In the Gender, Sexuality, Feminist, and Social Justice Studies (GSFS) 401 Winter 2022 semester class on Food, Gender, and Environment taught by Dr. Alex Ketchum, students are analyzing the ways that food accessibility and environmental threats are gendered, raced, and classed within the global context. As part of the course, students visited McGill’s archives and special collections to have a hands on experience with historical cookbooks (more on that here: http://www.historicalcookingproject.com/2022/02/class-visit-2022.html). The Special Series of Student Posts is a collection of student reflections on what information we can glean from cookbooks.
Baked Beans - a loved dish for 18th century lumberjacks to 20th century vegans!
by Erica Brown
While digging through archives of old Canadian recipes for a contribution to The Historical Cooking Project, I fell into a rabbit hole of frontier history and the story of how the American West was “settled.” Though the brutality of colonisation is often omitted from romanticised cowboy and lumberjack histories, the Indigenous people of Turtle Island are given some credit for teaching European settlers how to survive off their land, and provided the settlers with knowledge of native plants and crops necessary for survival. The Iroquois legend of “The Three Sisters”(1) gives simple instructions on how to cultivate three staples of the North American diet, squash, corn, and of course, beans. Beans were hugely popular on the frontier for a multitude of reasons; not only were they fast and easy to grow, they stored excellently when dried, provided excellent nutrients, and with a simple recipe could be incredibly tasty (2). Thus, the classic Canadian dish of baked beans became a popular meal of housewives, ranchers, and loggers alike, persisting in popularity to this day.
Figure 1: Erica's baked beans
Although baked beans are not the most exciting dish in my opinion, they have remained a constant and comforting recipe I’ve enjoyed all my life at the long table of the cabane à sucre, over the fire while camping, and more recently in the mess tent of backcountry tree-planting camps. I love beans for the same reason the early European settlers did, and I love beans more for their connection to the wild west lore in Canada. I was delighted by my research to discover that the first loggers of the pacific northwest lived off “the holy trinity”(3); bread, pork, and beans; the same slop that bush camp cooks continue to serve, and that I and my fellow woods workers live off in the summer. When it comes to the diet of Canadian bush labourers over the centuries, ‘if it aint broke- dont fix it’; the baked bean continues to reign supreme.
I ran into some trouble, however, finding an actual recipe that bushcamp or chuckwagon cooks might have used for their beans. As popular and simple as they are, it seems not many bothered to write the instructions for baked beans down. I found Dorothy Allen-Gray’s story of the Mountie who made a huge batch of baked beans in the beginning of the winter, and spooned them out into long ladies stockings which he hung outside to freeze. When he was hungry he “took his axe, chopped off the required portion of frozen beans, and heated them for a quick dinner”(4). Dorothy’s husband was a member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police for the first half of the 20th century and heard the story at a gathering of retired Mounties. Sifting through many similar fables featuring the baked bean I finally found a good old fashioned recipe for baked beans by the people of the new frontier, for the people of the new frontier; the Farm Women's Union of Alberta’s cookbook (Figure 2). The Farm Women’s Union of Alberta formed in 1915, 6 years after the first Farmers Union of Alberta was formed (5). The FWUA had eight direct tenets and prioritised three benefits of “education, co-operation, and sociability power through organisation”(6). The first F.W.U.A. Cookbook, self published by the organisation in 1928, was a compilation of recipes donated by members from all over the province. The cookbook turned out to be a huge success and was immensely popular across the province and growing country, the F.W.U.A. eventually published eight editions over the following five decades (7). In the second edition, I came across a well loved recipe for the classic, in this text named “Boston Baked Beans” (Figure 3).
Figure 3: United Farm Women of Alberta, “United Farm Women of Alberta Cook Book,” Bruce Peel Special Collections Library Online Exhibits, accessed February 25, 2022, https://omeka.library.ualberta.ca/items/show/1534.
While the cooking time is long, the recipe for baked beans is incredibly straightforward and I already had all the ingredients in my cupboard. The recipe is, give or take a few measurements and personal preferences, the same recipe I’ve had all across the country and into the backwoods. I made a few substitutes when making my beans; I would have loved to cook the beans old fashioned cowboy style in a dutch oven buried in the embers for hours, but city living forces me to adapt to the F.W.U.A.’s modern woman oven technique. I also swapped the two tablespoons of brown sugar for maple syrup, which more closely resembles the French Canadian style of baked beans “Fèves au lard” that makes me nostalgic for the sugar off and brings a maple-y sweetness that tastes more Canadian and comforting to me. Finally, I omitted the pieces of salt pork or side bacon that most recipes include because I don’t eat meat (though I did eat meat as a kid and loved the salty chunks of pork in my baked beans and definitely see the merits they contribute to the dish) (Figure 1). Instead of salt pork, I made an accompanying maple seitan roast that I slice and fry and pretend is bacon. My camp cook when I’m in the bush tree-planting, also keeps the bacon to the side and cooks trays of seitan bacon for the vegetarians and vegans. Seitan bacon with a hefty serving of baked beans is an incredible bush (and city) breakfast, and makes for many happy vegans, though I laugh to think of what a late 19th century lumberjack would say about seitan, or the concept of veganism at large.
It is truly a testament to the baked bean, I believe, how well it has stood the test of time and remains a favourite among those who labour in the hard wilderness of the American Northwest, as well as a treasured comfort food among many Canadians. The baked bean’s versatility, nutrition, and delectable appeal keep it a classic. While not the most thrilling dish it has always been reliable, and on the frontier or in the bush, a measure of a good cook. As The Pacific Lumber Company in California remembers an old cook in song; “Our cook's name's Jack Dunnigan,/The best in the woods./His beans they are great,/And his bread it is good,”(8) the beans are worth commemorating in frontier folklore.
[1] “The Three Sisters: Corn, Beans, and Squash.” Almanac.com, 12 Nov. 2021, https://www.almanac.com/content/three-sisters-corn-bean-and-squash.
[2] Barss, Beulah M. “Bullwhackers Baked Beans.” Come 'n Get It: Cowboys and Chuckwagons, Rocky Mountain Books, Calgary, 1996, pp. 7–8.
[3] Conlin, Joseph R. “Old Boy, Did You Get Enough of Pie? A Social History of Food in Logging Camps.” Journal of Forest History, vol. 23, no. 4, 1979, pp. 164–185., https://doi.org/10.2307/4004469.
[4] Barss, Beulah, and Dorothy Allen-Gray. Come 'n Get It: Cowboys and Chuckwagons, 1980.
[5] Langford, Nanci L. Politics, Pitchforks, and Pickle Jars: 75 Years of Organized Farm Women in Alberta. Detselig Enterprises Ltd., 1997.
[6] Ibid
[7] United Farm Women of Alberta, “United Farm Women of Alberta Cook Book,” Bruce Peel Special Collections Library Online Exhibits, accessed February 25, 2022, https://omeka.library.ualberta.ca/items/show/1534.
[8] "AII Over the Ridges," from the Lievre River c. 1910, Fowke, Lumbering Songs, p. 65.