July 2, 2021 • 43 mins
This hearty dish of beans in tangy sauce conjures nostalgia whether served as a cookout side or a breakfast staple, from a can or made fresh. Anney and Lauren spill the science and history behind baked beans (and their, er, musical properties).
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
Hello, I'm welcome to Savor Protection of I Heart Radio.
I'm Annie Reese and I'm Lauren Vogelbaum, and today we
have an episode for you about baked beans, and I
promise it is a good one. It is a fun one.
It is. It has one of my very favorite facts
that I have discovered and not expected in it a
long time. So, okay, cool. Yeah. Now I'm curious to
(00:32):
know which which one that is. I shall point it
out when we arrive. I think it'll be pretty clear.
It's a pretty solid fact. But we chose this because
as we're recording it and as it first comes out,
it is Independence Day approaching here in the Unitnesday weekend. Yeah,
(00:52):
and baked baked beans are in fact a very popular
Independence Day side dish here they are. They are more
on that in a second, Happy Independent say if you're celebrating.
I just complained at length to Lauren and are a
Tampa producer, Max Williams about the fact that I am
(01:16):
running every race this weekend and I'm very concerned about it.
But it's going to happen. I wouldn't I wouldn't say
you complained, I'd say that you um expressed concern yes,
a lot of concern. Yeah, I feel a lot of
concern right now. But you you both uplifted me. So
(01:39):
I'm gonna I'm gonna try to power through all we
All we did was say that we don't run, and
so therefore any amount of running that you do sounds
impressive to us. But if hey, if that uplifted you,
I'm excited about it. Anything that impresses Lauren Voge, Obama
and Max Williams, that's pretty good in my book. Uh, perfect, perfect. Um,
(02:06):
I will say, y'all, if you hear some little some
little bumps and noises in the background, it's not the
ghost of Annie's former running prowess, Uh it is. It
is rather um great Great Hat has been a little
bit sick the past couple of days. I was away
for a few days for the first time since shutdown,
(02:26):
and uh, he promptly worked himself into a nervous u
urinary track stone. But he's on the end. He's back
and making noise in the studio, so if yeah, yeah,
it's super into it. Luckily, he hasn't deleted any large
portions of our outline yet, just highlighted he we're all
(02:51):
here for you. Great we're supporting you. We're supporting you too, Annie,
support all around, that's what we're all about here. Um. So,
baked beans were an occasional food on July fourth and
our family, like I can count maybe once or twice.
But uh, interestingly to me, I've gone to a few
(03:12):
international US Independence Day celebrations. So I went to one
in China and I went to one in Belgium, and
baked beans were at both of those, So clearly, I mean,
I guess the Internet would also tell you that, but
it is a traditional food to have on the US
Independence Day. But that was just interesting to me of
(03:34):
the foods they chose as someone who didn't really eat them. Yeah, yeah,
I wonder if that's like a Southern thing. I growing
up in Ohio, like that was a very like summer,
especially Independence Day coated food for me, um and among
a lot of the I guess, I guess like like
(03:56):
northern based humans that I know today, it's still like
like like to me, it's it's definitely like a key
side dish of Independence Day barbecues. And I'm not sure
why because I feel like I feel like no one
really eats that much, but someone always brings them right right.
It's just it's just like one of those things you
(04:17):
have to have, but yet no one seems to really want.
But no one seems to really be able to say
that they don't really want to, you know. Yeah, yeah,
And I mean and I do want them. I quite
like them, but yeah, anyway, yeah, So on the flip
side of my experience, when I was staying in this
really small, tiny hostel in London for a few weeks,
(04:38):
there was this breakfast that was provided as part of
the cost, and it typically consisted of this huge tower
of buttered bed like bigger than my head, ridiculous amount
of buttered toast excuse me, yeah, and grilled tomato slices
and baked beans with tea your coffee. And at the
time this was new to me. This was news to
me and new to me. I didn't know that the
(04:59):
baked beans we're a part of this traditional breakfast. But
I loved it. I actually really enjoyed it. Oh yeah, yeah,
I I love the bean component of a traditional um
English or Irish breakfast. I want more protein. I don't
want all of it to come from eggs. I yes,
I'm so excited when I get that and it goes
(05:20):
so well with all of the other little stuff on
the plate. Oh, it's a nice Yeah. I really enjoyed
it too. I did go on a very big bean
bag chair and beaty baby rabbit hole for this, and
then decided that maybe I should appropriate my time more efficiently.
(05:41):
But just just know that I really wanted to talk
about that in this episode. Fast okay stuff, Oh okay,
I believe you. That is not any part of the
rabbit holes that I went down today, But I look
forward to hearing about that. Is it appropriate for Food
Show at some point? Maybe different episode. It's you know,
(06:04):
I feel like this is going to be one of
those important savor questions where we're gonna have to sit
down and really really get to the bottom of what
savers all about. And I think a bean bag chair
might be it. I love this. I love that, like
our our big existential crisis might come thanks to bean
(06:26):
bag chairs and or beanie babies into that. It feels right,
It feels yeah. But we could have our existential crisis later,
but for now, I think this brings us to our question.
I think it does. Baked beads, what are they? Well, uh,
(06:49):
baked beans are typically not baked, but are rather a
type of stewed bean dish consisting of dried white beans
that are reconstituted and slow cooked in a sort of
a a very sweet, tangy gravy, served warm as a
lunch or dinner side dish or part of breakfast platters
or on toast or sandwiches. So let's talk about the beans.
(07:12):
The type of beans used in this dish are usually
white beans, also called navy beans, not navy like the
color like navy is in the naval branch of the military.
Also called hair caught beans in British English, these are
beans of a variety from the wide species fasiolist vulgaris,
I think is how you might say it. I didn't
(07:33):
take Latin. I don't know. They're they're the seeds of
the plant, which means that they contain lots of great
nutrition for little plant babies and for us. The beans
growing pods and usually dry on the vine before being
harvested and processed, and that means that they are fairly nonperishable,
but also that they have to be yes reconstituted or
(07:53):
rehydrated prior to use the gravy. Um. It's usually a
sauce made from a tomato puree and or cooked onion
sort of bass with some kind of sweetener and uh
rich and flavorful options like molasses or brown sugar or
maple syrup or common um, a touch of vinegar, some
salt and pepper, mustard, and some other herbs and spices
(08:15):
uh like woody kind of savory things like bay and rosemary,
sage and time. Stuff like that are pretty common. And
then some kind of starch will usually be used, either
from the cooking beans themselves or from an outside source,
will be used to thicken the sauce up a little bit. Um.
They can be made vegetarian, but are often cooked with
a small amount of pork product bacon or salt cured
(08:38):
pork something like that, or hot dogs um for flavor,
And often the vegetarian versions will have a little bit
of a smoke flavor or something something you mommy, maybe
like a little mushroom broth or something added to replicate that.
And the result is just this hardy comfort food that's
really childhood nostalgic for a out of the English speaking world.
(09:02):
And I will say I laughed out loud a lot
during my reading for this one. Um. But perhaps the
hardest at this lead line written by one Oliver thring
Um in the Guardian quote all your life You've been
lied to. Turns out they're not bloody baked beans. They're
stewed beans. They do not do what they say on
(09:23):
the tin. I can just imagine a dramatic scene in
a movie or you like, drop to your knees, it's raining,
lightning across the sky and you're like, stewed. They won't
have a bake. It's David Tennant with the rain on
him in the end scene in Dr Who and he's like,
(09:47):
bloody baked. I want that, so I want it. Oh,
heck all right, all right y'all English y'all y'all or
British in general, like like right in or send in
(10:08):
your video. Gosh, that would be so good. Yes, please
do that heck. Um. And you you can you can
make make make beans from scratch. Um, but they are
often bought pre prepared in cans or tins, as I
suppose you would refer to them, um in the non
American part of the English speaking world. Um. And I
(10:30):
will say some home some home recipes do call for
baking sometimes, so it's not always stewed beans. They're not
always a bloody lie. I love this so much. What
about the nutrition? Uh, It of course depends on exactly
what you put into them. Um. Many canned foods do
(10:51):
contain a bunch of added sugars and salts, so you know,
read your nutrition labels. But beans are pretty good for you.
