Pork and beans must be one of the most natural food combinations around. And one of the most iconic. For me, it brings back memories of movie cowboys sitting around movie campfires, or memories of actual long empty pork and bean cans around actual long deserted mines in the Mojave.

And for me, also, it has an connotation of poverty and low class. Certainly, my family was aware of that: we did not eat pork and beans; we ate hamhocks and Lima beans. It was one of my favorite dishes when I was growing up. Only within the last year did I figure out that hamhocks and Lima beans was, basically, the same thing as pork and beans.

Or that Chinese long beans with pork was the same thing. And Thai stir-fried pork with long beans. Or, with the addition of duck legs, Cassoulet. Or, for that matter, barbecue with beans. 

This was all brought up by our dinner last night of hamhocks and Italian butter beans. Real comfort food.