfectly in sauces or dressings.  There are even a few podcasts on the site from Maggie talking about verjuice that are worth a watch.

Sausage Stuffing with dried sour plums and verjus

Stuffing base is made with some sausage that came in my Stillman's Meat CSA.  What?  I hadn't mentioned the meat CSA?  Ah...all of that later my dears, today we talk about Thanksgiving.

Big Ox Farm: From Seed to Plate

Yesterday I ventured out West on rte 2A a bit to Concord to meet Peter Merrill, farmer and jack of all trades, at his new place Big Ox Farm.

Peter, along with his wife Meg are former graduates of The Cambridge School of Culinary Arts. Peter went on to work in the kitchens at Sel de La Terre for a few years before he decided that he would like to actually be outdoors occasionally and work during the day instead of at night - ah the life of a baker.  He chose a local farm school program to attend and after finishing the course he looked around to see how he could start out with very little capitol, but a lot of love for what he does.

The 30 acre farm resides on protected lands that are part of the Minuteman National Parks and as such he must follow some very strict rules about how the land is used.  Since they consider the soil from 18" down to be the 'architectural shelf' and everything must remain as it was in 1775, they can't dig in fence posts or lay irrigation lines.  He has to really think outside the traditional farming methods in order to house, feed and raise his heritage breed cattle, pigs and poultry on 27 acres and raise produce on the other 3 acres.

We met him at the first fenced in area you see above.  Those lovely sheep (SHEEP!!) are part of a UMASS Amherst research project that is being tested to see if using sheep to graze off and kill invasive species of plants such us purple loosestrife,  bittersweet and other plants is a viable option.  The sheep are corralled behind solar powered electric fencing that is moved to a new spot every few weeks.  Once they clear an area, and boy do they clear an area, the fences are easily relocated and then they wait to see if the plants die off completely or return to the area.

The sheep are a Border Leicester and Dorset cross.  He said that sheep are generally easy to care for and you really only need to worry about worms and fly strike.  Peter shears, does their hooves and provides all required shots himself.  He said it takes about 3 hours to do the hooves of about 30 sheep. 

After we chatted at length about the sheep, we headed across the street to see his tractor and the produce field. 

Several of us had already read his website which goes on at length about all the troubles he has had with this tractor and we started grilling him on why he keeps it around.  The tractor is a 1953 Ford Jubilee, created by Ford to celebrate their 50th anniversary, why a car company built a tractor as a celebration none of us were sure. Peter told us that one thing that kills most farmers in their first year or two is borrowing too much money to pay for loads of specialized equipment.  The tractor, he said,  was free.  It had a tree growing up through the middle of it, but that didn't deter Peter.  He's good with his hands and knows a few things about engines so he rebuilt it top to bottom.  The lovely double sink he found over on the side of the field is resting on the disc harrow one of only two tools he uses to cultivate the 3 acre field, the other is a plow. Also sitting in the double sink is his ox yoke.  He said he was going to try and convince the ox to come over to the field, but he's rather ornery and tends to do things when and the way he chooses.

In this field he mostly grows baby lettuce, mustard greens, kale, green beans, radish and beets.  All of this produce is sold back to Sel De La Terre and T.W. Food in Cambridge as well as the lamb, pork and chicken after a meeting with his abattoir, Blood Farm in Groton.

Next we met my favourite residents, although not for long, they are set to be dispatched in a few weeks time, Matilda and Sadie.  They only have names because Peter thought he was going to keep them and use Matilda as breed stock, but she had three chances and none of them worked out.  He said it is easier to purchase 10 piglets at a time from Codman farms and then he can plan their arrival date and the number of piglets far easier than wondering when a pregnant sow would drop and how many would arrive.  These lovely and smart pigs are Tamworth.  Tamworth are a heritage breed of pig that was set for extinction when their numbers dropped to around 200 several years ago.  Since then, farmers have realised how valuable these pigs are because they have one interesting feature.  They don't sunburn.  This means Peter can leave these guys out in the fields to roam free eat bugs and worms and roots, rut around the produce fields after he has let things go to seed and they don't need shelter.  When we arrived these guys were both laying over on the other side of the field next to their water.  All Peter had to do was yell "hey piggies" and those two girls got up and ran over.  What were they after?  Ear scratches.