You know, They've got a good punch of protein and
minerals and soluble fiber. And although in general fresh or
frozen produce is best, canned beans are pretty okay option, um,
because what you generally lose through canning is vitamin content,
(11:12):
and that's not really where beans shine that much anyway. Plus,
the canning process reduces the compounds and beans that um
that muck about with your with your digestive systems capability
to absorb minerals, so so that's good. Um. And also
the canning process the cooking process will increase available fiber molecules,
(11:33):
so that's cool. Research has shown that baked beans are
a pretty great option for getting like quick and easy
nutrients into your diet, especially as a replacement for less
healthy snacks and sides. Um. Just yeah, watch that salt
and sugar content and an hydrate always hydrate, but for
best results, yeah, make your baked beans from scratch with
a minimum of those sugars and salts to taste. Also,
(11:56):
I have I have a gas aside here I cannot
wait because beans are as we all know, the musical fruit. Um.
We all know it, yep, yep, it is known um okay.
So so beans can indeed make you more gassy, especially
(12:16):
if you don't eat them regularly, because they contain types
of fiber that your body cannot digest. However, microbes that
live in your gut sure can digest them. And so
what happens is those microbes eat those fibers and then
they excrete gases which will build up in your guts
until you pass them out, meaning that, yes, the primary
(12:39):
reason that you fart is that microbes inside you are
farting and then you fart out their farts. The true
circle of life, it is, it is, it's the circle
of arts. Um. Hat tip hat tip to Ben Bolen
and the Old Days of the brain Stuff YouTube series
for the exact phrasing on that one. Getting to the
(13:03):
bottom of these very important questions behind the rhymes, we
all said as children, uh um, we do have some
numbers for you. Gosh, we do. Um alright, So baked
bean sales in the US um as of we're worth
some five and thirty million dollars per year. Wow. As
(13:28):
of Massachusetts has a state bean, the baked Navy Bean. Apparently,
I guess this is really most people know this. I
didn't know this, but Boston is sometimes called bean town. Yeah,
that's one of the that's one of its nicknames. Yes,
and the Navy bean is sometimes called the Boston bean
(13:48):
or the Yankee bean, which is the Seinfeld resference. There's
an episode where Elaine is feeding this guy Yankee beans.
I won't go into why. Well, she calls them Yankee
beans and she's like singing this song and I was like,
what the heck is a Yankee beans? Now I know,
there you go. According to the company, Hinz, baked beans
(14:08):
has a market share in the UK and every day
about two point three million British people eat this product
from about one million cans. I've seen numbers up to
two million cans a day in the UK. Yeah. Um
as of annual consumption of baked beans per capita in
(14:30):
the UK was just over five kilos. That's nearly twelve pounds. Wow.
Uh And as of sixteen, um Hinz's Wigan is that
how you would say that Wigan plant plant in It's in.
It's in Manchester, um ish it is the largest baked
bean factory in the world and as it was capable
(14:52):
of producing over three million cans of beans every twenty
four hours during peak season, with the total process from
being arrival to complete tin taking about two hours. And
they process some fifty thousand tons of raw beans per year.
It's a lot of beans, a lot of beans. Furthermore,
(15:13):
in case you were wondering, very similar to the Tiffany blue,
the Hinds bean turquoise is in fact a trademarked color.
I think I have that Mascara Hines bean turium. Meanwhile,
(15:36):
in the United States, Bush's brand is the being leader.
In Tennessee, there's a Bush's Beans visitor Center, museum and
cafe UM at one of the company's long running sites
UM where under normal circumstances some a hundred and fifty
thousand visitors a year come through UM it opened and
(15:57):
bushes cells round about twenty variety is a baked beans.
I want to visit this place, right, I very much
want to visit um. You can watch videos in a
giant can of beans. It's a giant bean can. There's
no beans in it, There's just you and videos. I
see my brain My brain was like what I could
(16:23):
see it going there. I was trying circuiting um. But
this brings us to another place I would very much
like to go. And this is the fact I mentioned
at the top that I was not expecting to uncover. Research. Yeah,
there's a Baked Beans Museum of Excellence in Wales. That's
(16:45):
what it's called. That's what it's called. It is operated
by a quote superhero who loves bake beans called Captain Beanie.
Apparently the guy behind this very got the idea for
the whole thing after breaking the record for sitting naked
in baked beans in six one hours. I would have
(17:10):
some thoughts after sitting one same same He illegally changed
his name to Captain beany in Uh yeah yeah. Captain
Beanie also holds the records for for the longest anyone
has held a plate of beans on toast in one
hand while walking on a treadmill. This this is referred
(17:36):
to as the beans on Toast a thon um, and
his record is twelve hours? Was it just him? Was
anyone else I have I you know, I don't want
to conjecture. Um um. He And also he holds the
record for the fastest anyone has run a marathon while
(17:57):
holding a plate of baked beans on toast. His time
was five hours, forty six minutes and twenty five seconds. Um.
And this was in two eight at the Flora London Marathon.
And he did not, in fact spelled beans. Not Captain
Beanie never never. Um he's got some baked beans tattooed
(18:19):
on his head. Really look look this up. There are images.
They're gonna brighten your day, I promise. Um. He sounds
like a really interesting fellow. He's done a lot of
charity work he does. He has done a lot of races.
He's climbed a lot of mountains. Captain Beanie, he's gotten around. Yeah.
Uh and you know, so have baked beans within the
world record category. There there are a lot of baked
(18:42):
beans related world records. Um. There's a Guinness for the
largest pot of baked beans, which was set in twelve
in Macedonia with five thousand, six liters of baked beans.
That's about gallons. It's a lot of baked beans is
the popular record to attempt seems to be the records
(19:03):
for eating the most baked beans with a toothpick sometimes
called a cocktail stick within a certain period of time
one minute, three minutes, in five minutes. An American by
the name of David Rush toppled with the previous records
and one go eating sixty eight in one minute, a
hundred and seventy eight in three minutes, and then two
hundred and seventy eight in five minutes. I would stab myself.
(19:27):
I would stab the heck out of my mouth if
I tried to do this. Oh gosh right, danger. There's
also beans danger. There's also a record for a team
of four in two minutes and they got four hundred
and twenty nine beans, and that was set in the
United Kingdom. There's also a Guinness record for the most
(19:49):
baked beans eaten with chopsticks in one minute. That record
is held by one Tanakato who in Tokyo In apparently
popped se means into her mouth during the first fifty
three seconds, leaving herself seven seconds to chew and swallow,
and then with just three seconds left, popped one last bean,
(20:09):
beating the previous record. Wow, and that flair for the dramatic,
I think is what really what really makes a good
bean eater. Yet again Hollywood letting us down. Why have
we not seen this movie where it's like at the
wire and then pops one more bean. It's a real shame,
(20:34):
it is it is Hollywood, you fail us again once again.
But the history of baked beans did not fail us
in terms of how interesting it is. Absolutely um and
we will get into that history after we get back
from a quick break forward from our sponsor and we're back.
(21:06):
Thank you sponsor. Yes, thank you. Navy beans and the
relatives of navy beans originated in the America's I think
that could be a whole thing. Yes. I found a
very intense scientific article about about all the different like
genetic branching off periods of these beans, and I was like, okay,
(21:28):
not today, not today. But these beans were staples flour
native Americans, and alongside maize and squash, were one of
the three sisters that were agriculturally foundational. I know we've
talked about that before. Um. Some tribes might have used
earthenware pots covered with hot stones to cook beans with
(21:48):
bear fat, maple syrup and venison, and when Colin has arrived,
they might have observed the Native Americans doing this and
started making them on their own, but our perhaps they
like Okay. The Native American version of this story is
the one that is commonly told, but the details are
quite sparse, if they exist at all. No specific tribes
(22:12):
ever mentioned, and tribes in that region didn't really bake,
nor is it likely they would have used maple syrup
in a bean dish if they had any at all.
