Incredibly Delicious, Beans n Franks

Incredibly Delicious, Beans n Franks



Beans n Franks. Charmingly humble. The mere “n” is disarmingly unaffected.

You can’t even say “Beans AND Franks” without sounding pretentious: it’s Beans n Franks. Simple, straightforward and about as basic as a food can get. I’ve no doubt this one-pot-two-ingredient meal has been enjoyed around campfires, by boy scouts and hoboes, for a long time.

Year or so ago, I did a series in Newcity entitled “Comfort Me.” In these articles I had conversations with chefs about their favorite comfort foods, the foods they had, perhaps when they were very little. The comfort foods I was trying to identify were those these chefs continued to identify with homey warmth and security. Going into this project, I figured most people would go for high carb/high fat options, like Mac n Cheese. That was an incorrect assumption. Mary Nguyen Aregoni of Saigon Sisters told me her comfort food was pho, which she remembered eating with her dad after they fled Vietnam following the War of American Aggression [http://resto.newcity.com/2014/04/15/comfort-me-mary-nguyen-aregoni-of-saigon-sisters/]. For Erick Williams of County Barbecue, it was beef stew [http://resto.newcity.com/2014/03/04/comfort-me-erick-williams-of-county-barbeque/].

As I interviewed these chefs, my big fear was that they’d turn the tables and ask me the same question I asked them: “What’s your comfort food?”

That was my fear because, to that question, I’d had no answer.

But now I do.

My comfort food is Beans n Franks.

I know this because I’ve been making it a lot lately, and if I could (from a nutritional/health perspective), I’d eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I actually have to cut myself off, just say No. I can eat pounds of this stuff, just shoveling it in, enjoying every bite, not stopping when I’m full, but as Louis C.K. says, stopping only “when I hate myself” or when there’s no more to eat, whichever comes first.

I actually don’t remember my parents ever making Beans n Franks for me. I do remember making it for my three daughters a few times. I’d use Oscar Mayer hot dogs, Campbell’s Pork n Beans, with maybe a few liberal squirts of French’s mustard, done. Someone called this “Dad food,” by which I assume they intended to mean, “idiot proof,” which Beans n’ Franks most certainly is.

When I’d present this low-effort dish to my children at the table, I’d melodiously intone “Incredibly delicious, Beans n Franks!” in kind of a declamatory, dramatic voice, half Wagner/half Marx Brothers. That musical introduction made it special, I thought, and they seemed to like it. At least, they ate it.

Now, the classic bean/sausage combo is not unique, of course, to ‘Merica.

• In France, cassoulet comes close, as it uses navy beans and sausage…but also confit duck and other fancy stuff that, in terms of classiness, put it a kilometer or two ahead of Beans n Franks.
• In Mexico, frijoles charro are beans with bacon and, I’m told, sometimes hot dog slices, though I’ve never had it that way. I’m guessing, though, that the bean platform can accommodate whatever meat scraps you might have on hand.
• In Brazil, they make feijoada with black beans, sausage and perhaps a few other meats; I really like the version they do at Oak Park’s Taste of Brasil, and this dish is, in fact, somewhat close to Beans n Franks as we know and love it. Still, it’s fancier, and Beans n Franks are, to me, the epitome (or nadir, in the best way) of un-fanciness.

All these other dishes, though they attest to the international ubiquity of beans and sausage, are not Beans n Franks, which I believe usually contain nothing more than spicy, tomato-based beans and frankfurters. You can use a high-level of beans – heck, you can go to town and prepare your own beans and piquant sauce – but it seems best to use navy-type beans and hot dogs, if you’re making Beans n Franks and not some other dish.

Recently, I made some delicious Beans n Franks with Whiskey Hollow Brown Sugar Baked Beans and Park’s Finest Jalapeno Cheddar hot dogs, a much higher level of ingredients than I’d traditionally used. This dish is the picture on this page. There was a lot more dimension to the beans than you could ever have in Campbell’s, and the spicing in the wieners was much more subtle than you could hope to experience with Oscar Mayer, but I think sometimes when you’re going for comfort food, you don’t necessarily want anything more than that one-dimensional flavor you remember.

But really, whatever beans and whatever hot dogs you use, what you’re going to make is something good. It’s sure-fire, can’t miss, bulls-eye every time.

Beans n Franks. My comfort food. Easy, fast, delicious…and idiot-proof.

i've been assembling beans'n'franks since i was a wee tot. busch's canned beans with sliced kosher dogs, with a good squirt of yellow mustard and a splash of open pit bbq sauce for me and my brothers. i still love it!

This was quite a pleasure to read.

Love beans too. Bush- or Campbell's-style pork 'n' beans or just beans is a perfectly acceptable dinner to me. Some may dis Campbell's, but Campbell's bean with bacon soup is my comfort food. (That or Campbell's tomato soup. With a cheese sandwich. Those and Bozo's Circus are how I spent my schoolday lunch hours).