As we grilled Peter with questions about Matilda's weight, 600 pounds, and how much she would yield in meat, about 400 pounds as well as her age, about 8 months the lovely Matilda dropped down for a nap.

We left her snoozing and went to look at the chickens in Peter's cobbled together range coop. 

Most of the residents had been dispatched the day before, but he saved a few to show us how the range coop works and to talk to us about how he raises them.  The chickens are a Cornish and Leghorn cross.  Later he would like to raise heritage breeds as well as ducks and geese, but right now he is trying to not take on too much.  Remember this is a two man band running this operation and he works part time at B&R artisan bread, Sel de la Terre's baking outpost in Framingham as well!  The coop moves along a bit every day by lifting the side up and placing an old two wheeler underneath, Peter then hauls it over a bit to find some fresh grass and bugs and all the chickens made little noises of excitement when they were relocated.

I'm already plotting how many chicks I can ask Peter to raise for me. 

Everything here is raised eating from the local environment, he uses very little feed to supplement any of the livestocks diet.  Sadly I had to leave to meet a friend in Concord centre so I missed going over to the other fields to see the cattle and that ornery ox, but I'll be back.  Peter says come by anytime, this is public land and part of a public park system, I'm sure he'd be pretty happy to show you around.

Big Ox Farm
955 Lexington Road, Concord MA

Rest in peace

My favourite woman at the Tuesday Newton farmer's market passed away last month.  I hadn't been hitting this farmer's market lately due to my work schedule so i hadn't heard through the grapevine.
She was an AMAZING woman who always had a story to tell and gave you a good piece of her mind if the only mushrooms you though exotic were portabella.  I adored her and used to bring my mushrooms that I foraged up in Maine to her for identification if I wasn't sure.  I've even sold some of my Lobster mushroom catch to her or traded for blue foots or another of the wild specimens she would have.

Rest in peace Mushroom lady,but somehow if you had met her, I think you'd know that peace is probably going to be disturbed a bit wherever she is heading.

Summer in New England

Fried Clams: The Clam Box, Ipswich, MA

Soft Shells (crab and clam)

I was inspired this week by a food blog I saw (that I of course can't find again to link to it) that mentioned Whole Foods in Fresh Pond having Soft Shell Crabs. Having hatched this plan in my seedy little brain, I stopped by the store after giving my tutoring student his Italian Final at CSCA.

The soft shell crabs were already prepared (faces removed, apron removed, etc) so it would be easy to whip these up for dinner last night.  I knew I was going to turn them into some sort of Po Boy application and as I looked around for an oyster or two to add to the mix I noticed some gorgeous, tiny steamers. There was dinner sorted.   

Since I was already in the neighborhood I also went by the Iggy's  bread store in the bowels of an industrial park off Fresh Pond circle and picked up some Brioche rolls for husband and a few of the French Rolls for my Po Boy.  I was so good.  In the door, purchase intended items and OUT!  The temptation in the place is soooooooo bad.  I also noticed off in the corner they have a fridge dedicated for CSA pick ups from The Farm School.  I'm going to check with them and see if they have any openings left.  I missed the boat for both Land's Sake as well as the one in Waltham this year. Every year I say I am going to do it and every year it manages to pass me by.  I think the lure of strolling around a farmer's market to pick my stuff generally beats the take what is available and make it work option.

To make those lovely, crunchy soft shell crabs you see above I made a beer batter of 1/2 a bottle of whatever was up in the fridge mixed with 1/2 a cup of flour and 1/2 a cup of cornstarch with a bit of baking powder, salt, pepper and Frank's Red Hot mixed in.  It's an amazing batter that is based on a beer batter we used often in school from Chef Tony lawless who now runs the gorgeous Pilgrim's Inn in Deer Isle ME.  I salt and peppered the outside, dipped them in the batter and they hit the pan of oil for 2 minutes on each side.  Served on an Iggy's French roll with watercress, tomato, sliced red onion and a home made tartar sauce of dill and sweet relishes, pickle juice, capers, paprika and a few other things.