There are documents from that time showing that they were
willing to bargain quite a bit to get some maple syrup,
so that does not suggest that they would yea in
this dish. But that is something you have to, like,
(22:36):
really dig deep in the baked bean the fine because
it is so commonly told. Um, And we're gonna get
into more on why that is in a in a minute.
Some food historians believed that these New England baked beans
the precursor of Boston baked beans. Most likely, we're an
amalgamation of Native American recipes and methods and a bean
(22:57):
and bacon dish out of England common during the Middle Ages. Again,
I was kind of like puzzling over that one in
terms of I guess the beans used, but okay, others
think that North African and Spanish Jews had long been
eating baked beans on the Sabbath, and sea captains arriving
at New England ports introduced this idea of tradition to
(23:20):
them after witnessing it in Africa and or the Mediterranean.
Or maybe it can be traced back to the French
bean dish cassule, and that French Canadians were in fact
highly influential in this dish. Yeah, so right, Um, there
(23:40):
were beans being used in cuisines in England and France
and around the Mediterranean before the era of colonization which
started Circle of fundreds. And and those those those were
other species of beans, lentils, fava's stuff like that, and
different beans and their uses hopped back and forth at
across the Atlantic a few times over the centuries. Right,
(24:04):
and um, these beans were useful for colonists who were
observing Sabbath on Sunday and we're forbidden from cooking on
that day. The beans could be cooked Saturday night for
dinner and then kept warm overnight and eating for breakfast
or as part of a cold sandwich for lunch up.
In New England, this led to stewed beans cooked with salt,
(24:26):
pork or other meats, various spices, and molasses, which was
probably introduced in the eighteenth century, the product of the
force labor of enslaved people's in the Caribbean and shipped
to Boston for rummaking, which I believe we talked about
in Our Room episode Yeah yeah, um and right, molasses
is considered a byproduct of the sugar refining industry. Um.
(24:46):
It's thus a lot cheaper than granulated refined sugar, and
thus worked its way into a lot of home recipes
around that time as a cheaper alternative to the steadily
lesser expensive but still pricey sugar. Right. And these stewed
beans were often served with brown bead cornbread or biscuits. Um. Confusingly, though,
(25:10):
most of these recipes were still labeled as baked beans.
And yes, it is a confusion that lasted this day.
As we learned from the Bloody, Bloody lie, we've all
been fed um baked beans as a working class food
where they were filling, they were cheap, and they were
packed with protein. So that was a great food option
for people who were working or struggling in any type
(25:32):
of uh situation, with money or what was available to them.
But also it was a food that people would bring
to events, including Independence Day parties after the American Revolutionary War. Yeah,
navy beans. The name it was coined in the mid
(25:54):
eighteen hundreds since these beans were a staple for the
US Navy. And I got this out of an official U. S.
Navy documents, so I am trusting that's the truth. Yeah. Yeah.
These stude slash baked beans with pork and molasses were
the first to be canned in the US in the
eighteen sixties, right around the Civil War and soon after
(26:16):
the invention of the can opener. Yeah yeah, I always
always remember that canning existed for a good few decades
before the can opener was invented. Uh. Just just think
about the hilarity and devastation. Let I often remember our
(26:38):
video of trying to open the corn game. Oh yeah,
even even after even after um. Yeah and so so,
baked beans as a dish are quite good for canning. Um,
because beans don't have an unpleasant texture when they're heated
and canned. Um. Also, the acid content from the natoes
(27:00):
and or onions allows for a shorter cooking time during
the process and thus a better preservation of flavor and nutrients.
Um Also, the salt and sugar already present and recipes
are good preservatives because they prevent the growth of microbes
by kind of occupying the water content of foods, so yes,
and of course, as per usual in these episodes, a
(27:21):
handful of companies claimed to be the first to sell
canned baked beans, including the Burnham and Moral Company in
eighteen seventies six and Henry Hines Yes that one may
have started mass producing them in eight five. As early
as eighteen eight six, Hindes baked beans were being sold
(27:41):
as a luxury item at high end stores in London.
It was towards the end of the nineteenth century that
the first written recipe for Boston baked beans appeared in
Fanny Farmer's cookbook. By this point, the molasses was a
key ingredient. It was a key differentiating ingredient. Ground mustard
(28:02):
and salt pork were typical too, but that molasses was
like the thing. Oh yeah, oh yeah, yes. And speaking
of the thing, this whole Boston baked beans thing might
have been a part of a concerted effort to create
New England foods that were an attempt to recapture foods
(28:25):
that Europeans ate prior to the American Revolution. This whole
movement also largely ignored the history behind the dish and
all the other foods and traditions of contemporary New Englanders
and immigrant populations that were happening at the same time. UH.
These ideas around New England foods were carefully chosen, crafted
(28:47):
and presented in print publications, often alongside less than accurate
tales about how traditional and American they were. Kind of
similar to UH, like a thanks the Thanksgiving story really
painting this positive light. But that was that was interesting
and we're going to talk about there's a whole book
about this. But it was interesting to read of all
(29:07):
these other things that were happening that we're not considered
New England foods, but these chosen foods, yes or yes.
I learned a lot about New England food in this
episode and this whole this whole thing concided with a
drop in the price of sugar and a drive to
uplift molasses in the face of that perhaps makes sense
(29:30):
to me. In eight A. J. Bush opened a Canary
in Tennessee. They started selling pork and beans in four um,
and cans of that were distributed to American troops during
World War Two, according to the company's website. In ninety
nine they arrived at a new secret family recipe that
they put all cats, which I thought was quite funny
(29:51):
for simmering their beans. Supposedly, this recipe comes from a
childhood favorite recipe of one of A J's kids. His
mother Katherine, shared it with the family for the for
the company, on the condition that it would never be distributed.
Oh never, And that is why. That is why Bushes
(30:13):
and their spokes dog Um are so insistent. But it's
a secret, that's why. Okay, God. As cam beans became
more available across the country, they earned a spot as
barbecue and pot look staples. Okay, I never heard of this.
(30:36):
Never Um asking for Boston Baked beans in Chicago in
the nineteen twenties and thirties might mean something different. It
was a popular candy that involved peanuts dyed red and
coated in sugar so that they appeared being like this
is an interesting candy tradition that kind of cracks me up.
(30:57):
We talked about it in the Candy corn episode, and
then this one of like agricultural products made into candy
are like the shape. Yeah. The largest producer of these candies,
Chicago's Ferrara Candy Company, has been making them since nineteen.
The origin of this candy has been largely lost to history.
(31:19):
I didn't dig into deep so maybe a future episode,
but most publications seem to be like yeah, uh oh wow, yeah, no,
I I've definitely consumed these. Never heard of this. Maybe
maybe it's another like kind of northern thing. I I
bet that we can find some at one of the
like at one of the candy shops around town that
(31:41):
has like old timey Oh we should I don't know
why I got so excited by going to an old
timey candy shop, but I bet we can really find
some stuff we should talk about on this year show.
Yes yes. Um. In the late twenties and early thirties,
Hinds opened baked being production plants in the UK and Australia.
(32:03):
After there, you know, they had been shipping their products
out to both places for a while. Um, but but
then tariffs started making importation cost prohibitives, so they just
opened up plants over over in both of those places.