Years ago, living downstate at the time of the St. Valentine's Day tree massacre, a horrible freezing rain incident that knocked out power for a week, I kept the house warm with the fireplace and got by on heated-up cans of beans, and if it ever happens again here, I am ready.

Thinking about feijoada, it occurs to me that New Orleans red beans and rice is another variation on this theme --- at least, my version is, because it has a lot of browned slices of andouille sausage in it and is mostly red beans and sausage and not mostly rice.

But that flavor's different from the one you're talking about, David. Aren't the various homemade and store-bought options for franks 'n' beans (or beans 'n' franks) basically versions of Boston baked beans?

Finally, I just can't resist:

"Beans could get no keener reception in a beanery!
Bless my mountain greenery home!"

Beanie Wienies are a Chow Poodle favorite, too.

Good subject. Love beans and love Beanie-Wienie. Usually sauté onion, garlic, celery, green pepper, then add wienies to sauté with them. Doesn't hurt to hit the heat a bit to put a little controlled bark on all of it. Deglaze with a little beer. Then add a small amount of a home-made type sauce with ketchup, molasses, honey, a few on hand spices, mix well. Add cans of beans and heat it up.

Katie wrote:But that flavor's different from the one you're talking about, David. Aren't the various homemade and store-bought options for franks 'n' beans (or beans 'n' franks) basically versions of Boston baked beans?

I don't think so, Katie. I don't claim to know beans about the Boston recipe, but although it's not unusual for these beans to contain a protein, I don't think sausage (let alone hot dogs) are usually part of the deal, are they?

David Hammond wrote:

Katie wrote:But that flavor's different from the one you're talking about, David. Aren't the various homemade and store-bought options for franks 'n' beans (or beans 'n' franks) basically versions of Boston baked beans?

I don't think so, Katie. I don't claim to know beans about the Boston recipe, but although it's not unusual for these beans to contain a protein, I don't think sausage (let alone hot dogs) are usually part of the deal, are they?

The recipe for classic Boston baked beans is simple—dried beans, salt pork, molasses and/or brown sugar, a pinch of mustard powder. That’s basically what Imogene Wolcott presents in The Yankee Cookbook (1939), pretty much the bible of traditional New England cookery. She includes a Vermont version, incorporating maple syrup, and one from New Hampshire that has some ketchup, but neither has any meat other than salt pork. The dish is often called pork ’n’ beans. An excellent source for background on traditional New England baked beans is John Thorne’s “Knowing Beans” in Serious Pig. He maintains the original recipes called for only a small amount of molasses (“skimpy of flavoring—of molasses measured by the spoonful, of seasonings measured by the pinch”), but acknowledges the existence of the “sweets” camp of bean eaters. Most commercial canners have taken the sugary trend to extremes (and well beyond what I find palatable). Whiskey Hollow Brown Sugar Baked Beans, mentioned above, lists ingredients as: beans, water, brown sugar, sugar, corn syrup, tomato paste, salt, then the minor components. A 28-ounce can has 126 grams of sugar (one cup of white sugar is about 200 grams). That’s crazy. I really don’t care to have my hot dogs swimming in sugar syrup.

Rene G wrote:I really don’t care to have my hot dogs swimming in sugar syrup.

Although beans "swimming in sugar syrup" doesn't sound like something anyone would want, sweet bean concoctions (like bean pies, smile) are not unusual...but yes, there was a lot of sweet in this last batch of beans n franks that I made, and I found that mixing in some rice helped dial down the sugar-to-carb ratio and increase edibility -- and then I skipped dessert.

The best way to go is undoubtedly to prepare one's own beans, but you see, I am too lazy to do that.

Inspired by Michael Symon on 'The Chew (horrible program): I bought a can of Busch's limited edition 'Sweet Heat' beans @ Mariano's and paired them with a Polish kielbasa also from Mariano's. The beans I liked, the kielbasa was disappointing. I'm not sure I ever had kielbasa before (I used to work sound at polka fests back east so I bet I did, but that was long ago) so I didn't really know what to expect. So, anyway, we had leftover beans which I combined with some 'normal' beans and chili we also had leftover. I want to toss some kind of sausage into this mix but need suggestions as to what to get--probably an 'Amy's' type thing again from Mariano's.

David Hammond wrote:Although beans "swimming in sugar syrup" doesn't sound like something anyone would want, sweet bean concoctions (like bean pies, smile) are not unusual...

I don't mind sweet beans so much (within limits); it's sugary wieners I'm not usually fond of. Yet I still like a small amount of relish on my hot dog, but not too much. I'll often order "light relish" and hope it's evenly applied. Nothing ruins a hot dog for me like getting a big bolus of sweet relish.

