Boston baked beans
- noun
- /ˈbɔstən beɪkt biːnz/
:
frijoles al horno de Boston
- Examples include Idaho potatoes, Washington apples, Hawaiian pineapples, Maine lobsters, Florida orange juice, Wisconsin cheese, Georgia peaches, Boston baked beans, and Kansas wheat.
Examples
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At the family gathering, everyone enjoyed the delicious Boston baked beans paired with grilled sausages.
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Black-eyed peas and corn dodgers, kosher hot dogs and Boston baked beans, we got them all.
Fiction book (1993) -
"We would be a nation bereft of Thanksgiving, the Red Sox, and Boston baked beans.
Academic text (2006) -
For a hearty meal, we often serve Boston baked beans with cornbread and coleslaw.
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She tried a new recipe for Boston baked beans that included maple syrup for added sweetness.
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is compositionally transparent: 'Boston' indicates origin, 'baked' describes the cooking method, and 'beans' names the food, so a learner who knows those words can infer it refers to a Boston-style baked bean dish. Cultural specifics (molasses, salt pork) are not predictable, but the general referent — a type of cooked bean dish from Boston — is clear to a B1 learner.
Etymology
Boston baked beans comes from cooks in the Boston area who slow-cooked dried beans with molasses and salt pork in a deep pot. Because the food was baked slowly and tied to Boston, the name points to the place (Boston) and the method (baked), so today it means 'the slow, sweet bean dish'.