And then Australian production would ramp up. During World War
two one American troops were stationed out in Queensland. Hines
dropped the pork from their canned bake beans in response
(32:25):
to World War two rationing. Many pinpoint they're successful beans
means Hines ad campaign that's that's means with the Z
yes and all around triple Z. What am I saying? Yeah,
this ad campaign came out in the nineteen sixties for
(32:47):
solidifying this product's place as a British breakfast staple. And
I read an article that quite quite tickled me about.
It was a tasting test. I think it was an
analysis of several to tasting test in the UK where
Hines consistently comes on the bottom, but people still prefer
it because of nostalgian name recognition. Yeah, it's really just
(33:09):
the name recognition. It's It's a very powerful thing and
very impressive to me. Yes. Um. However, the iconic British
breakfast of beans on toast possibly goes back to nineteen
o one, so it seems like maybe they are capitalizing
on something that was already there. Oh and I found
a really harsh New York Times article that just dissed
(33:34):
Boston bake beads, really, claiming that New England and New
Englander's only eight them because they had the gall and
bad taste too. Oh. They compared it to continuing to
wear a bad fashion choice even though everyone's decided it's
a bad fashion choice. Almost yes, um. And they also
(33:57):
went on to say that these these big beans were
definitely a food that you should be embarrassed about, not
something you should want to reflect America, something that was
for poor people, that it was a relic. I will say,
I'm unclear and whether the author felt this way. I
think I think they did, But the people they were
(34:19):
interviewing was sort of the meat the beans of this article.
But I was reading it like a guest. Wow. Well, uh,
I know, and I have I have nothing to say
(34:39):
about that. I can't really tell you one way or um.
I can tell you that in two thousands six, a
group of researchers out of Venezuela, um too, took the
toot out of beans, as Live Science reported. UM they
they they fermented beans with the types of bacteria that
eat those fibers that we can't digest during the production process,
(35:02):
thus greatly reducing the amount of those fibers that wind
up in our gut for microbes to eat and past
gas there. So yeah, pre fermentation process, love it. Sciences,
science make it so you can eat these beans not
too player, h Okay, the history of Boston baked beans
(35:26):
is still something that interests folks clearly in so last year,
Meg Muckenhout and I hope I'm not totally butchering that
published the Truth about baked beans in Edible History of
New England and this is where I got a lot
of my New England food facts, but also um they
(35:50):
She was very instructive for me of being like, we
don't know about this Native American big bean smith and
everyone's telling it. And I was like, I'm so glad
I found this thing because I don't want to let
you down. And yeah, baked beans had been losing sales
(36:15):
for a few years as um trends in fresh foods
have been increasing, but then I saw a pretty serious
uptick during the COVID nineteen shutdown. Being an inexpensive and
shell stable comfort food, Yeah that makes sense to me,
and I I'm interested to see if I run into
(36:37):
them this weekend. Yeah, I bet you do. You know
I bet you do. Maybe I've just never noticed them before.
M hmm. Because people bring a lot of foods to
those types of celebrations. You gotta you gotta, you know,
make your calculations as the way you can fit on
your plate. And yeah, maybe I just hadn't included the
(36:59):
bike bean and maybe I should give it another glance.
Oh yeah, one way. And this was a for me
surprising craving episode. I was like, oh man, oh man,
I want some beans and Frank's right now. Well, I
hope you find them board. Yeah, I think this is
in my future and I'm excited. I think so, I
think so. Well, we hope you've enjoyed this. I really have.
(37:25):
I was not expecting it to be this much of
a fun one, but it really was. Yeah. Yes, absolutely.
Like all good things, it must come to an end. Uh.
We do have some listener mail for you. We do,
but first we have one more quickick for word from
our sponsor. And we're back. Thank you sponsor, Yes, thank you,
(37:58):
and we're back with listener snow from Mad Fireworks. Fireworks.
I was gonna try to do the Seinfeld jingle, but
you would have no idea. No, I wouldn't have Yankee beans.
Yankee beans anyway cool cool, yeah, yeah, thank you, Mark
(38:28):
Mark wrote while listening to your fictional foods followed episode,
I spent the entire time waiting for you to address
my favorite food of the franchise, Sunset Sasparilla, while you
reference Nuka Cola's competitor, Vim. I was disappointed that Sunset
Sasaparilla got no mentioned being featured in file at New Vegas.
Sunset Sasaparilla is far more common in the game than
(38:49):
Nuka Cola. In the game, Sunset Sasaparilla replenishes your health
without any added radiation, unlike Nuka Cola. You can even
visit the Sun's Sasaparilla headquarters, where you can meet Festus,
an old timing cowboy animatronic in the lobby provides you
with the quest the legend of the star you see
(39:11):
before the bombs dropped. Sunset Sasparilla has started a marketing
campaign in which certain bottle caps had a share star
printed on the inside. By collecting fifty of these special
star caps and bringing them to Festus, the player receives
a special reward. I get the impression Annie hasn't played
New Vegas, so I won't spoil it for you here.
It's my favorite entry of the franchise and well worth
(39:32):
a playthrough to experience the complicated moral choices as well
as it's goofiness, which includes, but is not limited to,
a gang of Elvis impersonators known as the King's discovery
of a corpse in a fridge in the desert that
definitely isn't Indiana Jones and holy frag grenades. Oh that
(39:53):
is okay. One that's a tongue twisters since that's Sasaparilla
see um, And yes, I have played Fought in New Vegas,
but I oh, it's a long tragic story of many
failed laptops for me. But I mean it's not that tragic. Essentially,
my laptop couldn't keep up with the speed needed to
(40:14):
play it, and then it took forever. Lauren knows, I
put off getting a new laptop for like five years
after I should have. I'm holding it together with duck
tape and injuring myself trying to open it. Um. So
I do have it, and I have started playing it,
but you are correct, I have not finished it. So
I guess I never arrived at this many this quest,
(40:36):
but I am I've heard very good things about this game,
and I think I would really like it. So maybe
my new laptop. Yeah, only time will tell. Uh Amy wrote,
after listening to your pimento cheese episode, I want to
write in and tell you that my family's simple recipe
for pimento cheese uses miracle whip, cheddar cheese, and PTOs.
(41:00):
I prefer it on celery, not bread, where it pairs
better and it's less overpowering. I also wanted to share
with the two of you about a dessert hot sauce.
I founded a store that specializes in stuff made here
in North Carolina called Toad Sweat. It's a nice mix
of sweet and hot incomes in many flavors like key
lime and chocolate orange. Right, oh goodness, sweat heck, yeah,
(41:28):
oh my goodness. I'm forgetting their user name and or
stated name right now. But but but some excellent listener
on Twitter wrote in at some point about a like
dessert hot sauce on Kickstarter, and I definitely funded it,
so I'm getting some of the mail heck, and eventually
(41:49):
I'm very excited. Um, and all of this sounds delicious,
I know. I mentioned on the podcast a couple of
weeks ago that I had all the hot sauces do
the hot ones challenge. I undertook it this weekend with
half of them. Oh yeah, and it was half from
like the bottom half and difficulty and half from the
(42:10):
top half and difficulty. How great. Um. I will admit
I was being very cautious, like good, you know, I
didn't coat the wing or anything like that, very minimal,
just little little taste and one of them not the
last ab was very hot, but the rest lovely. So
(42:35):
maybe I'll get the courage to undertake the thing as
delightful though. Yes, and um, so you just keep me
updated on your dessert hot sauce because I would like
to try it. I may or may not have ordered
enough for both of us, so this is why you're
(42:57):
not asked, one of many reasons. Yes, so exciting. Um,
thanks to both of those listeners for writing to us.
If you would like to write to us, you can
Our email is hello at savor pod dot com. We're
also on social media. You can find us on Twitter, Instagram,
and Facebook at savor pod and we do hope to
hear from you. Savor is production of I Heart Radio
(43:20):
for more podcasts my Heart Radio. You can visit the
I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
to your favorite shows. Thanks as always to our superproducers
Dylan Fagan and Andrew Howard, with special thanks this week
to Max Williams, whose name I absolutely no. Thanks to
you for listening, and we hope that lots more good
things are coming your way
Hello, I'm welcome to Savor Protection of I Heart Radio.
