Well, the whole idea behind baked beans (and most bean dishes, as a matter of fact) is that They AREN’T labor-intensive. You put the pot in the oven and you can forget about it for hours.
And all you guys who are talking about cornbread with baked beans? You’ll find cornbread tastes better with pinto beans that have been simmered with chopped onion, red pepper, and a chunk of smoked bacon. And a big slab of raw onion (or maybe a few green onions) on the side.
Pintos and cornbread are SOUTHERN. Baked beans and brown bread are YANKEE FOOD.
That reminds me of the time when my sister’s school was having a food drive, and one of my sister’s teachers decided to give an incentive to bring food in–a bonus point to add to any test or quiz for each item brought in. Well, my sister hadn’t done well on a recent test, so she used her allowance to buy an entire case of ramen (Japanese noodle soup that costs about US$0.10 or less a pack and is a staple of the diets of college students and others who are perpetually broke.) I told her that this was defeating the purpose of food shelves–they are places people go for food when they are sick of ramen! She was able to raise her grade by 24 points or so, though.
Many (admittedly, not all) of the books and websites I have seen state that there are 8 (some sources say 9) essential amino acids which cannot be manufactured by the human body and that beans and other legumes such as peanuts contain only about four of these amino acids in any significant quantity. To get any real value from the protein in the beans, they need to be eaten at the same meal (or on the same day, according to at least one source) with a good source of the remaining essential amino acids.
Fortunately, whole grains provide the amino acids lacking in beans, and vice-versa. The British have the right idea, serving their beans on toast, if they use whole wheat toast. Sweet corn is an even better compliment to the proteins in beans. Beans and cornbread make a great vegetarian source of protein.
Many native American tribes thrived on a diet which consisted mainly of the “three sisters” - corn, beans, and squash.
No, I am not a dietitian by training or vocation, nor am I a vegetarian, and, as I said before, not every source agrees with what I just said, but many sources do.
Ick…you call THAT baked beans? Here in Yankeeland, we bake ours in a mixture of molasses and/or maple syrup and then throw a shitload of pork products and spices in there. Tomato sauce? The very nerve of you British people astounds me.
Gidday to you 'Dog, it has indeed been a while. Sadly work gets in the way of the SDMB much of the time.
Think there’s any chance of explaining Vegemite to the Yanks?
People get very attached to their quirky cultural tidbits… couple of years back when I was working in Vancouver one of the other Kiwis I was working with found a little company that specialised in Ozzy delicacies – Vegemite, Arnott’s biscuits, and the like. We were even able to get Pineapple Lumps. (Not quite the Kiwi variety, but pretty close… and we like Arnotts just fine).
Also everytime someone would go up from NZ to Canada the Kiwis on-site would always request shipments of Cadbury Milk Chocolate and Berocca (foreigners: them’s fizzy vitamin tablets that the FDA won’t approve).
