Run out of Heinz Beanz or curious if there is a better one? Check out this Baked beans recipe that’s as healthy and tasty as fun!

It seems that memories and history has much more to do with our shopping choices than we actually like to admit it. In fact, many shoppers when asked about some products they buy, they say they aren’t really happy with it, but that’s what they use all the same.

After all, who in their right mind would really buy canned food, that was invented as a food preservation process for times when fresh produce isn’t available, if there weren’t some inexplicable power that makes us put them into our shopping basket.

Nowadays, food manufacturers spend huge amount of marketing money, trying to figure out how to sneak their products into our regular shopping basket as early as possible in our consumer journey. Throwing a toy into a cereal box won’t just make us buy that brand for our kids but buying it regularly will hook them onto the brand for the rest of their life too.

When people don’t have many options though, like it was the case during the world wars, it doesn’t take much for them to bond with what little remains for them. Once the hardships are over, the nostalgic sentiments linger long after, soaking itself into the national identity and may be inherited into generations to come too.

Baked beans are a native American dish that’s traditionally parboiled (pre-cooked) then baked in sauce at low temperature for a long period of time.

Native Americans prepared the beans with bear fat and maple syrup then cooked it for hours in pots that were placed into holes, dug in the earth that were lined with hot stones. Mustard and leek was also added to the pot every now and then and even today some recipes like to feature them as a tasty addition that gives a little twist to the tomato sauce.

British colonists adapted the practice, swapping bear fat with bacon, maple syrup with molasses then brown cane sugar and open fire instead of holes in the ground. Essentially, making a completely different dish, yet under the same name.

Once baked beans reached the shores of the UK, it’s got woven into national identity as much as fish and chips and chicken tikka masala.

The canned variety, that can be purchased every corner of the country, doesn’t even get that treat but pressure cooked once filled into the cans. Curiously, the UK baked beans is less sweet than traditional US ones that still use a considerable amount of sweetener, like simple sugar, corn syrup or maple syrup.

Interestingly, in blind tasting, Heinz which helped popularize and maintain its leading position in the baked beans market, generally comes out in the last place in terms of flavor and texture. It turns out that people don’t buy Heinz Beanz because they like it, but they do it because they used to buy that same blue colored thing for generations.

So, it may not come as a surprise that outside of the sphere of British influence, few nations picked up on the Baked beans craze purely because its flavor.

It doesn’t mean that beans are not popular in most parts of the globe, but people make it differently, with some, try to go to the extremes.

As most of us know, beans cause flatulence in humans which is a totally natural process. Beans are rich in sugars, called polysaccharides which humans can’t digest.

When the sugars reach the lower intestine, the resident bacteria feed on them and produce gas. In 2006, Venezuelan scientists announced the first “fart-free bean”, in which black beans were fermented with a specific bacterium to break down the polysaccharides before eating.

We can also reduce the amount of flatulence causing oligosaccharide by blasting beans with radioactive waves, but those who have no X-ray access for their daily cooking, have to be content with soaking the beans in water for 12-24 hours and be happy what we can get. At least, we don’t have to dug them into the earth nor buy them just because we used to.

Ingredients

5 cups / 1200ml Water
2½ cups / 500g Beans (17 oz canned beans)
1 medium / 100g Onion
1 clove / 3g Garlic
½ teaspoon / 1.5g Black pepper
2 teaspoons / 10g Salt
½ cup / 120g Tomato paste
1 tablespoon / 15ml Vinegar
8 teaspoons / 20g Corn starch
¼ cup / 50ml Water
Sweetener to taste

How to make Baked beans

Rinse beans then soak at least 12 but even better 24 hours. Some like to discard the water, others have no problem using it for cooking.
Pour water and beans into a big enough pot. Add onion, garlic, black pepper, salt then put on a lid and bring it to boil. Reduce heat to simmer then cook the beans until gets soft in the inside, about 45 – 90 minutes, depends on the age of the beans. Take into account that the beans will also cook in sauce while cooling off.
Mix in vinegar and tomato paste. If no tomato paste is available, just make some by reducing tomato puree or freshly pureed tomato.
Mix corn starch with a bit of water then add it to the pot. Stir until it starts to thicken, adjust flavor with salt and black pepper. Remove the pot from heat and let it cool down then serve.