I'm Annie Reese and I'm Lauren Vogelbaum, and today we
have an episode for you about baked beans, and I
promise it is a good one. It is a fun one.
It is. It has one of my very favorite facts
that I have discovered and not expected in it a
long time. So, okay, cool. Yeah. Now I'm curious to
(00:32):
know which which one that is. I shall point it
out when we arrive. I think it'll be pretty clear.
It's a pretty solid fact. But we chose this because
as we're recording it and as it first comes out,
it is Independence Day approaching here in the Unitnesday weekend. Yeah,
(00:52):
and baked baked beans are in fact a very popular
Independence Day side dish here they are. They are more
on that in a second, Happy Independent say if you're celebrating.
I just complained at length to Lauren and are a
Tampa producer, Max Williams about the fact that I am
(01:16):
running every race this weekend and I'm very concerned about it.
But it's going to happen. I wouldn't I wouldn't say
you complained, I'd say that you um expressed concern yes,
a lot of concern. Yeah, I feel a lot of
concern right now. But you you both uplifted me. So
(01:39):
I'm gonna I'm gonna try to power through all we
All we did was say that we don't run, and
so therefore any amount of running that you do sounds
impressive to us. But if hey, if that uplifted you,
I'm excited about it. Anything that impresses Lauren Voge, Obama
and Max Williams, that's pretty good in my book. Uh, perfect, perfect. Um,
(02:06):
I will say, y'all, if you hear some little some
little bumps and noises in the background, it's not the
ghost of Annie's former running prowess, Uh it is. It
is rather um great Great Hat has been a little
bit sick the past couple of days. I was away
for a few days for the first time since shutdown,
(02:26):
and uh, he promptly worked himself into a nervous u
urinary track stone. But he's on the end. He's back
and making noise in the studio, so if yeah, yeah,
it's super into it. Luckily, he hasn't deleted any large
portions of our outline yet, just highlighted he we're all
(02:51):
here for you. Great we're supporting you. We're supporting you too, Annie,
support all around, that's what we're all about here. Um. So,
baked beans were an occasional food on July fourth and
our family, like I can count maybe once or twice.
But uh, interestingly to me, I've gone to a few
(03:12):
international US Independence Day celebrations. So I went to one
in China and I went to one in Belgium, and
baked beans were at both of those, So clearly, I mean,
I guess the Internet would also tell you that, but
it is a traditional food to have on the US
Independence Day. But that was just interesting to me of
(03:34):
the foods they chose as someone who didn't really eat them. Yeah, yeah,
I wonder if that's like a Southern thing. I growing
up in Ohio, like that was a very like summer,
especially Independence Day coated food for me, um and among
a lot of the I guess, I guess like like
(03:56):
northern based humans that I know today, it's still like
like like to me, it's it's definitely like a key
side dish of Independence Day barbecues. And I'm not sure
why because I feel like I feel like no one
really eats that much, but someone always brings them right right.
It's just it's just like one of those things you
(04:17):
have to have, but yet no one seems to really want.
But no one seems to really be able to say
that they don't really want to, you know. Yeah, yeah,
And I mean and I do want them. I quite
like them, but yeah, anyway, yeah, So on the flip
side of my experience, when I was staying in this
really small, tiny hostel in London for a few weeks,
(04:38):
there was this breakfast that was provided as part of
the cost, and it typically consisted of this huge tower
of buttered bed like bigger than my head, ridiculous amount
of buttered toast excuse me, yeah, and grilled tomato slices
and baked beans with tea your coffee. And at the
time this was new to me. This was news to
me and new to me. I didn't know that the
(04:59):
baked beans we're a part of this traditional breakfast. But
I loved it. I actually really enjoyed it. Oh yeah, yeah,
I I love the bean component of a traditional um
English or Irish breakfast. I want more protein. I don't
want all of it to come from eggs. I yes,
I'm so excited when I get that and it goes
(05:20):
so well with all of the other little stuff on
the plate. Oh, it's a nice Yeah. I really enjoyed
it too. I did go on a very big bean
bag chair and beaty baby rabbit hole for this, and
then decided that maybe I should appropriate my time more efficiently.
(05:41):
But just just know that I really wanted to talk
about that in this episode. Fast okay stuff, Oh okay,
I believe you. That is not any part of the
rabbit holes that I went down today, But I look
forward to hearing about that. Is it appropriate for Food
Show at some point? Maybe different episode. It's you know,
(06:04):
I feel like this is going to be one of
those important savor questions where we're gonna have to sit
down and really really get to the bottom of what
savers all about. And I think a bean bag chair
might be it. I love this. I love that, like
our our big existential crisis might come thanks to bean
(06:26):
bag chairs and or beanie babies into that. It feels right,
It feels yeah. But we could have our existential crisis later,
but for now, I think this brings us to our question.
I think it does. Baked beads, what are they? Well, uh,
(06:49):
baked beans are typically not baked, but are rather a
type of stewed bean dish consisting of dried white beans
that are reconstituted and slow cooked in a sort of
a a very sweet, tangy gravy, served warm as a
lunch or dinner side dish or part of breakfast platters
or on toast or sandwiches. So let's talk about the beans.
(07:12):
The type of beans used in this dish are usually
white beans, also called navy beans, not navy like the
color like navy is in the naval branch of the military.
Also called hair caught beans in British English, these are
beans of a variety from the wide species fasiolist vulgaris,
I think is how you might say it. I didn't
(07:33):
take Latin. I don't know. They're they're the seeds of
the plant, which means that they contain lots of great
nutrition for little plant babies and for us. The beans
growing pods and usually dry on the vine before being
harvested and processed, and that means that they are fairly nonperishable,
but also that they have to be yes reconstituted or
(07:53):
rehydrated prior to use the gravy. Um. It's usually a
sauce made from a tomato puree and or cooked onion
sort of bass with some kind of sweetener and uh
rich and flavorful options like molasses or brown sugar or
maple syrup or common um, a touch of vinegar, some
salt and pepper, mustard, and some other herbs and spices
(08:15):
uh like woody kind of savory things like bay and rosemary,
sage and time. Stuff like that are pretty common. And
then some kind of starch will usually be used, either
from the cooking beans themselves or from an outside source,
will be used to thicken the sauce up a little bit. Um.
They can be made vegetarian, but are often cooked with
a small amount of pork product bacon or salt cured
(08:38):
pork something like that, or hot dogs um for flavor,
And often the vegetarian versions will have a little bit
of a smoke flavor or something something you mommy, maybe
like a little mushroom broth or something added to replicate that.
And the result is just this hardy comfort food that's
really childhood nostalgic for a out of the English speaking world.
(09:02):
And I will say I laughed out loud a lot
during my reading for this one. Um. But perhaps the
hardest at this lead line written by one Oliver thring
Um in the Guardian quote all your life You've been
lied to. Turns out they're not bloody baked beans. They're
stewed beans. They do not do what they say on
(09:23):
the tin. I can just imagine a dramatic scene in
a movie or you like, drop to your knees, it's raining,
lightning across the sky and you're like, stewed. They won't
have a bake. It's David Tennant with the rain on
him in the end scene in Dr Who and he's like,
(09:47):
bloody baked. I want that, so I want it. Oh,
heck all right, all right y'all English y'all y'all or
British in general, like like right in or send in
(10:08):
your video. Gosh, that would be so good. Yes, please
do that heck. Um. And you you can you can
make make make beans from scratch. Um, but they are
often bought pre prepared in cans or tins, as I
suppose you would refer to them, um in the non
American part of the English speaking world. Um. And I
(10:30):
will say some home some home recipes do call for
baking sometimes, so it's not always stewed beans. They're not
always a bloody lie. I love this so much. What
about the nutrition? Uh, It of course depends on exactly
what you put into them. Um. Many canned foods do
(10:51):
contain a bunch of added sugars and salts, so you know,
read your nutrition labels. But beans are pretty good for you.
