bean hole n, also attrib chiefly ME, Gt Lakes
A pit in which beans are cooked using the residual heat and hot coals remaining from a fire.
1873 NY Observer (NY) 16 Jan 24/1 nME, [In a lumber camp:] A two-pail pot is every night buried in the ashes and fire, containing the beans and pork for the next day’s rations, and no patented invention can ever equal this “bean hole” for the confinement of the sweet nutricious juices of the beans and meat. 1907 DN 3.241 eME, Bean-hole. . . A hole in the ground in which beans are baked in live coals and over which there is usually a log shed or other rude shelter. A feature of logging camps. 1909 DN 3.408 nME. 1913 DN 4.2 ME, Gt Lakes. 1923 Outing 81.252/2, A bean hole can be made by digging a hole some larger than the largest kettle and a foot deep. 1966 DARE (Qu. H50) Inf ME2, Baked beans or bean hole beans—some make it in a bean-hole, in a pot covered with live coals and buried in [the] ground over night; (Qu. HH14, Ways of teasing a beginner . . “Go get me a _____.”) Inf MI26, Bean hole. 1969 Brainerd Daily Dispatch (MN) 17 July 1/4, Pequot Lakes conducted its annual Bean Hole Day yesterday preparing 200 pounds of beans with 40 pounds of bacon. 1976 Fairbanks Daily News–Miner (AK) 9 Oct sec B 3/2, When Sam came to this country 55 years ago, he brought the bean hole beans idea with him. 1982 Frederick Post (MD) 5 Aug sec F 1/3, The real bean connoiseur [sic] favors “bean hole” beans. These are actually baked for eons in a pit full of hot rocks covered with dirt. (Bean hole bean suppers are to Maine what crab feasts or oyster roasts are to Maryland.) 2009 Jrl. Tribune (Biddeford ME) 13 July sec A 4/4, At 5 p.m., a bean-hole bean supper will be served at Alfred Parish Church parking lot.