I guess some people really do like their sausages swimming in syrup. Have a look at this Paula Deen recipe: Sweet Sausages. Just slice hot-dog-style smoked sausages into one-inch rounds and simmer for 20 minutes in 1.5 cups of maple syrup. “Sweet, simple and AMAZING!” according to one of the many enthusiastic comments.

It's interesting bean pie came up in this conversation. That's another old Yankee dish. Wolcott's The Yankee Cookbook contains a bean pie recipe that reads like something from the Nation of Islam. It's tough tracing the recipe’s lineage, but I wouldn't be surprised if Wallace Fard Muhammad learned of this old dessert during his time in Depression-era Detroit. It was Josephine who first brought The Yankee Cookbook recipe to my attention. I had been looking in all the wrong places for old bean pie recipes.

I agree; I don't mind fairly sweet beans, but I like the meat (hot dog or sausage or whatever) salty for contrast. Best (for me) is to cook it separately --- fry up slices and put them on top of the beans. Come to think of it, I prefer andouille on red beans and rice that way too.

Katie wrote:I agree; I don't mind fairly sweet beans, but I like the meat (hot dog or sausage or whatever) salty for contrast. Best (for me) is to cook it separately --- fry up slices and put them on top of the beans. Come to think of it, I prefer andouille on red beans and rice that way too.

The Wife likes to fry the wiener slices, but I prefer to cook them for a good while in the beans so that the ends go convex and pillow-outward, which makes each bite plush and pleasantly soft.

David Hammond wrote:

Katie wrote:I agree; I don't mind fairly sweet beans, but I like the meat (hot dog or sausage or whatever) salty for contrast. Best (for me) is to cook it separately --- fry up slices and put them on top of the beans. Come to think of it, I prefer andouille on red beans and rice that way too.

The Wife likes to fry the wiener slices, but I prefer to cook them for a good while in the beans so that the ends go convex and pillow-outward, which makes each bite plush and pleasantly soft.

Actually, that does sound good too.

And although I said I don't care much for meat in sweet sauce, if someone brought a crockpot of meatballs in chili sauce and grape jelly and a box of toothpicks over, I would not say no.

Rene G wrote:

David Hammond wrote:Although beans "swimming in sugar syrup" doesn't sound like something anyone would want, sweet bean concoctions (like bean pies, smile) are not unusual...

I don't mind sweet beans so much (within limits); it's sugary wieners I'm not usually fond of. Yet I still like a small amount of relish on my hot dog, but not too much. I'll often order "light relish" and hope it's evenly applied. Nothing ruins a hot dog for me like getting a big bolus of sweet relish.

I guess some people really do like their sausages swimming in syrup. Have a look at this Paula Deen recipe: Sweet Sausages. Just slice hot-dog-style smoked sausages into one-inch rounds and simmer for 20 minutes in 1.5 cups of maple syrup. “Sweet, simple and AMAZING!” according to one of the many enthusiastic comments.

I think the general dislike of catsup on hot dogs is also due to the sweetness of the condiment (all that corn syrup) and the specific spice profile of the wiener (but no, I’m NOT trying to reopen the catsup on hot dogs dispute!).

I like sweet-savory combos, but even then, the sweetness usually has to be dialed down to the level of, say, the salt.

Few years ago, I took a cooking class in Morocco and we made this chicken tagine:



There is a breath-taking amount of sugar in this recipe, cups and cups. I suppose with enough harissa, this sweet meat would be edible, but as it was, it was just too sugary for me. When a place (country, region, etc.) has a lot of something (like sugar), it’s going to show up everywhere. That is no doubt why the Deen woman, a Southern gal, likes a lot of sweet in her food. “AMAZING”? I doubt it.

In Quebec, they have a whole lot of maple syrup. So at a Sugar Shack, you get a plate like this one…



…and cover it ALL in maple syrup, ham, eggs, pie, and every damn thing. Again, revolting, and why would you want to homogenize the flavors under one, unrelentingly aggressive sweet shroud.

But then why are the sweeter pork n’ beans in beans n’ franks not equally revolting with hot dogs? Well, in the general recipe quoted in the OP, I used a spicy hot dog, so the heat balances the sweet. That could be part of it. Or maybe it’s because beans n franks are magical.

My standard is what we call "Firehouse beans". #10 can of Bush's drained, 1 lb burger, 1 lb bacon, 1 med. onion diced, 1/2C Salsa to taste I use Mrs. Renfro's Habanero salsa, your favorite BBQ sauce. brown the burger, dice and brown the bacon, drain "most" of the fat off saving some to cook off the diced onion. Add it all into a crockpot and wait.

They're great as a side, and even better as a bowl for lunch the next day.