You know, They've got a good punch of protein and
minerals and soluble fiber. And although in general fresh or
frozen produce is best, canned beans are pretty okay option, um,
because what you generally lose through canning is vitamin content,
(11:12):
and that's not really where beans shine that much anyway. Plus,
the canning process reduces the compounds and beans that um
that muck about with your with your digestive systems capability
to absorb minerals, so so that's good. Um. And also
the canning process the cooking process will increase available fiber molecules,
(11:33):
so that's cool. Research has shown that baked beans are
a pretty great option for getting like quick and easy
nutrients into your diet, especially as a replacement for less
healthy snacks and sides. Um. Just yeah, watch that salt
and sugar content and an hydrate always hydrate, but for
best results, yeah, make your baked beans from scratch with
a minimum of those sugars and salts to taste. Also,
(11:56):
I have I have a gas aside here I cannot
wait because beans are as we all know, the musical fruit. Um.
We all know it, yep, yep, it is known um okay.
So so beans can indeed make you more gassy, especially
(12:16):
if you don't eat them regularly, because they contain types
of fiber that your body cannot digest. However, microbes that
live in your gut sure can digest them. And so
what happens is those microbes eat those fibers and then
they excrete gases which will build up in your guts
until you pass them out, meaning that, yes, the primary
(12:39):
reason that you fart is that microbes inside you are
farting and then you fart out their farts. The true
circle of life, it is, it is, it's the circle
of arts. Um. Hat tip hat tip to Ben Bolen
and the Old Days of the brain Stuff YouTube series
for the exact phrasing on that one. Getting to the
(13:03):
bottom of these very important questions behind the rhymes, we
all said as children, uh um, we do have some
numbers for you. Gosh, we do. Um alright, So baked
bean sales in the US um as of we're worth
some five and thirty million dollars per year. Wow. As
(13:28):
of Massachusetts has a state bean, the baked Navy Bean. Apparently,
I guess this is really most people know this. I
didn't know this, but Boston is sometimes called bean town. Yeah,
that's one of the that's one of its nicknames. Yes,
and the Navy bean is sometimes called the Boston bean
(13:48):
or the Yankee bean, which is the Seinfeld resference. There's
an episode where Elaine is feeding this guy Yankee beans.
I won't go into why. Well, she calls them Yankee
beans and she's like singing this song and I was like,
what the heck is a Yankee beans? Now I know,
there you go. According to the company, Hinz, baked beans
(14:08):
has a market share in the UK and every day
about two point three million British people eat this product
from about one million cans. I've seen numbers up to
two million cans a day in the UK. Yeah. Um
as of annual consumption of baked beans per capita in
(14:30):
the UK was just over five kilos. That's nearly twelve pounds. Wow.
Uh And as of sixteen, um Hinz's Wigan is that
how you would say that Wigan plant plant in It's in.
It's in Manchester, um ish it is the largest baked
bean factory in the world and as it was capable
(14:52):
of producing over three million cans of beans every twenty
four hours during peak season, with the total process from
being arrival to complete tin taking about two hours. And
they process some fifty thousand tons of raw beans per year.
It's a lot of beans, a lot of beans. Furthermore,
(15:13):
in case you were wondering, very similar to the Tiffany blue,
the Hinds bean turquoise is in fact a trademarked color.
I think I have that Mascara Hines bean turium. Meanwhile,
(15:36):
in the United States, Bush's brand is the being leader.
In Tennessee, there's a Bush's Beans visitor Center, museum and
cafe UM at one of the company's long running sites
UM where under normal circumstances some a hundred and fifty
thousand visitors a year come through UM it opened and
(15:57):
bushes cells round about twenty variety is a baked beans.
I want to visit this place, right, I very much
want to visit um. You can watch videos in a
giant can of beans. It's a giant bean can. There's
no beans in it, There's just you and videos. I
see my brain My brain was like what I could
(16:23):
see it going there. I was trying circuiting um. But
this brings us to another place I would very much
like to go. And this is the fact I mentioned
at the top that I was not expecting to uncover. Research. Yeah,
there's a Baked Beans Museum of Excellence in Wales. That's
(16:45):
what it's called. That's what it's called. It is operated
by a quote superhero who loves bake beans called Captain Beanie.
Apparently the guy behind this very got the idea for
the whole thing after breaking the record for sitting naked
in baked beans in six one hours. I would have
(17:10):
some thoughts after sitting one same same He illegally changed
his name to Captain beany in Uh yeah yeah. Captain
Beanie also holds the records for for the longest anyone
has held a plate of beans on toast in one
hand while walking on a treadmill. This this is referred
(17:36):
to as the beans on Toast a thon um, and
his record is twelve hours? Was it just him? Was
anyone else I have I you know, I don't want
to conjecture. Um um. He And also he holds the
record for the fastest anyone has run a marathon while
(17:57):
holding a plate of baked beans on toast. His time
was five hours, forty six minutes and twenty five seconds. Um.
And this was in two eight at the Flora London Marathon.
And he did not, in fact spelled beans. Not Captain
Beanie never never. Um he's got some baked beans tattooed
(18:19):
on his head. Really look look this up. There are images.
They're gonna brighten your day, I promise. Um. He sounds
like a really interesting fellow. He's done a lot of
charity work he does. He has done a lot of races.
He's climbed a lot of mountains. Captain Beanie, he's gotten around. Yeah.
Uh and you know, so have baked beans within the
world record category. There there are a lot of baked
(18:42):
beans related world records. Um. There's a Guinness for the
largest pot of baked beans, which was set in twelve
in Macedonia with five thousand, six liters of baked beans.
That's about gallons. It's a lot of baked beans is
the popular record to attempt seems to be the records
(19:03):
for eating the most baked beans with a toothpick sometimes
called a cocktail stick within a certain period of time
one minute, three minutes, in five minutes. An American by
the name of David Rush toppled with the previous records
and one go eating sixty eight in one minute, a
hundred and seventy eight in three minutes, and then two
hundred and seventy eight in five minutes. I would stab myself.
(19:27):
I would stab the heck out of my mouth if
I tried to do this. Oh gosh right, danger. There's
also beans danger. There's also a record for a team
of four in two minutes and they got four hundred
and twenty nine beans, and that was set in the
United Kingdom. There's also a Guinness record for the most
(19:49):
baked beans eaten with chopsticks in one minute. That record
is held by one Tanakato who in Tokyo In apparently
popped se means into her mouth during the first fifty
three seconds, leaving herself seven seconds to chew and swallow,
and then with just three seconds left, popped one last bean,
(20:09):
beating the previous record. Wow, and that flair for the dramatic,
I think is what really what really makes a good
bean eater. Yet again Hollywood letting us down. Why have
we not seen this movie where it's like at the
wire and then pops one more bean. It's a real shame,
(20:34):
it is it is Hollywood, you fail us again once again.
But the history of baked beans did not fail us
in terms of how interesting it is. Absolutely um and
we will get into that history after we get back
from a quick break forward from our sponsor and we're back.
(21:06):
Thank you sponsor. Yes, thank you. Navy beans and the
relatives of navy beans originated in the America's I think
that could be a whole thing. Yes. I found a
very intense scientific article about about all the different like
genetic branching off periods of these beans, and I was like, okay,
(21:28):
not today, not today. But these beans were staples flour
native Americans, and alongside maize and squash, were one of
the three sisters that were agriculturally foundational. I know we've
talked about that before. Um. Some tribes might have used
earthenware pots covered with hot stones to cook beans with
(21:48):
bear fat, maple syrup and venison, and when Colin has arrived,
they might have observed the Native Americans doing this and
started making them on their own, but our perhaps they
like Okay. The Native American version of this story is
the one that is commonly told, but the details are
quite sparse, if they exist at all. No specific tribes
(22:12):
ever mentioned, and tribes in that region didn't really bake,
nor is it likely they would have used maple syrup
in a bean dish if they had any at all.
