New England Triptych

An Iconic Summer Meal

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A Brief History of the Triptych

In addition to the Boothbay Harbor Pocket Map my mom designed and the “Bobbles by Bob” colored pencil necklaces she and my stepdad Bob created—both were sold in her newsletter and various gift shops around the region—she also hand-painted a series of framed “triptychs” featuring classic New England summer meals.

one of the triptychs; we’ll feature another next summer!

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From Karyl’s Cook & Tell Column (1981)

When I asked some time ago in this space what people do on Saturdays, whether they bake beans on Saturdays, for instance, I had absolutely no way of knowing just what kind of response would be forthcoming.

Two replies poured in.

Fifty percent of the respondents indicated Saturday night was, indeed, baked bean night for her, out there in Glenside, Pennsylvania. The other fifty percent said she belongs to a gourmet dinner club in New York that meets on certain Saturday nights. This respondent artfully sidestepped the whole bean issue by not referring to it at all. The implication is clear: Respondent B doesn’t care beans.

Respondent A wrote back a second time, after I acknowledged her letter and thanked her for being at that point, the only one to write in about beans. She was appalled at the bean apathy.

I hereby declare the bean poll closed. All would-be respondents can stop feeling guilty about putting off writing. Too late. And whoever thinks I can’t squeeze a newspaper column out of two crummy replies to a query that clearly failed to pique the interest of a majority of Cook & Tell readers is reminded that I have gotten this far, miraculously, without running out of—you should pardon the expression—gas.

Should I dismiss the awful thought that those two replies may, in fact, constitute a majority of Cook & Tell readers?

Susy, Respondent A, warns that the way she does beans “will make a Mainer wince,” explaining that her combination came about in an attempt to duplicate the beans they had at a local establishment here in the Harbor last summer. She says to combine a can, or cans, of the cheapest beans in tomato sauce you can get, then add a dollop of the following (“that being more than ‘a little’ but less than a ‘generous’): ketchup, prepared mustard, a couple glugs of molasses and a sprinkle of dried onion to an earthenware pot and bake uncovered for an hour or more “while you sit around and think beautiful thoughts.” All that’s missing, claims Susy, are the piney air, the foghorns and the gulls.

I’m ordinarily not a great flag-waver for the take-a-can-of-this-and-a-can-of-that school of cookery, but darn it, canned beans are good doctored up this way. To Susy’s beans, which work quite well in the black iron skillet just bubbling away for a while on the stovetop without using the oven, I would add a mess of crumbled up sauteed bacon, skip the dried onion and add a couple of sliced onions that have been sauteed in the bacon fat, a spoonful or two of Dijon mustard and some brown sugar. And I’d use B&M baked pea beans, never kidney.

Bean Bonus: leftovers make great baked bean sandwiches, with mayo and chopped onion mixed in.

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You’re on your own for the perfect chowder recipe. And instead of the obligatory summer blueberry pie, for which there are multitudes of recipes, may I present this twist on the traditional, in which beloved wild Maine blueberries fill a short, shallow and butter crust, just begging for a dollop of whipped cream for every wedge!

WILD MAINE BLUEBERRY TART

• 1 ½ cups flour

• 2 Tbsp sugar

• 8 Tbsp (1 stick) butter, cut into 6-8 pieces

• 1 Tbsp white vinegar

• 2 cups wild Maine blueberries (fresh or frozen; if frozen look for Wyman’s Wild Berries in the freezer section of your grocery or Sprouts market) MAKES A DIFFERENCE!

• 1 cup sugar

• ½ tsp nutmeg

• squeeze of lemon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Put flour and sugar in bowl and cut in the butter.

Dribble the vinegar over and toss with a fork. Press mixture into a tart pan (fluted ring, removable bottom). Combine blueberries, sugar, flour, nutmeg and lemon juice and pour into crust.

Bake about 1 hour; let cool for 1-2 hours and serve.

illustration by my mom, Karyl Bannister

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Be sure to check out the official Cook & Tell August Advent Calendar on Instagram and Substack Notes—part of my never-ending attempt to squeeze out every last drop of summer. All the ingredients for the perfect Maine summer: food, family, friends and fun!

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For the love of all things holy, LOBSTER ice cream??

Your Maine Connection,

The Cook & Tell Library | Recipe Index | Owner’s Manual | Notes | the micro mashup | instagram

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