The Baked Bean thread

[cyrille]

Got to be boiled until the juice thickens

That'll most likely be just you.

[hallelujah]

Grate cheese on hot beans and let it melt for 2min.

This is not optional. It's a must.

[aging one]

Now this is meant as a joke, but pretty well sums up most Yanks views on British food. Notice there are some great dishes.

[cyrille]

Well, since the American's culinary gift to the world is junk food, nobody is craving their approval.

[BLD]

This is not optional. It's a must.

Grated cheese, a teaspoon of keens curry powder and voila curried beans for the money shot sprinkle crispy bacon on top and its a crowd pleaser.

[Reg Dingle]

Lovely

[MarilynMonroe]

^What is that? Cheese and beans?

The problem with canned baked beans is there is often too much sugar and salt and additives in them.
I do like beans, but I don't eat the baked bean ones.

[cyrille]

I don't eat the baked bean ones.

Do you eat the toast ones?

[kingwilly]

^What is that? Cheese and beans?

If you read the post prior to the picture, perhaps it will make sense.


Or perhaps not.

[cyrille]

If you read the most prior to the picture, perhaps it will make sense.


Or perhaps not.

Indeed.

[Troy]

That's supposed to be cheese?

At least it will stick to the wall...

[Joe 90]

[cyrille]

Oh I must bother watching that, with no information about what tf it is.

[dirk diggler]

No need to get shirty.

[Joe 90]

Outstanding news


The first ever commercial crop of British-grown baked beans have been canned in a Lincolnshire factory.

Specially bred haricot beans designed to grow in the UK climate were harvested in September at a farm in the county.

It is hoped that the baked bean breakthrough will reduce the reliance on imports.

More than two million tins are eaten every day, with all the beans grown in the US, Canada, Ethiopia and China.

The project was developed by scientists at the University of Warwick, who took 12 years to produce the seeds.

A smaller-scale trial to grow them in 2022 failed due to the summer heatwave.

Some health food brands have attempted to market British-grown broad beans as "baked beans", but they have lacked mass appeal due to the difference in taste to haricots.

IMAGE SOURCE,LINSEY SMITH / BBC

Image caption,Farmer Andrew Ward described the production of the finished baked beans as "an absolute milestone"
Farmer Andrew Ward who grew the beans on his farm in Leadenham, watched them being tinned at the Princes factory in Spalding.

He said it was "an absolute milestone".

"As a nation, we import too much food," he said.

"To be able to produce something that we consume in such great quantities in this country, it's just unbelievable."

The canning is a test run and the beans will not be available in supermarkets just yet.

Most of this year's harvest will be used as seeds for the next season's planting to increase stocks of the plants

IMAGE SOURCE,LINSEY SMITH / BBC

Image caption,The haricot beans were bred by scientists at the University of Warwick
Princes produce 264 million tins of beans every year for Branston foods and supermarkets' own-brands.

David McDiarmid from the company said they were "very proud" to have secured the first supply of British-grown haricot beans.

"There is a lot of work going on in the food industry in terms of alternate sources, particularly with one eye on greater self-sufficiency for the UK, or the environmental angle," he said.

He added: "We are not always going to be able to be self-sufficient, tuna isn't going to swim around the North Sea any time soon.

"So we are always going to have global sources of food, but it's important that where there are options, we do produce domestically."

[Molle]

^ Brexit bringing progress to Britain.

[NamPikToot]

^ Only because that nasty Mercan Biden hates us and won't sign a trade agreement covering amongst other things essentials like haricot beans in tomato ketchup, necessity is the mother of invention and all that

[Mendip]

Stumpy asked me to keep it under me hat, but he can't source baked beans up north any more and wanted me to take a look around.

Well, I struck gold, and in Korat no less.

Korat Chef have catering cans of Branston Baked Beans, for only 339 Baht!

Stumpy could start bathing in them for that price!

[Topper]

How about a TD Challenge event....

Who can finish a can of those beans the fastest?

[kingwilly]

Yeah, nah!

[Joe 90]

This is the stuff of dreams for Snubbles..