Crunchy with a squirt of ocean inside each bite.  Husband was squeamishly watching me eat them still disbelieving that I eat the whole thing shell and all.  He wouldn't even press the shell when I tried to show him how soft they were earlier before I cooked them.  He just squished his face up and said, "Ugh...I don't fancy that".

Ha! more crab for me pal. 

Sandwich crisps

Purchased today at The Brown Jug in Sandwich, MA on Route 6A and eaten in the car on our way towards a beach in Dennis.

Who knew that they made Lamb and Mint crisps????  Of course husband buys the cheese and onion whenever he can find it for a taste of home, but even he had never seen these.

My final critique is a general first impression of the salty crust of a roast lamb with a finish of mint sauce.  Rather odd, yet surprisingly not unpleasant.  The Brown Jug is a cute little shop with cheeses, wines, oils and vinegars, oddly shaped pastas and some neat specialty items like a simple syrup flavoured with lavender.  That would make an interesting martini or a Provencal Gin and Tonic I think.

A palate cleansing sip of car temperature Evian and I tasted husband's Roast chicken crisps.  I can't say I really tasted ROAST chicken, more like a light dusting of chicken boullion, again, not unpleasant, just rather odd.

A stop in the lovely used bookshop down the road, called Titcomb's, yielded some lovely additions to my Time Life foods of the World series, America: New England, America: The Northeast, A never seen copy of Latin America, Vienna's Empire, A Quintet of Cuisines, Scandinavia and Italy. 

I also picked up Notes from a Country Kitchen by Jocasta Innes to tell me how to brew, make cheeses, cure, pickle, etc.  Also, because I have been reading the fabulous United States of Arugula and I feel saturated in Mr. Beard's influences, I picked up his American Cookery to augment Gran's collection of Beard's tomes.

We are back from our little jaunt to the Cape, we decided to head out and enjoy it today before the onslaught of summer visitors.  Husband is having grilled swordfish and chips (natch!) and I am making Mahogany clams and chorizo.  Must have been all that salt air.

Speaking of, can anyone identify this evil stuff we saw all over the beach?

I have no idea what it is, but it all looks a bit nasty, yet not unlike a nice lobe of foie gras.

D-day morning:

Yesterday afternoon I made two pie crusts, one for the top and one for the bottom of a cherry pie which was husband's unorthodox request for a pie this Thanksgiving.  He's still learning, we'll forgive him.

The making of these pie crusts or pate brisee, flew in the face of everything I ever learned at my Grandmother's knee or, for that matter, in the baking kitchen at Culinary School.
I had a chef at Cambridge who felt that flaky was highly overrated.  He felt that no one ever broke into a shard crisp crust that could break your teeth and thought, gosh that's tough, but look at that flake!

I admit I have never seen a person eat a nice tender crust and complain that it wasn't flaky enough.
The theory behind this method is coating all of the flour with fat prevents too much water from absorbing into the flour and potentially developing gluten strands.  The water that is absorbed will be cooked off as steam and the fat will coat each flour particle creating a very tender crust.

The flour and salt are quickly pulsed in the food processor to mix and then all of the butter is added and the processor is pulsed until you have sand. A little ice water is drizzled in two additions and then the whole thing is plunked out on the counter and the heal of the hand smears some of the fat into streaks.  Form it into a round, wrap in plastic, allow it to rest overnight, if possible, in the fridge.  I think you will agree from this close up, both flaky and tender have been achieved.

That pie is now baked and cooling along with a jam roly poly husband insisted on making with the pastry scraps.  In his eyes wasting pastry crust is a sin.

Last evening I made my cranberry sauce.  1-12 ounce package of cranberries cooked with 1 cup fresh squeezed orange juice, 1/4 cup dried cherries, 1/2 cup golden raisins and 1 cup of sugar to which I added a splash of Grand Marnier and nutmeg as it cooled.  I make it more for the heavenly leftover turkey sandwich that will happen tomorrow than to accompany the main course today.

