Baked beans

What do you have when you're hungry but you don't have time to cook? A sandwich? An omelette? The British are different, of course, and their favourite meal is a plate of baked beans on toast. Why are the British so obsessed with these little white beans in tomato sauce? And how can you enjoy your very own plate of baked beans?

Popularity

There's no doubt that beans are popular in Britain. Every day, hungry Brits eat 1.5 million cans of them. They eat them with their bacon for breakfast, they eat them over a jacket potato al lunchtime, and they eat them on hot toast for dinner.

So why are they so popular? Some say it's the perfection: every bean is the same shape, and the sauce always has that familiar creamy consistency. And there's always a perfect ratio of bean to sauce (51% to 49%) that hasn't changed since baked beans were first invented.

Others say it's the wonderful contrast between the bland bean and its sweet sauce. And still others say it's the attractive design of the black and turquoise label that has a sense of timelessness to it. British people love that: it's traditional, changeless and it's been with them for decades... and hopefully won't ever go away or change. This gives the British a sense of reassurance.

Perfection in a Can

Of course, there's so much more to baked beans than just that. On toast they are pure heaven. The best thing is to start eating just as the sauce starts soaking through the hot buttered toast, so that you get slightly soggy bread.

Then there is the speed at which your meal will be on the table. It's just a question of opening the can, heating up the beans and there you have it.

Baked beans are healthy too. For every 100g of baked beans, there is 7.7g fibre, 0.4 percent saturated fat, and 4.7g of protein. There are also no artificial colours, no flavourings, and no preservatives; and they're OK for vegetarians, or those on a gluten-free diet. And all that for a mere 33p a can (about 50 euro cents).

The Downside

Of course, as with everything else in life, beans have their disadvantages. For a start, half-eaten cans of beans placed in the fridge have a tendency to “disappear”. And they won't reappear until months later when you find them at the back covered in a layer of mould.

In addition, beans have a habit of going missing. Every time you open a can of them, one of two of them will certainly fall out and hide away in the carpet, or behind the sofa or even in your bag.

You'll find them later, when they're dry and white, and have left a reddish stain on your carpet. Beans are notorious for producing excess gas too. In fact, schoolchildren love eating them for precisely this reason.

Beans also have high sugar content (over 25 g in every can – which is the equivalent of eight sugar cubes). Lastly, no matter how quickly you eat your beans, they're always cold by the time you get to the last forkful. And there's nothing worse than cold beans: only weirdoes eat cold beans... oh, and beware of anyone who eats cold beans directly out of a can. That's really, really weird.

The Start

So, what's the most popular brand? And how did it all start? For most Brits, the number one brand of beans is Heinz. As the 1967 advertising slogan said, “beanz meanz Heinz”. The British are more loyal to Heinz Baked Beans than they are to any other brand. The company was founded in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1875. The founder, Henry James Heinz, made his first overseas sale in Britain in 1886. He eventually established his first factory, in Peckharn (southeast London) in 1905. In the Sixties and Seventies, the British subsidiary accounted for more than 50 percent of the firm's business; and continues to do very well to this day.

A Cultural Phenomenon

Baked beans are considered an important part of British culture. They've been used to raise charity (someone once sat in a bathtub full of them); and they're even in the Guinness Book of Records for the “Number of Baked Beans Consumed in Five Minutes Using Only a Cocktail Stick”.

In a survey carried out in 1998, Heinz Baked Beans were chosen as one of the products that best represents Britain. And in another survey, British people chose Heinz Baked Beans to put in a special time capsule.

The sight of a can of baked beans can create feelings of nostalgia for many Brits. After all, baked beans have been part of their lives for so long. As children they had them for tea, then as students they lived off them because they were so cheap and filling. So, older generations often associate their childhood and student days with baked beans. So, will you be having some baked beans next time you're in Britain?