I don't know if the grocery stores/supermarkets still sell brown bread in cans. It is the perfect accompaniment to Boston Baked Beans and is easy to make.

It came to mind yesterday when I was contemplating a 1 pound coffee can - the tall kind, not that flatter kind we had when I was a kid growing up. This particular one had a lip on the inside of the top because it had opened via a pull-off top. That lip is what keeps most of today's cans from being useful as biscuit cutters because the top has that lip, and the bottom is rounded on the edges so a can opener can't get in there to make a cutting edge.

But this particular lip was such that I was able to take it off with my can opener, so now there is a nice clean edge.

Here is my biscuit cutter collection, next to the new can.



The larger sizes are for cutting hamburger bun and English muffin dough, and the smallest ones are for decent-sized biscuits for dinner. Of course you can buy various size cutters at cookware shops, but there is something satisfying about re-using the cans, and they nest together. I'll leave the end on the new can and use it for breads.

Brown Bread

1 1/2 cups raisins
1 1/2 cup boiling water
2 teaspoons soda
1 tablespoon shortening
1 cup sugar
1 egg
2 3/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup walnuts

Mix boiling water and soda and pour over raisins. Let stand until cool. Cream shortening, sugar, and egg. Sift dry ingredients and add to creamed mixture alternately with raisins and and their liquid. Add nuts. Bake 1 hour at 350 degrees. Use no. 2 cans, well greased (or those small bread pans).

I know you are wondering what size is a Number 2 can. It's an 18 to 20 oz. can, and here is what usually comes/came in them: ready-to-serve soups, some specialties, pineapple, apple slices. In older recipes (prior to 1980's), was the popular size for most fruits and vegetables.

If you're going to bake in a can, don't use the kind with the inside coating. It might stand up to baking, but don't risk it.

This recipe has rye flour and corn meal in it besides the whole wheat flour, and is more like what you can buy in cans at the store. Also, it's steamed rather than baked, the more traditional preparation. It is from Moody's Diner in Waldoboro, Maine.

More Traditional Brown Bread
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup medium rye flour
1 cup yellow corn meal
1/2 cup white flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 cup molasses
2 cups buttermilk or sour milk

Butter the inside of two clean, one-pound coffee cans. Combine flours and cornmeal. Stir in salt and baking soda. Mix molasses and buttermilk and beat into dry ingredients. Pour into prepared coffee cans. Cover cans with waxed paper or aluminum foil and tie well or secure with rubber bands. Place cans on a rack in a deep pot with enough boiling water to come halfway up the sides of the cans. Cover the pot and simmer 2 1/2 hours, adding boiling water if needed to keep the level halfway up. Heat oven to 300 degrees. After the cans of bread have steamed for 3 hours, remove wax paper or foil and put the cans in the oven for about 5 minutes so they will shrink slightly and can be removed easily. Remove bread from the molds and leave in the oven shelf for another 3 to 4 minutes so a faint crust can form.

To serve, slice the bread and spread with cream cheese if desired. It's good toasted and buttered to go with your baked beans.

Here is an old-fashioned recipe for Maine style beans from a cookbook called "Keep Cooking the Maine Way" by Marjorie Standish.

Maine Baked Beans
1 pound dry beans (about 2 cups)
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon salt
Few grains black pepper
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
2 tablespoons molasses
1/2 pound salt pork (or 4 tablespoons cooking oil)
About 2 1/2 cups boiling water

Pick over dry beans and wash them. Place in a good sized bowl and cover with cold water. Soak overnight. In the morning, drain beans. Place in a bean pot. Mix all seasonings together in a small bowl. Turn into bean pot on top of soaked, drained beans and mix together until all beans are coated with seasonings. Take care not to add too much molasses; it can cause beans to harden as they bake. Add boiling water, about 2 1/2 cups or enough to cover the beans in the pot. Score salt pork by making gashes in it. Wash pork in hot water. Place it on top of the beans. Cover the bean pot. Place in oven and bake at 250 degrees for 8 hours. They should not be stirred but they need attention occasionally, for they need to be kept covered with boiling water at all times. Keep bean pot covered until the last hour of baking, then remove the cover so the beans will brown on top.

I don't know about you, but these days, I am not likely to fire up my oven for 8 hours, even at only 250 degrees, so I make my beans in the crockpot. It's not exactly the same, due to the fact that bean pots have a narrower top so the liquid doesn't evaporate so fast, but you can make do.