I've made a bed for the turkey breast to rest on in the oven.  2 onions are sliced into rings, 2 lemons sliced in circles, skin on.  These are layered on the rack and on top of the base are sprigs of fresh thyme and rosemary and a few sage leaves, two leeks are sliced lengthwise, cleaned and laid on top.

Into the bottom of the pan I poured the last of the apple cider, maybe 1 1/2 cups.  This juice along with the turkey juices, the lemon juice and roasted onions will all form the base of the gravy.  In a pan on the stove I have a few cups of homemade brown chicken stock I made a few months ago.

I removed the wishbone from the breast to facilitate easier carving and smeared a mixture of unsalted butter, chopped thyme, rosemary and sage with black pepper, under the skin.

The bird hit the 325F oven at 2:00 precisely.

Ready for the second oven is a gratin of sweet potato with sage and shallots in one pan.

In the second pan are Yukon gold, parsnips, cippoline onions, a few thyme sprigs and shallots with a load of this:

Still to come are the Brussels sprouts I blanched yesterday that will be pan sauteed with a boatload of garlic.  The fire is lit in the kitchen, the smells are beginning to waft from the oven and I'm here at the table live blogging my Thanksgiving to you. I hope that you and yours are enjoying good food and good company as well. 

Meet Tom

Meet Tom.

Tom currently resides at Owen's Poultry Farm in Needham, although I couldn't tell you for how long.

I planned my shopping attack last night.  Up at 6:00, dressed and showered by 7:30 and out the door.

First stop, Owen's.  They open at 8:00, I arrived at about 8:10 to no parking spots left and a queue of about 20 people inside the store.  Owen's has plenty of practice however at this little holiday of ours.  First you stop by a table, give them your name, if you ordered ahead, or tell them your wishes to see if they can make them come true. My request for an 8 pound breast was met with a little hemming and hawing, but eventually I was handed a little slip of paper that read, 8 T.B.
I took my place in the queue and glanced in all the freezer cases to see if there would be any other purchases.  They have store made, stuffing, gravy, pot pies, stuffed chicken and turkey breasts and plenty of other pre-prepared foods.  Not for me thank you.
I did grab a bottle of apple cider that proudly declared non-pasteurized on the label.  That will likely find it's way into some stuffing and maybe even the turkey brine.
At the front of the line I held up my slip, he glanced at the paper and yelled out back, "8 pound breast". I wondered how many young guys have worked there and sniggered at the annual turkey day rush.
Bring cash or checks when you do go visit Owen's as they don't take credit cards.  There is an ATM inside near the registers if your desperate.
I loaded my bird and some farm fresh eggs into my cooler bag and went down to visit the local denizens.

The turkeys get to hang out on this porch.

They are a very curious lot and all crowded around to make turkey noises at me while I snapped some photos.  I had hoped to have my copy of 'The Turkey - An American Story by Andrew F.Smith' fully read and analyzed so I could pepper you with some amazing turkey factoids, but things have been a bit crazy around here lately. 

Monday saw me on a 12 hour day at Cambridge assisting in a class in the morning and a pie emergency in the afternoon.  What?  You've never had a pie emergency?  I can tell you how to make 35 pounds of pate sucree in a pinch if you need it.

A few of the tidbits I have gleaned from the book thus far;

Turkeys can see 320 degrees without turning their heads.

Males( and some females) have a beard, this hairlike protrusion that sticks out of their chest.

The growth on their head is called a caruncle, the dangly bit that hangs over the beak is a snood, and the wobbly bit that hangs from the beak down to the neck is called a wattle.

After hanging out with the gobblers for a bit I walked down to the other pen to see who was about.
I bent down to look between the fence slats and this was the face that greeted me.

What size breast do think this is?

More on Turkey Day later.

Owen's Poultry Farm, 585 Central Ave, Needham MA, 02494

Mom's Baked Beans

Mom's Baked Beans

I grew up in the era of the slow cooker.
Everyone had one of these crocks kicking around in their kitchen cupboard and when I finally moved out and started making my way in the world in tiny little apartments all over Boston one of the first things my Mom bought me was a crock pot of my own.  I still have the one she gave me over 20 years ago. 
A few years ago husband was ordering a gift for me from some company and they gave us a crock pot as a freebie gift.  Not much has changed in the intervening years, in fact they still come with the cutesy floral pattern on the side.  What's the matter, in this day of Nate Berkus, Michael Graves and Isaac Mizrahi why hasn't anyone made the crock pot hip?