[kingwilly]

What were you googling to find that?

[hallelujah]

What were you googling to find that?

I subscribe to a page on Twitter called "dinner with beans."

No need for Google- the beauty comes right to me every day.

[Happy As Larry]

‘Unusually soft, mushy, oddly bland’: the best (and worst) baked beans, tasted and rated by Felicity Cloake


Baked beans are one of those homely foods that are so familiar that most of us don’t give them even a second thought on the shelf – we reach for our usual brand, tick it off the list and reserve our mental bandwidth for more exciting foodstuffs. After all, just how different can a tin of beans be? To my surprise, I discovered very striking disparities between the ones I tested, so if you’re someone who routinely decants excess juice or reduces the sauce to achieve that authentic school dinner effect, you might be better off simply switching allegiance. Similarly, the sugar content varied between 9% of your recommended daily allowance to 13%, so if that’s a concern, look out for reduced- or no-sugar brands instead.
There’s a significant price difference between supermarket own labels and the leading brands, too. If you’re after a gourmet experience, I’d recommend the Bold Bean Co’s rich tomato baked beans (£3.50), because they remind me of those homemade beans you sometimes get with a fry-up at fancy cafes: intensely savoury and packed full of herbs. They don’t qualify here, because they are to ordinary baked beans what rye sourdough is to white sliced, but they’re bloody lovely all the same. That said, you can’t go wrong with any of our best buys served on buttered toast with a light dusting of grated cheddar. Small pleasures don’t come much cheaper.

Best all-rounder
M&S baked beans in a rich tomato sauce
★★★★★
These have a very appetising, rich colour and, like all the best baked beans, a dash of vinegar to balance out the sweetness. There’s lots of sauce (the tin holds only 49% beans), but when said sauce tastes this good, who cares? (Note that, though these are the only ones I try that aren’t thickened with modified maize starch, they do contain various extracts and flavourings. Organic varieties are a better bet if you’re trying to avoid ultra-processed ingredients.)

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Best bargain
Morrisons baked beans in tomato sauce
★★★★☆
Large beans in a thick, tangy sauce with a well-rounded, almost savoury flavour – this has more seasoning than most of its rivals, and you can taste it. Classic baked beans at a good price, but beware the high sugar content.

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Best splurge
Branston baked beans in a rich, thick, tomatoey sauce
★★★★★
Quite simply, the king of beans. Twice the price of the own-brands, but worth every penny, especially in comparison with its better known and more expensive rival. If you like your sauce thick, deliciously savoury and generously seasoned with salt and sugar, give these a try – once you taste them, you’ll never go back.

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And the rest …
Heinz Beanz
★★★★☆
It can’t be denied that the brand synonymous with baked beans knows how to woo the eye with plump, perfectly cooked beans in a sauce that’s thin enough to show them off in all their creamy beauty. That sauce, however, doesn’t live up to the premium price tag – it’s thin and sweet. I think Heinz is riding off its reputation at this point.

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Bramwells baked beans in a rich tomato sauce

★★★☆☆
Winner of a blind tasting last year by consumer group Which?, these have a thick, almost gloopy sauce but a nice colour and a decent, if unexciting flavour, which is perhaps what people want from their morning beans. Again, I can’t pick up the spices or onion listed in the ingredients. Solid, but I wouldn’t rush to recommend them.
★★★☆☆
The fruity, tomatoey flavour of this sauce reminds me, rather comfortingly, of tinned tomato soup. I can’t taste the onion powder or paprika, though from the colour of them, there’s a lot of the latter. If you have a sweet tooth, these are the beans for you.

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Waitrose Essential baked beans in tomato sauce
★★★☆☆
The most highly seasoned tin I try, but the watery orange sauce is definitely second fiddle to the real stars: the nicely cooked beans. That said, I pick up a weirdly meaty aftertaste that puts me off a bit, but I’ll be honest, with some grated cheese, I probably wouldn’t notice.

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Sainsbury’s baked beans in tasty tomato sauce
★★☆☆☆
Copious amounts of sauce with a fairly one-dimensionally sweet flavour, despite the fairly average sugar content. Nothing offensive here, just a wee bit underwhelming.

