Preparations - A fricasey of kidney-beans

A fricasey of kidney-beans*

TAKE a quart of the seed, when dry, soak them all night in river water** then boil them on a slow fire till quite tender; take a quarter of a peck of onions, slice them thin, fry them in butter till brown; then take them out of the butter, and put them in a quart of strong draw'd gravy. Boil them till you may mash them fine, then put in your beans, and give them a boil or two. Season with pepper, salt and nutmeg.

Instead of using 4 cups of kidney beans and 8 cups onions for my test run, I used 1 cup of dry beans and 2 cups of sliced onion. I soaked the beans in water with soda over night, drained them, added fresh water and then boiled them for about an hour until soft. I fried the onions in butter and then added a cup of gravy and boiled it all together until I could mash up the onions. I added the beans and added salt, pepper and nutmeg. It ended up looking like something a cat horked up, but dang – it was tasty! It’s definitely geared for 18th century tastebuds, but I’d serve it to company in a heartbeat.

* Hannah Glasse, page 109
** River water would likely be soft water.