Birnen, Bohnen und Speck

Birnen, Bohnen und Speck belongs to Schleswig-Holstein, Hamburg, and the flat northern country where beans, small cooking pears, and smoked pork meet at the same time. Late summer starts it, stored pears carry it further into the cold months. In Low German you hear Beer'n, Boh'n un Speck, and in Schleswig-Holstein Brooken Sööt, broken sweet, because the sweetness is cut by smoke and salt. This is the northern table. Das ist kein Bierzelt.

The argument starts before the water boils. Some families keep the broth clear and serve potatoes on the side; others put potatoes straight into the pot and let the starch thicken the liquor. Hamburg likes the pears whole with the stems still on, Lower Saxony may cut larger pears because the fruit there often arrives bigger. I keep them whole. The pear should look like a pear when it reaches the bowl.

The one technique is the order. Speck, smoked bacon, goes in first because the rind and fat make the broth you cannot buy. Beans and potatoes go in next because they need salt and smoke in their skins. The pears go in last at a low tremble, not a boil, so they take up the smoke and stay intact. Boil it hard and you get dull beans, burst pears, and a pot that looks tired before supper.

A piece of bacon, a heap of beans, fruit too hard to eat raw, and the cooking liquor kept in the bowl. That is good northern thrift. Das braucht seine Zeit, but it doesn't need fuss.