A food question answered in the latest Saveur magazine

[grasswire]

I have often wondered why canned baked beans are sooooo sweet. It was a puzzle to me. The latest Saveur has an interesting spread on New England baked beans and a bit of history included. They say that baked beans became sweet in the 1850s when New Englanders started adding molasses. The trend toward sweeteners in bean pots began then. I think it has gone too far, personally.

I can't eat them -- carbs. But all that sweetener can't be good for those who do like them.

B&M makes 5 million cans a year!

And oddly, Brits eat more baked beans than Americans do.

[Angry Dragon]

1. Beans are a staple of English breakfasts

[pinto]

5. New England breakfasts, as well.

[Retrograde]

8. It's one of their more revolting culinary habits (to me at least)

I have no problems with black puddings or blood sausages at breakfast, or stewed fruits, or even cold toast. And I'll cheerfully eat huevos rancheros with refried beans on tortillas for breakfast. But the sight of someone happily chowing down on toast and canned beans - to each his own.

I think it's because my mother, a horrible cook, liked to serve canned pork and beans. I'll occasionally buy canned kidney beans if I have to produce a chili on short notice, but the last time I tried canned baked beans they were not only too sweet but too one-note: there wasn't anything there but sweetness.

ETA: New England abolitionists often used maple syrup (produced by local farmers) as a substitute for molasses (a by-product of slave-run sugar plantations). Has anyone ever tried that for baked beans?

[Warpy]

2. Canned baked beans are too sweet for me most of the time

and I've found it necessary to add extra mustard to help cut it a bit.

At least now that Stupid is out of office I can buy Bush's Vegetarian Baked Beans without wincing. They're far less sweet than B&M and I like them a lot better.

[Gormy Cuss]

3. Basic New England baked beans: navy beans, molasses, salt pork, dry mustard and onion,

baked in a bean pot on low heat for hours.

I grew up eating homemade batches and B&M beans, the latter produced in a factory not far from my home. Some of my relatives and neighbors worked there.

I find canned beans to be very sweet these days but I still make baked beans from scratch. The molasses lends more of a smoky flavor than a sweet one.

[Major Nikon]

12. Way back when refined sugar was very expensive

Molasses is a by-product of the sugar industry and was much cheaper than refined sugar, so you see a lot of old time recipes that call for it.

[Gormy Cuss]

13. In the colonies it probably wasn't worth the cost of shipping to Europe

whereas the sugarloaves were.

The North End waterfront was the scene of the Great Molasses Flood in Boston in 1919.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molasses_Flood

Molasses, especially blackstrap, gives a nice smoky flavor to beans.

[fizzgig]

4. i love beans on toast

breakfast, lunch or dinner. i usually add some garlic salt, mustard and whatever spicy i want, maybe a bit of apple cider vinegar to the beans.

i'm half tempted to heat some up now, but my husband would want to share and he doesn't need beans this close to bed.

[HopeHoops]

6. Brits also fart more than we do. Try Bush's vegetarian baked beans. Not too sweet.

I like to chop cooked MorningStar veggie links (sausage-ish) and add them to the beans. The veggie dogs work well too. Also, a little bit of extra sharp New York cheddar takes the edge off of the "sweet" problem for pretty much any variety. I can't eat B&M beans - it's the name, I think.

[blaze]

7. I don't know about the Brit farting issue....

I grew up in Lexington, MA.... and we had franks and beans every Friday (or was it Saturday) night. They were canned beans. They were sweet. I loved them!!! Total comfort food for me!!!

[grasswire]

9. did you have that yummy canned brown bread too?

My Connecticut grandmother's Saturday night suppers were always home-baked beans, baked potatoes, brown bread or hot dinner rolls.

Lotsa carbs there!

[HopeHoops]

10. That brown bread with cream cheese is deadly. I could eat the entire thing that way.

[blaze]

11. I don't remember canned brown bread as a weekly staple

We definitely had it every Thanksgiving.... I'll have to ask Mom about that.