[Urbane Guerrilla]

A further note on baked beans, from the cookery booklet written somewhat erratically by one Olga V. Hanscomb, home ec advice columnist with the St. Paul Daily News, 1936: "[with the beans cleaned and soaked overnight] Beans may be cooked in a pressure cooker for 45 minutes at 20 pound pressure and then browned in oven for 30 minutes."

The Hanscomb recipe looks a lot like my grandfather's, in the general details:

2 cups dried Navy Beans
1/4 lb Salt Pork
1 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Mustard
1/4 cup Molasses
Hot Water, to cover, and a change of water to cook

How Olga did it: "Wash beans and soak over night in one quart of water. Drain off the water and cover with fresh water. Cook slowly about 1/2 hour. Drain. Place half the beans in a bean pot or deep casserole and add seasonings [the mustard and molasses -- U.G.]. Slash the pork but do not cut through the rind and place in pot rind up. Add the remainder of the beans and cover with hot water. Cover the dish and bake at 275 degrees for 8 hours, replenishing with water which evaporates. Beans may be cooked in a pressure cooker for 45 minutes at 20 pound pressure and then browned in oven for 30 minutes."

You may or may not want the salt, particularly if you parboil the beans with baking soda in the bean water, which is the big difference between Grampa's recipe and this one. I'm a bit surprised at the keeping of the salt pork in one piece -- I rather like encountering the occasional lump of salt pork adrift in my beans.