Beans and more beans and tuna

[Janne]

They are best as mulch.

So awfully sweet..... I have tried several brands, as the British ones are disgustingly expensive here.

For a while, I mixed one can of Bush’s varieties with one can of drained small white ones. Navy .i think.

 

[Tengu]

Baked beans are fantastic and can be used in so many ways. Even on toast.

But most of mine end up in stews and meaty dishes.

A favorite of mine is beans and sausages (Either the tinned or something added, sausage, bacon cubes or the like) in a dish, topped with home made stuffing.

40 mins in the oven. This is a fantastic cheap dish and one that if carefuly presented, would be a nice treat for a discerning guest.

There are `extras` in the food bank. Mostly stuff too mystifying or specialised for most folk. (But maybe of interest to an experimenting cook)

This is how I got the giant couscous and ministrone soup mix.

I think I will use the peaches in more chutney. Im not keen on sweet things, (much) and my diabetes wont like it. I always keep vinegar and some sugar in store, in case I land something that can be made into chutney. (Most fruit or veg can be preserved in some way)

I will enjoy a little, and the rest can go as presents...the chutney I made smells very good allready. Im sure someone will be delighted

 

[bobnewboy]

One of my favourite meals: a large baked spud with crispy skin, cut in half, opened out in a bowl. Slice lines into the hot, steaming flesh and spread with a little butter. Top with half a tin of baked beans (Heinz for me), and top with a couple of small slices of strong cheddar. Nuke in the microwave for a couple of mins, or until the cheddar has melted (!), and then serve with a good dash of HP sauce. Oh my...Gone in a few minutes, but full and warming all night

 

[santaman2000]

Oh yes

Otherwise they're dahl or mushy peas

I can buy American Baked Beans in several brands and several sauces. Many of the sauces are tomato-based.
All those beans need garlic powder, soya sauce, Worcestershire sauce and fine dice onion.
Both Bush's and Heinz are just ingredients.

None of the Bush’s baked beans I’ve tried have any tomato in them. Nor do any of the generics imitating Bush’s (and Bush’s seems to have replaced Cambell’s As the standard here in the last 20 years or so)

Heinz baked beans aren’t on the normal aisles here; on the international aisle with the British foods. Nothing wrong with that, but I don’t think they can truly be called an “American” brand.

Reading the ingredients list on a generic “country style” as I type:

Prepared white beans, water, brown sugar, sugar, contains 2% or less: salt, bacon (cured with water, sugar, salt, sodium phosphate, sodium erythorbate, sodium nitrate) cornstarch modified, mustard (distilled water, vinegar, mustard seed, salt, turmeric, paprika, spice, garlic powder) caramel color, flavoring (autolyzed yeast extract) onion powder, vinegar, garlic powder.

And I just looked up the ingredients list for Bush’s original. Here it is:

“INGREDIENTS
Prepared White Beans, Water, Brown Sugar, Sugar, Bacon, Salt, Modified Corn Starch, Mustard (Water, Vinegar, Mustard Seed, Salt, Turmeric, Spices), Onion Powder, Caramel Color, Spices, Garlic Powder, and Natural Flavor.”


No sign of tomatoes anywhere in either of those. Different flavorings from original or “country style” add things like honey, maple, etc according to the theme of the flavor. The only ones I can think of that might have tomato would be possibly a BBQ flavor but even then it would more likely be a smoke based BBQ or a sweet based one than tomato beamed. Certainly no tomato in any home made recipe I’ve ever seen.

And Bush’s are complete as they come out of the can and certified gluten free. No additional flavoring needed although I often add meat (smoked sausage, diced spam, or browned ground beef)

 

[santaman2000]

They are best as mulch.

So awfully sweet..... I have tried several brands, as the British ones are disgustingly expensive here.

For a while, I mixed one can of Bush’s varieties with one can of drained small white ones. Navy .i think.

ALL baked beans are white beans. Also know as either “navy beans,” and “harricut.”

 

[santaman2000]

Baked beans are fantastic and can be used in so many ways. Even on toast.

But most of mine end up in stews and meaty dishes.

A favorite of mine is beans and sausages (Either the tinned or something added, sausage, bacon cubes or the like) in a dish, topped with home made stuffing.

40 mins in the oven. This is a fantastic cheap dish and one that if carefuly presented, would be a nice treat for a discerning guest.

There are `extras` in the food bank. Mostly stuff too mystifying or specialised for most folk. (But maybe of interest to an experimenting cook)

This is how I got the giant couscous and ministrone soup mix.

