Mary Pearl's Country Style Baked Beans (Vermont, 1952)

Simple maple-infused goodness

It’s a slow Monday. The spring warmth has retreated. Fickle March. A few snow flurries gust around the windows, but the threat is weak. Anything that manages to land won't stick. Once back from the gym, I don’t have any real place to go. It’s the perfect day for some long-cooking dish, so I reach for Mary Pearl’s Country Style Baked Beans from her 1952 cookbook, Vermont Maple Recipes. They will take no less than five hours to make.

They take seven.

Confession: I’ve never made baked beans before. I’m also not convinced that the canned kind need to be a big part of my life. I keep a few tins in the back of the pantry, mostly to have some variety in an apocalyptic scenario.

Mary’s recipe starts with yellow-eyed beans.

Have you ever bought yellow-eyed beans? I haven’t. I’ve bought tons of black beans and kidney beans. Plenty of chickpeas….but yellow-eyed beans not once.

Mary’s instructions are simple. Soak beans over night. In the morning, boil them up in salted water. Drain. Put them in an oven proof pot. Add a few simple ingredients (salt pork, maple syrup, dry mustard and water) and cook at 325, forever - or something like it. Grab the whole recipe here.

After four hours she says to take the cover off and cook up for another 30 minutes or until it browns. I let it go for an hour and a half because it’s a bit watery.

For dinner, we serve it alongside some rice and sausage. As I take a spoonful, really don’t think it’s going to turn up with flavor, but these are the best baked beans I’ve ever had. Tender and creamy and salty and sweet.

Does Mary Pearl have the best maple cookbook out there? The maple surprise was delicious. The maple whiskey sours were delicious. The maple baked beans, also delicious. Her book is the perfect travel companion for the season. Maple muffins. Yes. Maple biscuits. Yes. Pulled maple candy. Sign me up. I’m here for all of it. I could live in this one all year.

3 More facts about Mary Pearl

We started exploring Mary’s life in our installment on Maple Surprise. Here are a few more details about the life of Mary Pearl:

• In 1959, Mary was selected as a director-at-large of American Women in Radio and Television. Pictured below, she is the first in the bottom row!

  

  “Leading Ladies,” Broadcasting Magazine (Edward Petry and Co Inc) 11 May 1959, p. 92; digital images Worldradiohistory.com (https://www.worldradiohistory.com : 31 March 2025)

• Maltex eventually became Heublein and Mary was around for the transition as the director of the home economics department. Occasionally her name would show up in magazines. Always alongside home economics news or just beside recipes. Always making things better, healthier, or more stylish as is evidenced in her memo: Ground Beef with Glamour.

  

  “Memo from the Desk of Mary Pearl,” Practical Home Economics (Scholastic, Inc) October 1961, p. 11; digital images, archive.org (https://www.archive.org : accessed 26 March 2025)

• After a lifetime in food, radio, community, cookbooks and more, Mary passed away in Burlington, Vermont on May 3rd, 1984. She was 86 years old.

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What maple treats are you eating this season? I’d love to find out! And I’m not quite done with my jar of maple syrup just yet, so stay tuned for a few more maple snacks coming your way!

Meanwhile, if you make these maple baked beans, make sure you’re in as slow a mood as the beans. I recommend turning off the news, turning up the tunes, and doing something you enjoy while they bubble away.