baked beans familiar as a canned product, are derived from a traditional New England dish, Boston baked beans, for which navy beans (see haricot bean) are baked with spices and molasses (see treacle) in a dish in the oven. The Boston connection seems to have arisen because Puritan families in or around Boston used baked beans as a sabbath dish. Use in print of the term ‘Boston baked beans’ dates back to the 1850s.
© the Estate of Alan Davidson 1999, 2006, 2014 © in the Editor’s contribution to the second and third editions, Oxford University Press 2006, 2014.