Recipe: Savory Bean Stew and Chile Con Carne (1943)

SAVORY BEAN STEW

1 1/2 cups of dry beans or peas, soaked and cooked (recipe follows)
1/4 to 1/2 cup diced salt pork
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 pound ground lean meat
3 cups cooked tomatoes
salt and pepper (to taste)

Soak and cook dry beans or peas.

In a pan fry salt pork until crisp. Then brown onion in the salt pork fat. Add ground meat, stir and cook slowly for 5 minutes.

Add tomatoes with the cooked beans to the meat mixture. Add salt and pepper and simmer until meat is tender and flavors well blended.

VARIATION:

CHILE CON CARNE
Add 2 to 4 teaspoons of chili powder and a bit of garlic, if desired, to the recipe for Savory Bean Stew. Red kidney or California Pink beans are favorites for chile con came.

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PLAIN COOKED BEANS

Look over the beans or peas, picking out the bad ones. Wash and cover 2 cups of the beans or peas with 1 1/2 quarts of cold water, and soak overnight. (If you forget to put them to soak overnight, 5 or 6 hours in lukewarm water will do the trick.)

When ready to cook, add a teaspoon of salt and simmer slowly in the soaking water in a covered pan until the beans are tender but not broken. Add more water during cooking, if necessary. Season with salt and pepper.

To add flavor cook beans with salt pork, sausage, bacon, or a ham bone.

From: Recipelink.com
Source: Recipe pamphlet: Dried Peas and Peas in Wartime Meals, USDA, AWI-47, June 1943