President's Day is Full of Beans

About author / Amy Powell

World traveler; gourmet 30 minute meals; lover of exotic ingredients; winner on FoodTV's Chefs vs City; graduate French Culinary Institute. Her recipes will tantalize your taste buds.

As promised, this week I am writing a very special edition of Real Meals. It is a historical and patriotic tribute in recognition of the upcoming President's Day holiday, and because February is a time when my family celebrates a very special tradition, Bean Day. So whether you got the memo or not and did or didn't eat beans on February 3rd, please read on and share beans as well as our country's history.

The First Bean Day
(As told by my great grandmother Nadine Giles)

In early February, 1863, Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest began to move troops toward Ft. Donelson. By early morning of February 3rd, 1863, the Union soldiers, including the 83rd Illinois Volunteers, knew there would be a big battle that day.

Mastin Cherrington (my great great great great great grandfather) and several mess-mates knew they didn't have time to cook their day's rations before the battle, so they dug a hole and built a fire in it. They put a cast iron pot filled with beans and salt-pork in the hole and covered it with rocks and dirt.

The battle started before noon and lasted until 9 o'clock that night. Many soldiers on both sides were wounded or killed, including much of Mastin's battalion. When the battle was over, Mastin and a few of his mess-mates all had survived. They came back to the Fort, dug up the beans and found they had been cooked to perfection.

They ate the beans, thankful that they had all lived through the battle. That night they promised to eat a simple meal of beans every February 3rd and share the beans and the story with their neighbors in remembrance of the event.

The descendants of Mastin Cherrington have celebrated Bean Day every year since the first in 1863. It helps us to remember the part our ancestors played in the Civil War. It also helps us to remember those who have fought to protect our freedom, as well as the devastating loss of life that comes as the result of war, and the lengths we should go to before using war as only the last possible resort.

It is only appropriate we celebrate Bean Day in the same month we commemorate the lives and achievements of two of our countries greatest leaders: George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. It was Abraham Lincoln personally who helped us through our nation's greatest challenge to its unity, the war we fought against ourselves. And especially in these continued years of warfare and uncertainty, with so many lives lost on both sides, it is a fitting time to be grateful for our freedom and for those who fight now and have fought before to protect it.

This story would not be what it is today if it did not involve the sharing of food. Try as I might over the years to come up with a recipe that is quick and authentic enough to eat on this day, I usually have defaulted to my traditional repertoire of white bean soups and pastas that can be cooked and eaten in less time than it takes to watch an episode of the West Wing.

But this year, I believe I have stumbled on a recipe that may be sufficiently true to the era. Generations of women and men have relied on the sound advice of Fannie Farmer in her eponymous book of cookery. I recently stumbled upon a facsimile of the original book that was reproduced in the middle of last century, known then as the Boston Cooking School Cookbook, 1896, by Fannie Merritt Farmer. Although this came out 33 years after the first Bean Day, anyone who is familiar with Fannie Farmer's books knows some things simply have refused to change over the years. I am guessing that beans might be one of those items.

So this year I have taken Miss Farmer's recipe for Baked Bean Soup, and modified it only slightly to catch up with modern cooking methods and ingredients (like canned baked beans). I have taken this recipe, along with the heritage of our forefathers, and brought it into the 21st century for a truly special tribute to some very important men and a little day filled with beans.

Serves/Makes: 4

• 1 tablespoon oil
• 1/2 medium onion, diced
• 1 stalk celery, diced
• 1 carrot, peeled and diced
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 2 cans (15 ounce size) baked beans
• 1 bay leaf
• 4 cups water
• black pepper
• Tabasco or other hot sauce
• 1 plum tomato, diced
• 2 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled