{"id":62943,"date":"2022-06-10T09:24:54","date_gmt":"2022-06-10T13:24:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.themainemag.com\/?p=62943"},"modified":"2022-06-10T10:02:55","modified_gmt":"2022-06-10T14:02:55","slug":"how-to-cook-a-bean-hole-supper-like-a-mainer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.themainemag.com\/how-to-cook-a-bean-hole-supper-like-a-mainer\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Cook a Bean Hole Supper Like a Mainer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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First, gather your wood. \u201cWith the biscuits and the beans, we use about two cords,\u201d says Ken Libby, vice president of the Patten Lumbermen\u2019s Museum, which has been holding bean hole dinners on the second Saturday of August since 1965 to celebrate the important role the meal played in Maine\u2019s lumbering history. But assuming you\u2019re not planning to feed 600 people, you might need only about 100 pounds of wood. Then, get digging. The holes they dig at the museum are about three feet deep and 20 inches around to accommodate 14-inch-tall steel pots. Whatever size pot you use, be sure it has a heavy lid that drops down over the outside by a couple of inches to keep out dirt and coals. Cast-iron pots have mostly gone by the wayside, even here. \u201cThey leak a lot of moisture, and the beans often come out mushy,\u201d explains Libby. \u201cIf you\u2019re really hungry I guess it wouldn\u2019t bother you too much.\u201d Libby and his team divide 150 pounds of dried yellow-eye beans between 16 to 18 pots\u2014about 9 pounds per pot. In the morning, start by presoaking the beans with just enough water to cover them, then start a fire in the hole. Once the fire is going, hang the pot over the fire (the museum uses a system of posts and cables) to parboil the beans before adding the fixings. \u201cWe use quite a lot of dry mustard, salt pork, onions, molasses, salt, and pepper,\u201d Libby says. \u201cThe recipe\u2019s here somewhere, but it wouldn\u2019t do you any good unless you have the same size pots we have.\u201d Once everything is mixed together, shovel out half of the coals and store them in a tub, then lower the pot into the hole. (\u201cThis takes us two men to handle,\u201d Libby says.) Then dump the extra coals over the pot and up the sides, and cover it all up with the dirt that came out of the ground. Don\u2019t forget to put a wire on the bail of the pot that sticks up above the ground, so you remember where you buried it. With your beans buried by the afternoon, there\u2019s nothing left to do but wait until the next morning to dig them out. \u201cSometimes the crew brings beverages with them,\u201d says Libby. \u201cWe don\u2019t let them get into it until they\u2019re done handling those hot pots, though.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\t\t

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