> Waitaminute. Boston is the city responsible for making famous those "Pork 'n Beans" in cans?

Well, yeah, but we just call them "baked beans." Because...

> Hrm. In truth we ought to call 'em "Baked Beans 'n Lard," 'cause really, there's so little pork/bacon inside the can in the first place...

...the chunk of salt pork in every can is added for flavor and as a natural preservative. I don't think it's meant to be eaten -- you chuck it out after the beans are done cooking. The little bacon pieces are also just for flavoring, hence why there isn't much. It's not a can of "beans and bacon," after all but just "beans." I could be wrong, but I think the bacon flavoring may be a comparatively recent addition. I don't remember bacon always being one of the flavors. (I *love* it, though. YUM.)

> Boston must have been notable for the tinning industry, as well -- their obsession with cans extends to a baked good known as "Boston Bread." This is served as round slices of a dark brown bread *steamed inside a soup can*. Strange.

Ah yes. We call that "brown bread" here. VERY New Englandy. I'm not partial to it myself, though. I grew up on it, and my mother loved it and did a great job of getting my brother and me to love it, too. So great a job that it wasn't until a year or two ago that it even hit me that I really don't like the stuff.

Still, it's a neat legacy for Boston to have given the world.