# Are we Brits the only people who like baked beans? Even the refugees won't eat them! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 9, 2002, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-brits-the-only-people-who-like-baked-beans-even-the-refugees-wont-eat-them/127634 "2002-09-09T11:57:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![owlstretchingtime](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/958977/32.png) [@owlstretchingtime](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/owlstretchingtime)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2002, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-brits-the-only-people-who-like-baked-beans-even-the-refugees-wont-eat-them/127634/21 "2002-09-09T13:51:41Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Daerlyn \* > \*\*I like canned baked beans fine, but in tomato sauce? Ick. Molasses, if you please. 🙂 \*\* Given some of things that Americans ACTUALY do eat (cheese in a can, snow-cones, squirrels, peanut butter and jam sandwiches…) PLEASE tell me you’re joking. ---
**Author:** ![yojimbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yojimbo/32/232_2.png) [@yojimbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yojimbo)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2002, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-brits-the-only-people-who-like-baked-beans-even-the-refugees-wont-eat-them/127634/22 "2002-09-09T14:00:42Z")
Baked Beans in the States (well the bit I’ve been to anyway) are not the same as UK baked beans. No tomato sauce. Much drier and possibly a different bean :eek: It’s not just a Brit thing. They are hand in hand with the spud as a staple over here. ---
**Author:** ![owlstretchingtime](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/958977/32.png) [@owlstretchingtime](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/owlstretchingtime)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2002, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-brits-the-only-people-who-like-baked-beans-even-the-refugees-wont-eat-them/127634/23 "2002-09-09T14:07:12Z")
Just to clarify: This is the list of ingredients from the [heinz.co.uk](http://heinz.co.uk) (who make the benchmark baked bean) of a can of baked beans. Beans (50%), Tomatoes (26%), Water, Sugar, Modified Cornflour, Salt, Spirit Vinegar, Sweetener - Acesulfame Potassium, Spice Extracts, Herb Extract As you will see there is quite a lot of sugar in there. Now for the bit that will baffle the colonials: We like them on pizzas. Really we do. They’re smashing on pizzas. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2002, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-brits-the-only-people-who-like-baked-beans-even-the-refugees-wont-eat-them/127634/24 "2002-09-09T14:17:36Z")
I’m always happy to travel to the British Isles, where the natives have the proper attitude toward baked beans. Beans for breakfast is A-OK with me. That said, I admit that I HATE canned baked beans (or, what’s often passed off as baked beans…“pork and beans” in tomato sauce). I own three [bean pots](http://pages.tias.com/18/PictPage/1484418.html), those big juglike things with the narrow, lidded opening…a one-gallon glazed in Albany Slip, brownish-olive, no ears; a half-gallon in two-tone brown and beige, one ear…and a new one someone gave me as a gift, 16 ouces, should probably use it as a flowerpot. I usually parboil a pound of Maine heirloom beans (yellow-eyes are best, but sometimes I use soldier beans or Jacob’s Cattle beans), two pounds if I’m using the gallon pot, then pour them into the pot with molasses, mustard, enough of the hot water to just cover, a chunk of salt pork or smoked bacon, and a shot of Bermuda rum. Put it in a 250 oven for 6-8 hours, lid off for the last hour. Now, that’s for BAKED BEANS. If you want to talk about cowboy-style frijoles, or black-eyed peas, or red beans and rice, or Moors and Christians, those are an entirely different kettle of fish. ---
**Author:** ![Fionn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Fionn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fionn)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2002, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-brits-the-only-people-who-like-baked-beans-even-the-refugees-wont-eat-them/127634/25 "2002-09-09T15:21:16Z")
Along with cole slaw and potato salad, baked beans are one of the standard side dishes to barbecue. ---
**Author:** ![detop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bcef8e/32.png) [@detop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/detop)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2002, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-brits-the-only-people-who-like-baked-beans-even-the-refugees-wont-eat-them/127634/26 "2002-09-09T15:29:23Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by Daerlyn_ > \*\*I like canned baked beans fine, but in tomato sauce? Ick. Molasses, if you please. \*\* > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by owlstretchingtime \* > \*\* > > Given some of things that Americans ACTUALY do eat (cheese in a can, snow-cones, squirrels, peanut butter and jam sandwiches…) > > PLEASE tell me you’re joking. \*\* No, she’s not. The molasses is used in the cooking process to brown the beans, it is **not** poured on the beans as a condiment. For that we use maple syrup. Yum ! And we do eat them with breakfast too, usually with bacon/sausage or ham and eggs, or alternately, in winter, with _tourtière_. Double Yum ! ---
**Author:** ![Padeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@Padeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Padeye)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2002, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-brits-the-only-people-who-like-baked-beans-even-the-refugees-wont-eat-them/127634/27 "2002-09-09T15:32:23Z")
Are there any UK style beans available in the US so we can compare them to Can Camp’s or others here? ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2002, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-brits-the-only-people-who-like-baked-beans-even-the-refugees-wont-eat-them/127634/28 "2002-09-09T15:37:21Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by owlstretchingtime \* > \*\* > > Given some of things that Americans ACTUALY do eat (cheese in a can, snow-cones, squirrels, peanut butter and jam sandwiches…) > > PLEASE tell me you’re joking. \*\* It’s no joke, and not many people eat squirrels, btw(it’s not as though they sell them for food or anything). I’ve never heard of baked beans coming in anything but mollasses…Here’s an explaination of that and, as an added bonus, one about why the call Boston “bean town” all in one. > **[Why is Boston Called Beantown? Plus Make Baked Beans at Home](https://www.tripsavvy.com/boston-baked-beans-recipes-and-lore-1599071)** > > Boston Baked Beans recipes--old-fashioned, crockpot, easy, even vegetarian--plus the answer to your burning question: Why is Boston called Beantown? Personally, I can only BBBs eat them if I swallow them whole. They’re horrid. I don’t think they’d be any better in tomato sauce, though. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2002, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-brits-the-only-people-who-like-baked-beans-even-the-refugees-wont-eat-them/127634/29 "2002-09-09T15:40:23Z")
> [@](#): > > We like them on pizzas. Really we do. They’re smashing on pizzas… Okay, that’s IT. AIIIEEEEE… \ \ All too many memories of my childhood come to the fore. Nothing will ever persuade me that mushy baked beans are appetizing. I now know why my ancestors, fine cooks on both sides of the family, left the UK… the fact that they left in 1928 only illustrates their perception. (It took them a while to shake off the culinary brainwashing.) ---
**Author:** ![yojimbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yojimbo/32/232_2.png) [@yojimbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yojimbo)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2002, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-brits-the-only-people-who-like-baked-beans-even-the-refugees-wont-eat-them/127634/30 "2002-09-09T15:59:18Z")
Beans are great on Pizza IMO. The closest I’ve seen in the States were as **Ike** hinted a tin with beans and small sausages in tomato sauce. Not 100% but close when you take the pretend sausages out. ---
**Author:** ![Kal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9de053/32.png) [@Kal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kal)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2002, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-brits-the-only-people-who-like-baked-beans-even-the-refugees-wont-eat-them/127634/31 "2002-09-09T16:06:00Z")
**Padeye** : As mentioned above, the closest thing you guys have to British-style canned baked beans is pork & beans without the pork. The beans and sausage thing is close too and we have that over here, very popular with kids. For the record: They are not smashing on pizza, they are foul on pizza. (As is sweetcorn, which food manufacturers insist on shoving in almost every damn thing over here. \) [hijack]A few weeks ago while **Washte** was in Oregon visiting her folks, her mom got talking to an English guy from Derbyshire who had been cycling round the country for ages. She popped into her kitchen and gave the guy her last tins of mushy peas and baked beans so the fella could have a taste of home. He burst into tears while thanking her as he hadn’t eaten English grub for about a year.[/hijack] ---
**Author:** ![Tamex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ccd318/32.png) [@Tamex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamex)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2002, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-brits-the-only-people-who-like-baked-beans-even-the-refugees-wont-eat-them/127634/32 "2002-09-09T19:30:41Z")
There is also a push in the US to get people to donate more “ethnic” food to foodshelves rather than just using food shelf donation as a chance to clear your cupboards of old canned condensed soup and canned pumpkin (used in pumpkin pies, in case you Brits don’t eat that.) The food does no good if people won’t eat it (because, for example, it’s too sweet or too insipid) or have no idea how to prepare it (what else can you do with canned pumpkin besides make pie? What if you don’t know how to make a pie, or hate pumpkin pie? Who wants to eat pie every single day?) I bet that there are plenty of Americans who would eat baked beans (myself included), but, then again, Americans don’t tend to be refugees. There’s probably lots of good, cheap food in other cultures that I wouldn’t touch if I could help it. Sweet corn on pizza??? I’d always heard that Europeans don’t eat sweet corn, and there is an urban legend in the US about the family who serves their foreign exchange student a wonderful American-style barbecue, including a big plate of corn-on-the-cob, and the exchange student is horrified because he assumes that he is being fed field corn (food for farm animals), the only corn-on-the-cob he’s ever seen in his country! It’s nice to see that you Brits are enjoying the goodness of sweet corn–but don’t put it on pizza! Or baked beans, either. That’s just wrong. ---
**Author:** ![NurseCarmen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5daacb/32.png) [@NurseCarmen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NurseCarmen)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2002, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-brits-the-only-people-who-like-baked-beans-even-the-refugees-wont-eat-them/127634/33 "2002-09-09T19:57:48Z")
Mmmmmm. Manna. Manna from heaven I tell you. I like the _spicey_ baked beans. They are basically beans in BBQ sauce. Shove em in right next to the coals in the campfire, stirring occasionally untill all of the hair is singed off of your fingers and partially up your forearm. Realize you have nothing to remove them with, then end up grabbing them with a wet t-shirt (remove contestant from the wet t-shirt first). Some ash will blow in during the process, but that just adds texture. When removed, the can makes interesting popping, pinging, and crackling sounds due to the sauce at the bottom boiling. Throw the can in the fire when done, so you don’t attract the bears to your site for a 3 a.m. scavenger hunt. _Please pack the can out, even if left in the fire pit, it’s littering, and somebody has to pack it out_ on a side note: refried beans don’t work well with this method. the oil at the bottom heats up, and the beans start coming out of the can like a demonic playdoh machine. ---
