The Distinctly Regional History of Boston Baked Beans

18th Century historian Jon Townsend of Townsends took a look back at the historical distinctly northeast favorite of Boston Baked Beans. He further notes how the first recipe, though nebulous, seemed to have originated in the 19th century when cooking styles transformed from boiling to baking amongst the people that populated Massachusetts at the time.

Boston is at the center of these events this is the political sort of heartbeat of the late18th century in early America. …What kind of food are people in Boston eating? …The most obvious answer here are baked beans Boston baked beans. Those are so famous in the 19th century and they’re still famous today now baked beans  have this very very hard to decipher history. 

Ryan Kerr jumped in at that time to demonstrate and prepare a classic recipe for the dish, although the definition of beans at that time was rather wide.

Let’s talk about beans really quickly. So in the  time period there’s an adjustment that’s happening. … here in this new world it gets more complex than that too because folks in this time period are interchanging peas and beans. We’re not necessarily talking about green garden split peas we’re talking about all sorts of varieties of peas. So something even like a black eyed pea is a bean in the time period. When people are talking about it, they don’t necessarily designate  when they’re talking about them in recipes.