I think I will use the peaches in more chutney. Im not keen on sweet things, (much) and my diabetes wont like it. I always keep vinegar and some sugar in store, in case I land something that can be made into chutney. (Most fruit or veg can be preserved in some way)

I will enjoy a little, and the rest can go as presents...the chutney I made smells very good allready. Im sure someone will be delighted

We’re thinking alike with the beans and sausage.

 

[Toddy]

Every supermarket does their own brand, but Heinz is by far the most popular, and kind of the benchmark.
They've been vegetarian since the second world war, and they are made with Mediterranean tomato puree,.

I don't think we'd recognise 'baked beans' without the tomato, tbh.
They were originally sold in Fortnum and Mason, as a luxury item, now we can buy the microwave snap-pots too.....and a Five Bean version which is very good too, they even make low salt versions of all of them.

Apparently they're made here, from haricot beans, for the British market, to British tastes. After all these years of a successful product, they've obviously got it right
They're a kind of household staple, and a bit like Tengu's dilemma, there are always beans.

 

[Robson Valley]

Santaman, how right you are. No mention of tomato on the back of a Bush's bean can. I'm quite surprised.

I'm into beans & sausage, too, if not doctored up and dumped on toast. Beans & chopped weiners.
I can't resist adding soya sauce and garlic powder and maybe a smash of fine dice onion.
Fair deal on chunk light tuna in the store today, 3/$4.00. Took 9 cans I really didn't need yet.
Won't go off at the rate it gets used by me and the cat. Need a dose of curried tuna soon.

Must admit: the hospital food was pretty good. In 10+ days, I think I got fish for supper maybe 4 times.
The very best tuna sandwiches I have had in many decades. I'd like to learn to do that.

 

[Janne]

The giant couscous real name is ptitim, and is an Izraeli invention.
A round pasta.
Needs to be cooked, not soaked like the real couscous
Once cooked we mix it with finely chopped Italian parsley, d4izzle some quality olive oil on, a bit of pepper and mix.
Goes with anything

It is one of our staple carbs.

I am surprised that the American bean products do not contain tomatoes.
I always assumed it did. My tastebuds did too. Need to look into them again.

 

[Toddy]

The giant couscous real name is ptitim, and is an Izraeli invention.
A round pasta.
Needs to be cooked, not soaked like the real couscous
Once cooked we mix it with finely chopped Italian parsley, d4izzle some quality olive oil on, a bit of pepper and mix.
Goes with anything

It is one of our staple carbs.

I am surprised that the American bean products do not contain tomatoes.
I always assumed it did. My tastebuds did too. Need to look into them again.

If you cook beans at home, in a marmite pot, then they soak up the juices in which they are cooked, but it takes time, it takes a long time, to cook. Thing is though that if you cook beans in tomato sauce it alters the texture, and the skins stay tough. Cook the beans first and then add the sauce. It also stops the sauce sticking and burning.

Baked beans here are cooked in their cans in giant pressure cookers, so the tomato sauce doesn't stick and burn, and the pressure and short cooking time overcomes the tough skins issue.

Much easier to buy a can of Heinz.

 

[Janne]

I need to try cooking my own beans in tomato, just to have done it!

We cook yellow peas into either Swedish Pea Soup, or as a side dish.

The skins we skim off if they float to the surface.

I think to make the baked beans, I would partially precook the soaked beans, then cook in the sauce on the hob first for a bit, then put the casserole in the oven, starting with 125C for a couple of hours, then turning off heat and leaving overnight.

( I do all my casseroles, stocks, consomees and stews like this, saves energy money.
Slow cooking without a slow cooker)

Ptitim: also nice in soups.
We find that the originals, brand Osem, is the tastiest. They have been roasted for more flavour.
The other ones are more like normal pasta. Still nice though!

We are going maybe a bit off topic, but maybe Tengu can get some ideas?

 

[Tengu]

Yes, a lot to think about.

Nessmuk talks about proper baked beans and how hard they can be to get right. It sounds a dish worth trying but also intimidating.

The American recipe sounds rather sugary for my tastes...Give me tomato any day. (One of the nations favorite dishes, as you must know)

I remember a family friend who was a whole food person, the sort who bought beans and rice by the sack. They used to tell us how convenient this diet was, and how cheap! (It involved a lot of soaking and slow cooking then maybe frying, and running up a big bill with the local Deli...)

