Baked beans is a dish containing beans, sometimes baked but, despite the name, usually stewed, in a sauce. Most commercial canned baked beans are made from haricot beans, also known as navy beans – a variety of Phaseolus vulgaris – in a sauce. In the United Kingdom, tomato sauce is most commonly used. In the United States, Boston baked beans use a sauce made from pork and molasses, and are so popular the city has been nicknamed "Beantown". Maine and Quebec-style beans often use maple syrup. They were used as comfort food when heated, or as a nice quick, light, snack straight from the can.
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The beans used in baked beans are all native to North America. and were introduced to Italy in 1528 and France by 1547. Beans, squash and maize were grown together by Native Americans using the Three Sisters method of farming.
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.
While many recipes today are stewed, traditionally beans were baked in a ceramic or cast-iron bean pot. Bean hole cooking as practiced in Maine's logging camps used stone-lined fire pits where the bean pots would be buried to cook overnight or longer.[1]
Canned beans, often with pork, were among the first convenience foods. Canned salt pork and beans with stewed tomatoes was supplied to the US Army during the American Civil War in the 1860s.[2] The U.S. Food and Drug Administration stated in 1996 that It has for years been recognized by consumers generally that the designation 'beans with pork,' or 'pork and beans' is the common or usual name for an article of commerce that contains very little pork.[3] This is typically a piece of salt pork to add fat to the dish.
In the United Kingdom, the term baked beans refers almost exclusively to canned beans in a tomato sauce. Some people regard baked beans as integral part of the modern Full English Breakfast. As the top selling brand of baked beans, historically the H. J. Heinz Company has become synonymous with them, although the growing popularity of other brands has reduced this.[4] Heinz Beans were first sold in the UK in the upmarket Fortnum & Mason store in London as an exotic import at a high price. Although they are now a staple food, and arguably a downmarket one, the store continues the tradition of selling Heinz Beans among its more expensive wares.
British supermarkets may sell store brand baked beans for less than thirty pence a tinned can[5] although some premium organic brands may be as expensive as £1.50.[citation needed] Baked beans are a classic example of a "loss leader", a product sold by supermarkets for an abnormally low price, often less than cost. Baked beans have recently begun appearing in conjunction with other foods, such as a filler inside sausages, as a sidedish with bacon, or as a pizza topping[citation needed].
In the United States, Bush's and B&M are well-known producers of baked beans. B&M concentrates almost exclusively on Boston-style baked beans, while Bush's produces several flavours. Most of these products are in a very sweet sauce with little tang, compared with the tanginess of home-made baked beans.
Heinz also sells baked beans in the US, but there are substantial differences between the Heinz baked beans sold in the UK and the nearest equivalent American product (Heinz Premium Vegetarian Beans). The American product contains brown sugar where the British beans do not, and the US product contains 14g of sugar per tin compared to 7g for the British version (equating to 140 vs 90 calories). The US beans have a mushier texture and are darker in colour than their UK counterpart. For several years, the UK Heinz Baked Beans have been available in the US, either in different sized cans than those sold in the UK or in a 385 gram can (the same can as the 415 gram can in the UK) with an "export" label with American English spelling and the word "baked" dropped from the title on the label. These are sold in many US specialty stores.
In New England baked beans usually are sweetened with maple syrup, and are traditionally cooked with salt pork in a beanpot in a brick oven for a full day.
In southern states along the eastern seaboard 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. They take on a flavour similar to Cowboy Beans, a similar popular dish.
Traditional cuisines of many regions claim such recipes as typical specialities, for example:
Many unusual dishes are made with baked beans including the baked bean sandwich. These are slices of bread topped with beans and other additions, such as melted cheese.
In 2002 the British Dietetic Association allowed manufacturers of canned baked beans to advertise the product as contributing to the recommended daily consumption of five-six 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 product with lower levels of sugar and salt.
Baked beans are known on occasion to cause a considerable increase in flatulence following consumption;[6][7] this is due to the fermentation of polysaccharides (specifically oligosaccharides) by gut flora, specifically Methanobrevibacter smithii. The oligosaccahirdes pass through the upper intestine largely unchanged, and when they reach the lower intestine, bacteria feed on them, producing copious amounts of flatus.[8]
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