“Wow! That’s really good!”
That was The Mister’s reaction at taking his first bite of Baked Bean and Hamburger Savory – a vintage recipe from my 1944 Good Housekeeping Cook Book.
Needless to say, this was music to my ears. As I’ve mentioned before, so many of the modern recipes I’ve tried over the last few years have fallen flat. Poor thing has had to suffer through many a bland meal. Frankly, I had gotten to the point where I didn’t even want to cook anymore, because I felt I spent so much time planning, shopping, preparing, and cooking dishes only for them to be flavorless at best or entirely inedible at worst (beet soup, here’s looking at you).
To be honest, I didn’t have particularly high hopes for this recipe. I wasn’t expecting it to be bad – I just wasn’t expecting it to be much more than an upgraded can of baked beans. What a very pleasant surprise, indeed!
After a few more bites, my husband said – not once but twice – “Man that’s GOOD!”. Then he put to words what I was thinking “I didn’t expect the flavor profile to be so complex.” And it was. Far, far more than just a can of humble baked beans this recipe had a wonderfully rich beef flavor that was surprising given the amount of beef (¾ of a pound) that was included. All of the other ingredients worked in perfect harmony to create a dish that was well balanced and robust. The texture was great, too. I cooked my dish in a cast iron pan and the crumbled beef got a wee bit crispy before the 10 minute cook time was up. Of course, I’m not sure if that was supposed to happen (as the instructions don’t elaborate) or if it was a happy accident. But it was delicious and I will crisp the beef again the next time I make it. Despite the beef to bean ratio being so heavily skewed towards the beans, there was little bit of beef in every bite.
Beyond that, this was another superb weeknight dinner for a business housekeeper. Start to finish, I had this dish on the table in just 26 minutes. Like Swiss Cheese Pie from the prior evening, Baked Bean and Hamburger Savory was extraordinarily easy to make, a speedy weeknight super, easy on the budget, and most importantly, delicious.
The beans added a nice heft to this dish, making it filling without being heavy. It was a great meal on a chilly Autumn evening. I served this with bread and butter and the last of the applesauce from the night before.
The recipe serves 4. When I spotted The Mister’s roving eye scanning the kitchen to see if there was more, I knew that there would be no leftovers and that is the best endorsement. I will definitely be making this again and hope you give it a try yourself!
Baked Bean and Hamburger Savory
Ingredients
- 2 tablesp. fat or salad oil
- ½ c. sliced onions
- ⅔ c. diced celery
- ½ lb chuck beef, ground
- 2 ⅔ c. baked beans or cooked kidney beans
- 2 teasp. Worcestershire sauce
- ¾ teasp. salt
- ¾ teasp. powdered sage
- ¾ c. water or canned tomato juice
Directions
Heat the fat in a skillet. Then add the onions, celery, and beef, and cook, uncovered about 10 min. Add rest of ingredients; heat thoroughly. Serves 4.
For this recipe, I used rendered bacon fat as my fat/oil, original recipe commercially prepared baked beans, and tomato juice. I substituted the sage for dried thyme, as my Maman does not like sage.
Bon appetit!
Dispatches from 1944 