Birnen, Bohnen und Speck

It is an August and September dish because all three of its parts are ready at once.

Pork. Not vegetarian — contains pork.

Ingredients

• 300 g speck or streaky bacon, in one piece
• 800 g green beans, topped and cut in lengths
• 6 small firm cooking pears
• 600 g waxy potatoes, quartered
• 1 litre water
• 1 sprig savory
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• black pepper
• 2 tablespoons parsley, chopped

Method

1. IT IS AN AUGUST AND SEPTEMBER DISH BECAUSE ALL THREE OF ITS PARTS ARE READY AT ONCE. The article gives the reason rather than just the season: THE SEASONAL AVAILABILITY OF ITS INGREDIENTS MEANS THAT THE DISH IS MAINLY EATEN IN THE MONTHS OF AUGUST AND SEPTEMBER.
2. SO THE NAME IS THE INGREDIENT LIST AND THE CALENDAR IS THE RECIPE. Pears, beans and speck -- and the pears must be cooking pears, hard and barely ripe, because a dessert pear collapses into the broth within minutes.
3. THE POTATOES ARE IN IT AND ARE NOT IN THE NAME. The article is unusually candid about this: in NORTH GERMAN COUNTRY KITCHENS, POTATOES WOULD ALSO BE ADDED, EVEN THOUGH THEY ARE NOT SPECIFICALLY MENTIONED.
4. THE BEANS ARE CUT BEANS, NOT WHOLE ONES. GENERALLY CUT GREEN BEANS -- Brechbohnen -- ARE USED, which the article states, and it records Turkish peas as the older choice in Hamburg markets, a Vierlande bean despite the name.
5. IT IS A STEW AND EVERYTHING COOKS IN ONE POT, which is the article's own description: A TYPE OF STEW.
6. SIMMER THE SPECK WHOLE FIRST, FOR FORTY MINUTES. It makes the stock, and left in one piece it stays sliceable instead of shredding away.
7. THE PEARS GO IN NEXT AND WHOLE, STALKS ON. Twenty minutes. Peeled and cut, they disintegrate and sweeten the whole pot, which is not what is wanted -- the sweetness should arrive in mouthfuls.
8. THEN THE POTATOES, THEN THE BEANS. Fifteen minutes and ten. The beans last, so they keep their colour and their snap.
9. THE SAVORY IS THE HERB FOR BEANS and goes in with them. It is what makes this taste of late summer rather than of bacon.
10. SERVE IT IN A WIDE BOWL WITH THE SPECK SLICED ON TOP, a pear each, and the parsley over. Nothing is mashed or stirred together.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Germany · All recipes