Simplifying works on many different levels, large and small. We find the small ones add up in significant ways. A prime example of this is simplifying recipes.
For instance, I like to make old fashioned baked beans. Recipes for this dish abound, in many varieties. I’ve tried as many as I can lay my hands on, if they meet one restriction: each new recipe must use less ingredients than the previous ones.
My current recipe comes from the The Good Housekeeping Cookbook, 7th Edition, 1942 (paid link) (ask your grandmother!). We learned about this particular edition of this book from the book Plenty: Eating Locally on the 100-Mile Diet (paid link) (check your local independent bookstore). Published in the first years of WWII, the old cookbook is a reliable source for our homestead, as it excels in getting by on fewer ingredients.
This recipe beat out my previous favorite, which relied on a good amount of ketchup and other ingredients in the recipe. That gave the dish a flavor similar to the American standard, pork and beans, which I dearly love, but the newer recipe’s frugality appealed.
Baked beans. I added a bit too much liquid to this latest batch, but it’s all good. (Photo: Mark Zeiger.)