**Author:** ![Atreyu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5e9695/32.png) [@Atreyu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atreyu)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2002, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-brits-the-only-people-who-like-baked-beans-even-the-refugees-wont-eat-them/127634/34 "2002-09-09T20:26:21Z")
I’m American, and I _love_ baked beans. I don’t even mind if there’s a bit of pork or bacon in them. Just the baked beans alone makes them worth eatin’. ---
**Author:** ![comradegonzo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/47e85d/32.png) [@comradegonzo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/comradegonzo)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2002, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-brits-the-only-people-who-like-baked-beans-even-the-refugees-wont-eat-them/127634/35 "2002-09-09T20:43:06Z")
The “Vegetarian Baked Beans” in the US are a pretty close approximation to UK beans. And I do eat beans for breakfast, though not yet on pizza. I need to try this. ---
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2002, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-brits-the-only-people-who-like-baked-beans-even-the-refugees-wont-eat-them/127634/36 "2002-09-09T22:58:56Z")
I haven’t eaten canned baked beans since I was about 6 years old, and I honestly cannot remember the last time I saw anybody eat them, talk about them or buy them in the US. I always assumed they were like spaghetti-o’s - great for ages 1-5. Sort of like canned raviola…why on earth would anybody old enough to own a wallet buy that crap? Too difficult to throw real pasta in boiling water? Who knows…some people still buy Spam. I do remember some British friends in Germany would have canned baked beans, but I always wrote it off as single Brits who couldn’t cook. The baked beans some are refering to above is almost a casserole, in that the beans are usually mixed with other ingredients and prepared differently than just holding the can over a sterno flame and waiting for the label to singe before eating. ---
**Author:** ![rocking\_chair](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocking_chair/32/2918_2.png) [@rocking\_chair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rocking_chair)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2002, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-brits-the-only-people-who-like-baked-beans-even-the-refugees-wont-eat-them/127634/37 "2002-09-09T23:12:26Z")
yum, baked beans. all american of course. lest we forget the mighty baseball team the “boston beaneaters.” boston baked beans are finest kind. def. with molasses. boston even has the famous molasses accident, where people were killed by molasses. another good bean recipe: make tiny little hamburgers out of ground beef, mix the tiny 'burgers with baked beans in a bowl. hhhhmmm, hhhhmmm, good! ---
**Author:** ![Ferrous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Ferrous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferrous)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2002, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-brits-the-only-people-who-like-baked-beans-even-the-refugees-wont-eat-them/127634/38 "2002-09-09T23:34:01Z")
Another American here who loves him some baked beans. The best way to eat them is to scoop them up with Fritos corn chips. Yummy! (And the pork is the best part!) ---
**Author:** ![Pencepon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ac8455/32.png) [@Pencepon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pencepon)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2002, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-brits-the-only-people-who-like-baked-beans-even-the-refugees-wont-eat-them/127634/39 "2002-09-09T23:40:03Z")
I like this for lunch sometimes, and I know it sounds disgusting - and, in fact, it _looks_ disgusting - but for some reason it’s really good: Half baked beans and half cottage cheese. (Don’t mix them up or the visual effect will prevent you from taking a bite.) My mom adds a lot of chopped raw onion, but I do not. My husband makes fabulous baked beans in a crock pot that win praise and recipe requests from one and all. He starts with two different canned kinds but doctors them up with all kinds of things, including bacon, molasses, onions, mustard, brown sugar… as I said, all kinds of things. They are truly wonderful. ---
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2002, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-brits-the-only-people-who-like-baked-beans-even-the-refugees-wont-eat-them/127634/40 "2002-09-09T23:40:28Z")
I like 'em. They sell fairly well in Australia. I assume ours are the same style put out by Heinz etc (which Tim Brooke-Taylor made fun of so well in _The Goodies_ in the 70s). We just have them usually for breakfast on hot buttered toast. They are also nice in jaffles. Occasionally, my mum would serve them up as part of a main evening meal, claiming their own piece of real estate on the plate along with the meat and vegetables. It’s interesting to note in the OP, the fact that the ban on tins of baked beans was due to the refugees not liking them. Many fundraising or charity drives for schools etc I’ve seen in Sydney have asked people to each donate one non-perishable grocery item, usually tinned food, and they invariably say, “NO BAKED BEANS!” This isn’t because no-one likes them, but rather to stop 75% of the hampers they make being comprised completely of beans. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-brits-the-only-people-who-like-baked-beans-even-the-refugees-wont-eat-them/127634.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-brits-the-only-people-who-like-baked-beans-even-the-refugees-wont-eat-them/127634.md?page=3)