There are documents from that time showing that they were
willing to bargain quite a bit to get some maple syrup,
so that does not suggest that they would yea in
this dish. But that is something you have to, like,
(22:36):
really dig deep in the baked bean the fine because
it is so commonly told. Um, And we're gonna get
into more on why that is in a in a minute.
Some food historians believed that these New England baked beans
the precursor of Boston baked beans. Most likely, we're an
amalgamation of Native American recipes and methods and a bean
(22:57):
and bacon dish out of England common during the Middle Ages. Again,
I was kind of like puzzling over that one in
terms of I guess the beans used, but okay, others
think that North African and Spanish Jews had long been
eating baked beans on the Sabbath, and sea captains arriving
at New England ports introduced this idea of tradition to
(23:20):
them after witnessing it in Africa and or the Mediterranean.
Or maybe it can be traced back to the French
bean dish cassule, and that French Canadians were in fact
highly influential in this dish. Yeah, so right, Um, there
(23:40):
were beans being used in cuisines in England and France
and around the Mediterranean before the era of colonization which
started Circle of fundreds. And and those those those were
other species of beans, lentils, fava's stuff like that, and
different beans and their uses hopped back and forth at
across the Atlantic a few times over the centuries. Right,
(24:04):
and um, these beans were useful for colonists who were
observing Sabbath on Sunday and we're forbidden from cooking on
that day. The beans could be cooked Saturday night for
dinner and then kept warm overnight and eating for breakfast
or as part of a cold sandwich for lunch up.
In New England, this led to stewed beans cooked with salt,
(24:26):
pork or other meats, various spices, and molasses, which was
probably introduced in the eighteenth century, the product of the
force labor of enslaved people's in the Caribbean and shipped
to Boston for rummaking, which I believe we talked about
in Our Room episode Yeah yeah, um and right, molasses
is considered a byproduct of the sugar refining industry. Um.
(24:46):
It's thus a lot cheaper than granulated refined sugar, and
thus worked its way into a lot of home recipes
around that time as a cheaper alternative to the steadily
lesser expensive but still pricey sugar. Right. And these stewed
beans were often served with brown bead cornbread or biscuits. Um. Confusingly, though,
(25:10):
most of these recipes were still labeled as baked beans.
And yes, it is a confusion that lasted this day.
As we learned from the Bloody, Bloody lie, we've all
been fed um baked beans as a working class food
where they were filling, they were cheap, and they were
packed with protein. So that was a great food option
for people who were working or struggling in any type
(25:32):
of uh situation, with money or what was available to them.
But also it was a food that people would bring
to events, including Independence Day parties after the American Revolutionary War. Yeah,
navy beans. The name it was coined in the mid
(25:54):
eighteen hundreds since these beans were a staple for the
US Navy. And I got this out of an official U. S.
Navy documents, so I am trusting that's the truth. Yeah. Yeah.
These stude slash baked beans with pork and molasses were
the first to be canned in the US in the
eighteen sixties, right around the Civil War and soon after
(26:16):
the invention of the can opener. Yeah yeah, I always
always remember that canning existed for a good few decades
before the can opener was invented. Uh. Just just think
about the hilarity and devastation. Let I often remember our
(26:38):
video of trying to open the corn game. Oh yeah,
even even after even after um. Yeah and so so,
baked beans as a dish are quite good for canning. Um,
because beans don't have an unpleasant texture when they're heated
and canned. Um. Also, the acid content from the natoes
(27:00):
and or onions allows for a shorter cooking time during
the process and thus a better preservation of flavor and nutrients.
Um Also, the salt and sugar already present and recipes
are good preservatives because they prevent the growth of microbes
by kind of occupying the water content of foods, so yes,
and of course, as per usual in these episodes, a
(27:21):
handful of companies claimed to be the first to sell
canned baked beans, including the Burnham and Moral Company in
eighteen seventies six and Henry Hines Yes that one may
have started mass producing them in eight five. As early
as eighteen eight six, Hindes baked beans were being sold
(27:41):
as a luxury item at high end stores in London.
It was towards the end of the nineteenth century that
the first written recipe for Boston baked beans appeared in
Fanny Farmer's cookbook. By this point, the molasses was a
key ingredient. It was a key differentiating ingredient. Ground mustard
(28:02):
and salt pork were typical too, but that molasses was
like the thing. Oh yeah, oh yeah, yes. And speaking
of the thing, this whole Boston baked beans thing might
have been a part of a concerted effort to create
New England foods that were an attempt to recapture foods
(28:25):
that Europeans ate prior to the American Revolution. This whole
movement also largely ignored the history behind the dish and
all the other foods and traditions of contemporary New Englanders
and immigrant populations that were happening at the same time. UH.
These ideas around New England foods were carefully chosen, crafted
(28:47):
and presented in print publications, often alongside less than accurate
tales about how traditional and American they were. Kind of
similar to UH, like a thanks the Thanksgiving story really
painting this positive light. But that was that was interesting
and we're going to talk about there's a whole book
about this. But it was interesting to read of all
(29:07):
these other things that were happening that we're not considered
New England foods, but these chosen foods, yes or yes.
I learned a lot about New England food in this
episode and this whole this whole thing concided with a
drop in the price of sugar and a drive to
uplift molasses in the face of that perhaps makes sense
(29:30):
to me. In eight A. J. Bush opened a Canary
in Tennessee. They started selling pork and beans in four um,
and cans of that were distributed to American troops during
World War Two, according to the company's website. In ninety
nine they arrived at a new secret family recipe that
they put all cats, which I thought was quite funny
(29:51):
for simmering their beans. Supposedly, this recipe comes from a
childhood favorite recipe of one of A J's kids. His
mother Katherine, shared it with the family for the for
the company, on the condition that it would never be distributed.
Oh never, And that is why. That is why Bushes
(30:13):
and their spokes dog Um are so insistent. But it's
a secret, that's why. Okay, God. As cam beans became
more available across the country, they earned a spot as
barbecue and pot look staples. Okay, I never heard of this.
(30:36):
Never Um asking for Boston Baked beans in Chicago in
the nineteen twenties and thirties might mean something different. It
was a popular candy that involved peanuts dyed red and
coated in sugar so that they appeared being like this
is an interesting candy tradition that kind of cracks me up.
(30:57):
We talked about it in the Candy corn episode, and
then this one of like agricultural products made into candy
are like the shape. Yeah. The largest producer of these candies,
Chicago's Ferrara Candy Company, has been making them since nineteen.
The origin of this candy has been largely lost to history.
(31:19):
I didn't dig into deep so maybe a future episode,
but most publications seem to be like yeah, uh oh wow, yeah, no,
I I've definitely consumed these. Never heard of this. Maybe
maybe it's another like kind of northern thing. I I
bet that we can find some at one of the
like at one of the candy shops around town that
(31:41):
has like old timey Oh we should I don't know
why I got so excited by going to an old
timey candy shop, but I bet we can really find
some stuff we should talk about on this year show.
Yes yes. Um. In the late twenties and early thirties,
Hinds opened baked being production plants in the UK and Australia.
(32:03):
After there, you know, they had been shipping their products
out to both places for a while. Um, but but
then tariffs started making importation cost prohibitives, so they just
opened up plants over over in both of those places.