(Also it was bland and offensive to the digestive system)

this sort of things gives beans a bad name.

 

[Toddy]

You like bacon though, Tengu.
You can slow cook beans and bacon together quite successfully.
We can buy packs of bacon offcuts, the end bits from when they slice up rashers, from either the supermarket or the farmer who delivers spuds, eggs, etc., If you fry up that bacon and add it to pre-soaked beans (do it overnight, add a bit of bicarbonate of soda, and rinse them off before you put them into the cooking water) and cook them slow in that, you might find it very much to your taste. To be honest I think that's more how the American version came about. We'd just have made cassoulet (see earlier post by ?? ) or soup. Pea and ham is very traditional, and you can still pull out the ham end to shred up for sandwiches, etc.,

 

[Janne]

What does the bicarbonate do?

When I was a cash poor student, I used to get meaty bones from the closest supermarket. Roasted them in the oven, then slow cooked them ( oven) for a long time. Excellent, cheap and nutricious base for everything.

 

[santaman2000]

I may be wrong but I think all tinned baked beans of every brand are cooked in the can.

I tried the Heinz while living over there and I can’t say I liked them very much. I doubt it was because of the tomato though because I really didn’t taste it to be honest (that’s why I had to ask the question if there was tomato in them) I just found the Heinz to be dry and a bit bland (rather like the older Cambell’s here) For our older brands her I was like RV; I always used them as an ingredient and added more (more sugar or honey or molasses, plus whatever else took my fancy at the moment.

We also have vegetarian options in most brands but by far the most popular is pork and beans of some sort.

“Proper” baked beans (usually referred to as “Boston Baked Beans” actually we’re developed by th Puritans for religious reasons: they could prepare the beans Saturday night in a Dutch oven and place them in the fireplace to slow cook all night and have Sunday dinner ready without working on Sunday. There definitely would have been no tomatoes in that because that was when colonists still believed tomatoes were poisonous (However molasses would have been readily available and cheap)

Edit to add: it looks like Heinz is not just the most popular in the UK, but it appears to be the largest single producer worldwide.

 

[Toddy]

What does the bicarbonate do?

When I was a cash poor student, I used to get meaty bones from the closest supermarket. Roasted them in the oven, then slow cooked them ( oven) for a long time. Excellent, cheap and nutricious base for everything.

Paraphrased from the Bean Institute

The addition of sodium bicarbonate to the water does two things: It adds sodium ions that weaken the pectin, and more importantly, creates an alkaline environment which causes the pectin molecules to break down into smaller molecules that greatly weakens the pectin, causing the beans to soften much more rapidly.

 

[Nice65]

And no Lea and Perrins for me. I am a convert to Hendersons relish.

Stu Mitchell was on about Henderson’s over on the other channel, the chippys in Sheffield have sachets of the stuff to go on chips and pies but it hadn’t really made it down south. He sent out a few tasters to people. I reckoned if you can get it, I ought to check Sainsburys. Bingo! Haven’t tasted it yet, but it smells good.

I was a big fan of the limited edition black bottle Lee & Perrins, extra aged. Alas, it is no more.

 

[bobnewboy]

You like bacon though, Tengu.
You can slow cook beans and bacon together quite successfully.
We can buy packs of bacon offcuts, the end bits from when they slice up rashers, from either the supermarket or the farmer who delivers spuds, eggs, etc.,,

We buy that bacon all the time. At Tesco (other shops are available) it comes packaged as “cooking bacon” - silly me I thought all bacon was - at 72p for 500g. Quite a bargain. We use It for pasta sauces, bacon sandwiches, and well, basically everything for which bacon is required. The only drawback is that like most UK bacon it contains a fair amount of water, and it isn’t sliced neatly. So we use knives (the horror!) to cut it up ourselves, and fry it dry for the first few minutes, after which we drain the pan of liquids and fry it on to crisp it up properly . Yummy!

 

[Robson Valley]

The bacon end bits and trimmings are sold in 1 kg (2.2 lbs) packages called "cottage bacon."
Can't tell you the price, not bought in ages and they always sell very quickly.

I'll trim a lot of the pure fat pieces out of it = some packages are not quite the bargain I thought they were.
If/when I need fried dice bacon, chopping fancy rashers is a last resort.
Not at all the taste that I'm looking for in baked beans. More onion and garlic. I'm thinking.

 

[Toddy]

Sorry RV, but beans and onions and garlic sounds like the best cause of wind imaginable