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Baked Beans

Baked beans is a recipe consisting of beans in baked format (sometimes stewed) in a sauce.

Traditional cuisines of many regions claim such recipes as typical specialities, for example:

Baked beans in Quebec

British cuisine claims beans on toast as a teatime favourite, and baked beans may form part of a Full English breakfast.

Baked beans are also part of an Irish breakfast

Most commercial tinned baked beans such as Heinz are made from navy beans, a variety of Phaseolus vulgaris, and sold in tomato sauce. Tinned baked beans are often mistakenly thought of as haricot beans (for example,), but Heinz describes their Baked Beans as "Canadian navy beans", which are very similar to haricots but slightly larger. Also, baked beans shold not be confused with Pork and Beans which are also navy beans in tomato sauce, but are not sweetened with brown sugar or flavored with onions like baked beans.

The popularity of baked beans may be due to the fact Baked Beans are cheap to make and buy. In the United Kingdom, for example, supermarkets may sell store brand baked beans for less than 10p a can, but some premium organic brands may be as expensive as '1.50. Baked beans have also recently started appearing with other foods, such as inside sausages, with bacon, or on Pizza.

In the US, Bush's is the top producer of baked beans produce several flavors. Most of these products are in a very sweet sauce with little tang. By comparison, home made baked beans are considerably tangier. As you move south down the eastern coast of the US, the beans become tangier, usually due to the addition of yellow mustard. Ground beef also becomes common alongside bacon in these beans. Baked Beans take on a flavor similar to Cowboy Beans, a similar dish popular in America.

Baked Bean History

New and old versions of the Heinz brand. The recipe for baked beans may be based on a Native American dish in which beans were cooked with bear fat and maple syrup in an earthenware pot. European settlers may have adapted this recipe, using pork fat and molasses.

According to alternative traditions, sailors brought cassoulet from the south of France, or the regional bean stew recipes from northern France and the Channel Islands.

Most probably, a number of regional bean recipes coalesced and cross-fertilised in North America and ultimately gave rise to the baked bean culinary tradition familiar today.

The Heinz company markets their Baked Beans in the UK under the name "Baked Beanz", in reference to a 1960s advertisement campaign which used the slogan "Beanz Meanz Heinz".

In October 2005, Premier Foods Plc launched Branston Baked Beans. The marketing and promotion of this Baked Beans was aimed squarely at challenging Heinz's dominance of the UK baked bean market. Promotional activities included a 'Great British Bean Poll' where members of the public across the country were invited to blind taste both 'the brand leader' (assumed to be Heinz) and Branston. 76% of participants picked Branston over the brand leader. Heinz was subsequently obliged to re-evaluate its advertising strategy in the face of this aggressive activity, although in public Heinz spokespeople dismissed the challenge as a 'non-starter'.

Baked Bean and Health

In 2002 the British etic Association allowed manufacturers of canned baked beans to advertise the Baked Beans as contributing to the recommended five daily allowance of vegetables per person. This concession was criticised by heart specialists who pointed to the high levels of sugar and salt in the product. Some manufacturers produce a "healthy option" version of the Baked Beans with lower levels of sugar and salt.

Baked Bean Wars

In the mid to late nineties in the United Kingdom a 'war' broke out amongst the leading supermarket retailers, in which the price of store branded beans were reduced so much that Baked Beans were giving customers a penny per tin of beans to take them away; however Baked Beans were limited to 3 tins per customer. This is directly responsible for the low prices still available today. The prices meant beans became a staple for students. The reason for the price reduction was not only to get the customers to take the Baked Beans but also to encourage the consumption of the products that would accompany it, such as bread, margarine, butter, and cheese, which have higher profit margins.

Much of the content on this page was obtained from the Wikipedia, which is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License