I don't use it all the time, but every fall and winter when there are gardens to put to bed, leaves to be raked and long snowy walks to take there is something very homey about starting something cooking when I first rise and having the smell permeate the house all day. 
My Mom cooks picnic shoulder in hers and makes boiled dinner or chicken stews loaded with sausage and chilies, but in my family we all use it to make baked beans. 

Sure, we have a bean pot, doesn't everyone in New England? But that bean pot only really gets used up in Maine.  Mostly that is because the power craps out about twice a day, usually in perfectly clear stormless weather. We have yet to solve that mystery.

Since my teaching brings me home rather late in the middle of the week, I wanted to make some things to stock up the freezer so that husband or I could easily pull something and heat it for dinner.
My husband, as you probably know by now, is a Brit. His bean of choice?  Heinz baked beans out of a tin.  Preferably the Heinz from the U.K., served for some inexplicable reason, on toast. 

I can't even get him to put a single one of my Mom's beans in his mouth. 

Not a single bean.

"I don't fancy that", is the answer I get,"I like my Heinz beans." He's very much like the kids I teach in his resistance to trying new foods.  I have good practice.

My Mom's beans of choice are Soldier beans.  They are grown locally in North Vassalboro Maine and you can read a bit about local Maine foods and food traditions in this study of foodways from the University of Maine. Soldier beans are commonly known as European soldier beans, they are white with a red eye on the side, hence the other name, red eye beans.  You can also use navy beans for your bean pot if you wish.  Choose good molasses for your recipe, don't use blackstrap which will be too strong and overpower your beans.  Speaking of molasses, since we are talking about a very native recipe, did you know about the Boston Molasses Disaster that occurred in 1919? If you have ever spilled your bottle of molasses you can just imagine what that cleanup must have been like.

This recipe is so simple to make, choose your ingredients well, a nice piece of salt pork with plenty of meat attached, I recommend Coleman's Dry mustard as the mustard of choice and I always tend to buy Crosby's molasses because I like the taste, my Mom is more of a Grandma's molasses fan.

Don't skimp on the dry mustard either.  I know that 2 Tablespoons may sound like a lot, but my Mom told me that her Grandmother used to say that the dry mustard took the snappers out.

Start this recipe the night before by soaking your beans, they will take 8 hours to cook on the day.  This is not a recipe to be rushed.

Enjoy the fall. Rake on.

2 pounds of pea beans, navy beans or soldier beans, Mom prefers soldier when she can find them.
1/4 - 1/2 pound of fairly lean salt pork, left whole as a chunk, but put slits in it.
2 TBS of Coleman's Dry Mustard
1 cup molasses
1/2 cup of light brown sugar
Mom doesn't add any salt because of the salt pork
1 medium, yellow onion, peeled, but left whole, and removed later

Pick over the beans and just make sure there are no rocks in them and then soak beans in water overnight in a large stockpot. Fill the pot with water and make sure that the water line is  4 - 5 inches above the beans.  They will absorb a lot of water overnight.

In the morning, put the pot straight on the stove and simmer them until a foam comes to the top of the water.  Scoop that foam out and discard it.

Simmer them until the outer skin begins to peel (maybe 10 - 15 minutes).
Pull a few out of the pot onto a spoon and blow on them to cool them quickly, when you see the skin peel back they are ready.

Put all the other other ingredients (except beans) in the crock pot and stir it up.  Once it is mixed, add the beans, and enough of the water from the bean cooking liquid to just cover the surface of the beans. You don't want too much liquid in there or the beans will be soupy, not thick.

Then put the crock pot on high for about 2 hours.

Switch it to low for 6 hours, adding a little of the reserved bean water now and then only if it looks like they need it.

Taste your beans and add more water sugar or dry mustard if desired.