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Pork and beans is a classic American dish made with pork and beans as the main ingredients. There are many variations on the dish, and although the origin is murky, the 1832 cookbook The American Frugal Housewife lists only three main ingredients – beans, salt pork, and pepper.
Over time, the dish was commercially available in canned versions, generally consisting of navy beans, tomato sauce, and chunks of salt pork or pork fat. Nowadays, the dish is often enriched with the addition of carrots, onions, garlic, and fresh herbs such as thyme and bay leaves, while versions prepared in the American South sometimes include ingredients such as barbecue sauce, white vinegar, paprika, mustard, and brown sugar.
Maine baked beans is a traditional dish originating from the state of Maine. It is made with a combination of Maine dry beans (usually of the Yellow Eye variety), salt pork, sugar, molasses, mustard, onion, salt, and pepper. The beans are soaked overnight, then parboiled in the morning up to the point when their skins crack when blown upon.
The onion is cut and placed on the bottom of the pan, followed by beans and salt pork on top. A combination of other ingredients is then poured over the pork and beans. The whole pot is then placed in the oven and slowly baked, typically for 6 hours or more.
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These starchy baked beans are enriched with syrups similar to molasses in order to tenderize and sweeten them. An iconic side dish from Boston (also known as Beantown), it started its way to stardom in the 17th century when the Natives taught the early settlers how to bake beans using bear fat.
Later on, people used to fill the pots with dry beans on Saturday and leave them to cook slowly until Sunday so the beans would be tender, falling apart, and melting. The baked beans' key ingredient is molasses, making the dish sweet and rich, but it is not yet clear who added it to the dish.
MOST ICONIC Boston Baked Beans
Served every day in the dining room of the United States Senate, Senate bean soup is a dish that dates back to the beginning of the 20th century. The soup is made with navy beans, onions, and ham hock, while the original version additionally included celery, mashed potatoes, parsley, and garlic.
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Succotash is a flavorful side dish consisting of vegetables such as corn and lima beans, served in a creamy sauce made with milk, cream, or butter. The name of this tasty side is derived from the word msakwitash, meaning broken corn kernels, referring to one of the key ingredients in the dish.
Originally, it was a Native American staple, a thick stew so nourishing that it would feed a crowd. Today, there are numerous varieties of the dish: Cherokees add pumpkin, meat, and nuts, the Plymouth variety uses navy beans, potatoes, and turnips, and other modern varieties use tomatoes, squash, and okra.
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MOST ICONIC Succotash
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Moro de habichuelas is a traditional way of preparing rice and beans in the Dominican Republic, and it's also one of the most commonly prepared dishes in the country. Although any kind of beans can be used in the dish, it's most often made with red or pinto beans, while fava beans, pigeon peas, white beans, and black beans can also be used.
Apart from the beans and rice, other common ingredients include onions, bell peppers, garlic, tomatoes, coriander, oregano, salt, and black pepper. The vegetables are sautéed in oil with the spices, while the rice and beans are added later with water.
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Platillo Moros y Cristiano, roughly translated as Moors and Christians dish - a poetic name referring to history, is the national dish of Cuba, a hearty combination of fluffy white rice and seasoned black beans, cooked together in the same pot.
Moros y Cristiano is originally Spanish, and it spread to Cuba with its strong Spanish, Caribbean, and North African influences. White rice represents the Spanish Christians, while black beans are supposed to be the Muslim Moors, remembering a long period of wars between the two, known as Reconquista, and celebrating how both groups came to reconciliation in the Iberian Peninsula.
MOST ICONIC Platillo moros y cristiano
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