Beans and bacon

Name: Beans and bacon
Yield: To Serve Six-Eight
Cuisine: United Kingdom
Ingredients: 3 tablespoons tomato ketchup; 2 teaspoons dry mustard; 1 teaspoon salt; 2 tablespoons black treacle; 1 onion; 225 g (½ lb) salt pork or green streaky bacon, with rind removed; 225 g (½ lb) salt pork or green streaky bacon, with rind removed; 50 g (2 oz) butter; 450 g (1 lb) small white pearl beans, soaked overnight

Preparation info

To Serve
Six-Eight

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

British Cooking

By Caroline Conran

Published 1978

About

Beans and bacon is an old British favourite. George III dined on it al fresco with the workmen at Woolwich Arsenal, and enjoyed their beans and bacon so thoroughly that he instituted an annual beanfeast in memory of the occasion.

Ingredients

450 g (1 lb) small white pearl beans, soaked overnight
50 g (2

Europe
United Kingdom
Woolwich Arsenal

Method

Put the beans in a saucepan, cover by 3 cm (1 in) with cold water and bring slowly to the boil. Simmer for 1-1½ hours until almost tender.

Put 25 g (1 oz) of butter in a frying pan, slice the pork or bacon into six-eight slices and fry them for 3-4 minutes, turning them over once or twice.

Transfer the bacon and their fat to a deep casserole. Drain the beans and save the liquid.