My cooking friends, love them all
A few days ago a cookery group to which I belong was discussing doing a cookalong for which we would all cook our own version of a dish within a prescribed period of time.
Simon suggested, tongue in cheek, beans on toast. Beans on toast is something British people have been praising to me for decades. It was once suggested to me that it is an ideal dish for someone like eg, who can cook circles around 85% of the population. Once I expressed my disgust with the very idea, they wouldn’t let it go. People wrote poetic descriptions that were specific to the amount of border left on the toast and how much butter should be leaking over that border.
It didn’t matter that I have always hated baked beans, even when homemade by the championesses of New England baked beanness. It didn’t matter that the very idea was pushing me toward a hot fudge sundae to remove the awful image from my mind. I finally ended my entoilment in the subject by pointing out they aren’t sold here and that even if I were to order them from the UK (small danger of that) by the time they hit me with exchange rate and shipping, it would cost me £16 for the single can of something inexplicably dear to them and not to me.
Thursday morning the doorbell rang and the postman opened the door. He handed me a package that contained this.
Oh you lucky, lucky lady!!!
I\’m sure I can remember you commenting in disgust when I rated them as the \’best thing I ate\’ in one of my posts!
Honestly, they really are the best, hot buttered toast, cold winters evening (or lunch time) a grind of black pepper. I am transported to a childhood in chilly Norfork and the comfortable feeling of home with just a glimpse of the can. Give them a chance I beg you….
I have to agree. After 12 years in England I came to the conclusion that beans on toast was are the zenith of British cuisine! Really! Brown bread, naturally, and salted butter. And, of course, they MUST be Heinz.
Go for it!
I thought that was a Yankee thing as my wife and other members of her family eat beans on toast or just a baked bean sandwich. To each her own!
Really, Judith! You\’re such a food snob! :)
Now, I prefer B&M Oven-baked Beans or Bush\’s Homestyle Baked Beans, and never straight out of the can or jar, but with my own addition of extra brown sugar, onion and possibly catsup, and lots more baking, but then they\’re indeed very good on toast. I do forgo the butter, however.
@amanda@A Tuscan View…:
Sorry, this is beyond me. Like witchety grubs, beans on toast must remain the mystery of other kitchens.
@Janet in Fort Worth:
Janet, I grew up in country homes in Maine, where my mother was famous for her baked beans. Every Saturday night she served them. They were soaked Friday, assembled Saturday morning, baked all day while she made pies in another oven. After cooking 10-12 hours, people lined up for a place at our table to eat baked beans, biscuits and coleslaw. I hated them. Eventually I was allowed to eat the onion that cooked on top of them with coleslaw and biscuits… if there hadn’t always been company at the table I’d never have gotten away with that!
Can’t say I’ve ever had beans on toast. I do like baked beans once in a while, although I don\’t yearn for them. In fact, I’ve done very well without them for three years. Whatever are you going to do with that can of baked beans now?
We can’t live without them! Perfect Sunday night dinner = baked beans on toast topped with two perfectly poached eggs. (HWEM has crispy panchetta as well).
I had occasionally been able to find a can or two of Heinz at Esselunga (near Arezzo) – shockingly expensive but worth it. Then they vanished! I”m off to Esselunga this afternoon because they are now selling an inferior version but they taste more like Heinz than anything we have been able to replicate in the kitchen.
As I started reading your post, Judith I thought for one glorious moment you were going to come up with a recipe to replicate Heinz Baked Beans. Maybe you could pick up the challenge and become a local hero.
@Mary:
I am making the tin pop art. I shall display it forever.
@RobynS:
Huh! I DISLIKE BAKED BEANS INTENSELY! Did anyone miss that? LOL
Not at all in agreement with the lovely Amanda here. They are truly the most disgusting fodder. I have eaten them only once – enough cruelty for a lifetime. I can\’t even wash a pan that the Heinz baked beans have been cooked in. Too salty, too sweet, too powdery, too YUCK. Should I continue? … because I could. If you want my opinion (I\’m giving it in any case) putting Heinz baked beans on your toast is just a waste of good bread.
The only good thing about them was the clever ad slogan:
beanZ
meanZ
heinZ
Pleaz don\’t judge UK cuisine on these.
@casalba:
Oh I don’t judge it on this– there is also black pudding with scallops, apple sauce and haggis. Since I spend time talking every day with a bunch of British cooks I can’t be accused of prejudice, it’s just certain things! And beanz on toast is one. Someone did quote me that ad,. too.
I think it is something to do with young, poor and busy in the UK that makes people eat this. Then they get older, affluent and have more leisure and still nostalgically eat this thing.