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Tesco baked beans in tomato sauce
★☆☆☆☆
Unusually soft, mushy beans in a sauce that, given the relatively high sugar and salt content, is oddly bland, and thickened with maltodextrin as well as the usual modified maize starch. Just dull.

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Ocado baked beans in tomato sauce
★☆☆☆☆
There are lots of small, broken beans in here, suggesting they’ve been overcooked, and they come floating disconsolately in a pallid, thin sauce. Really disappointing. (On the plus side, these have the lowest sugar content of all the beans I try, so if you’re looking for haricot beans on a budget, just give these a rinse: they’re a lot cheaper than the plain kind.)

‘Unusually soft, mushy, oddly bland’: the best (and worst) baked beans, tasted and rated by Felicity Cloake | Beans, pulses and legumes | The Guardian

[Happy As Larry]

Make a meal of it: how to jazz up a tin of baked beans
Sausages, cheese, chilli all probably spring immediately to mind, but have you considered wine or sage instead?

How can I make a tin of baked beans tastier?
“You’ve come to the right place,” says food writer Melek Erdal. “One of my most popular recipes ever was jazzed-up beans on toast, which came out of lockdown, when we were all utilising everything.” Essentially, when it comes to injecting flavour into baked beans, it’s all about the base, and for Erdal that means toasting spices (cumin seeds, ground coriander, aleppo chilli) in an ovenproof pan, then adding “the magic triangle”, namely ginger, garlic and chilli, and some oil. “Add the beans, crumble feta on top, then pop it in the oven until the top caramelises.” Erdal might also add a drizzle of tahini, “for a take on shakshuka, and a lovely brunch or lunch.”

In a similar riffable vein, Eleanor Maidment, author of Pulse, makes a base of chorizo and red peppers, then adds beans and poaches some eggs in them. Cured meat is, of course, always a good idea, too: “Baked beans are quite sweet, so savoury things work really well with them,” Maidment says. “Fry onions and bacon, then add the beans and a splash of Worcestershire sauce, say.”

It’s also helpful to think of your tin as beans in tomato sauce, rather than as a standalone dish, advises the Guardian’s own Felicity Cloake. “Each tin is the start of any number of quick, tomato-based bean dishes,” she says, although a good start would be frying chopped onion, perhaps some ginger or diced carrot and celery, then stirring in spices or dried herbs: “Curry powder or an Indian spice blend of your choice, oregano and garlic for an Italian vibe [and especially good with mozzarella], or smoked paprika and crumbled chorizo for a Spanish feel … You get the idea.” Add the beans, bring to a simmer, stir in some frozen spinach and top with an egg, thick yoghurt and/or crumbled cheese: “Once you start seeing them as a stew, rather than a topping, a world of beany possibilities will open up.”

You could expand your horizons further still with Ed Grace’s Tuscan twist. “Everyone knows how good baked beans and sausages are together,” says the chef at Trullo in London, “and when they’re cooked with wine and sage, too, they turn into a simple yet delicious dinner.” For two, he browns six good-quality sausages until golden. “Turn down the heat, add two finely sliced garlic cloves, three sage leaves and half a tablespoon of fennel seeds, and cook for three minutes more.” Pour in 75ml white wine and, once that’s evaporated, add a tin of baked beans, 500g spinach and a ladleful of chicken stock (or water). “Cook for about five minutes, until the spinach has wilted and the sauce has thickened, then finish with a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil.” Also looking to sunnier climes, Maidment might bolster baked beans with tomato puree, olive oil, garlic and fresh herbs, or she’d go in with some chipotle paste: “Stuff those into tacos with avocado and grated cheese”.



And if time is of the essence, other easy updates Erdal has in her arsenal include simply adding a knob of butter (“That always works”), mixing up the beans (“Bung in half a tin of drained butter beans, too”), or accessorising beans on toast with crumbled feta, chopped spring onion and parsley: “That’s how I make them a justifiable meal, anyway.”

Make a meal of it: how to jazz up a tin of baked beans | Chefs | The Guardian