And then Australian production would ramp up. During World War
two one American troops were stationed out in Queensland. Hines
dropped the pork from their canned bake beans in response
(32:25):
to World War two rationing. Many pinpoint they're successful beans
means Hines ad campaign that's that's means with the Z
yes and all around triple Z. What am I saying? Yeah,
this ad campaign came out in the nineteen sixties for
(32:47):
solidifying this product's place as a British breakfast staple. And
I read an article that quite quite tickled me about.
It was a tasting test. I think it was an
analysis of several to tasting test in the UK where
Hines consistently comes on the bottom, but people still prefer
it because of nostalgian name recognition. Yeah, it's really just
(33:09):
the name recognition. It's It's a very powerful thing and
very impressive to me. Yes. Um. However, the iconic British
breakfast of beans on toast possibly goes back to nineteen
o one, so it seems like maybe they are capitalizing
on something that was already there. Oh and I found
a really harsh New York Times article that just dissed
(33:34):
Boston bake beads, really, claiming that New England and New
Englander's only eight them because they had the gall and
bad taste too. Oh. They compared it to continuing to
wear a bad fashion choice even though everyone's decided it's
a bad fashion choice. Almost yes, um. And they also
(33:57):
went on to say that these these big beans were
definitely a food that you should be embarrassed about, not
something you should want to reflect America, something that was
for poor people, that it was a relic. I will say,
I'm unclear and whether the author felt this way. I
think I think they did, But the people they were
(34:19):
interviewing was sort of the meat the beans of this article.
But I was reading it like a guest. Wow. Well, uh,
I know, and I have I have nothing to say
(34:39):
about that. I can't really tell you one way or um.
I can tell you that in two thousands six, a
group of researchers out of Venezuela, um too, took the
toot out of beans, as Live Science reported. UM they
they they fermented beans with the types of bacteria that
eat those fibers that we can't digest during the production process,
(35:02):
thus greatly reducing the amount of those fibers that wind
up in our gut for microbes to eat and past
gas there. So yeah, pre fermentation process, love it. Sciences,
science make it so you can eat these beans not
too player, h Okay, the history of Boston baked beans
(35:26):
is still something that interests folks clearly in so last year,
Meg Muckenhout and I hope I'm not totally butchering that
published the Truth about baked beans in Edible History of
New England and this is where I got a lot
of my New England food facts, but also um they
(35:50):
She was very instructive for me of being like, we
don't know about this Native American big bean smith and
everyone's telling it. And I was like, I'm so glad
I found this thing because I don't want to let
you down. And yeah, baked beans had been losing sales
(36:15):
for a few years as um trends in fresh foods
have been increasing, but then I saw a pretty serious
uptick during the COVID nineteen shutdown. Being an inexpensive and
shell stable comfort food, Yeah that makes sense to me,
and I I'm interested to see if I run into
(36:37):
them this weekend. Yeah, I bet you do. You know
I bet you do. Maybe I've just never noticed them before.
M hmm. Because people bring a lot of foods to
those types of celebrations. You gotta you gotta, you know,
make your calculations as the way you can fit on
your plate. And yeah, maybe I just hadn't included the
(36:59):
bike bean and maybe I should give it another glance.
Oh yeah, one way. And this was a for me
surprising craving episode. I was like, oh man, oh man,
I want some beans and Frank's right now. Well, I
hope you find them board. Yeah, I think this is
in my future and I'm excited. I think so, I
think so. Well, we hope you've enjoyed this. I really have.
(37:25):
I was not expecting it to be this much of
a fun one, but it really was. Yeah. Yes, absolutely.
Like all good things, it must come to an end. Uh.
We do have some listener mail for you. We do,
but first we have one more quickick for word from
our sponsor. And we're back. Thank you sponsor, Yes, thank you,
(37:58):
and we're back with listener snow from Mad Fireworks. Fireworks.
I was gonna try to do the Seinfeld jingle, but
you would have no idea. No, I wouldn't have Yankee beans.
Yankee beans anyway cool cool, yeah, yeah, thank you, Mark
(38:28):
Mark wrote while listening to your fictional foods followed episode,
I spent the entire time waiting for you to address
my favorite food of the franchise, Sunset Sasparilla, while you
reference Nuka Cola's competitor, Vim. I was disappointed that Sunset
Sasaparilla got no mentioned being featured in file at New Vegas.
Sunset Sasaparilla is far more common in the game than
(38:49):
Nuka Cola. In the game, Sunset Sasaparilla replenishes your health
without any added radiation, unlike Nuka Cola. You can even
visit the Sun's Sasaparilla headquarters, where you can meet Festus,
an old timing cowboy animatronic in the lobby provides you
with the quest the legend of the star you see
(39:11):
before the bombs dropped. Sunset Sasparilla has started a marketing
campaign in which certain bottle caps had a share star
printed on the inside. By collecting fifty of these special
star caps and bringing them to Festus, the player receives
a special reward. I get the impression Annie hasn't played
New Vegas, so I won't spoil it for you here.
It's my favorite entry of the franchise and well worth
(39:32):
a playthrough to experience the complicated moral choices as well
as it's goofiness, which includes, but is not limited to,
a gang of Elvis impersonators known as the King's discovery
of a corpse in a fridge in the desert that
definitely isn't Indiana Jones and holy frag grenades. Oh that
(39:53):
is okay. One that's a tongue twisters since that's Sasaparilla
see um, And yes, I have played Fought in New Vegas,
but I oh, it's a long tragic story of many
failed laptops for me. But I mean it's not that tragic. Essentially,
my laptop couldn't keep up with the speed needed to
(40:14):
play it, and then it took forever. Lauren knows, I
put off getting a new laptop for like five years
after I should have. I'm holding it together with duck
tape and injuring myself trying to open it. Um. So
I do have it, and I have started playing it,
but you are correct, I have not finished it. So
I guess I never arrived at this many this quest,
(40:36):
but I am I've heard very good things about this game,
and I think I would really like it. So maybe
my new laptop. Yeah, only time will tell. Uh Amy wrote,
after listening to your pimento cheese episode, I want to
write in and tell you that my family's simple recipe
for pimento cheese uses miracle whip, cheddar cheese, and PTOs.
(41:00):
I prefer it on celery, not bread, where it pairs
better and it's less overpowering. I also wanted to share
with the two of you about a dessert hot sauce.
I founded a store that specializes in stuff made here
in North Carolina called Toad Sweat. It's a nice mix
of sweet and hot incomes in many flavors like key
lime and chocolate orange. Right, oh goodness, sweat heck, yeah,
(41:28):
oh my goodness. I'm forgetting their user name and or
stated name right now. But but but some excellent listener
on Twitter wrote in at some point about a like
dessert hot sauce on Kickstarter, and I definitely funded it,
so I'm getting some of the mail heck, and eventually
(41:49):
I'm very excited. Um, and all of this sounds delicious,
I know. I mentioned on the podcast a couple of
weeks ago that I had all the hot sauces do
the hot ones challenge. I undertook it this weekend with
half of them. Oh yeah, and it was half from
like the bottom half and difficulty and half from the
(42:10):
top half and difficulty. How great. Um. I will admit
I was being very cautious, like good, you know, I
didn't coat the wing or anything like that, very minimal,
just little little taste and one of them not the
last ab was very hot, but the rest lovely. So
(42:35):
maybe I'll get the courage to undertake the thing as
delightful though. Yes, and um, so you just keep me
updated on your dessert hot sauce because I would like
to try it. I may or may not have ordered
enough for both of us, so this is why you're
(42:57):
not asked, one of many reasons. Yes, so exciting. Um,
thanks to both of those listeners for writing to us.
If you would like to write to us, you can
Our email is hello at savor pod dot com. We're
also on social media. You can find us on Twitter, Instagram,
and Facebook at savor pod and we do hope to
hear from you. Savor is production of I Heart Radio
(43:20):
for more podcasts my Heart Radio. You can visit the
I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
to your favorite shows. Thanks as always to our superproducers
Dylan Fagan and Andrew Howard, with special thanks this week
to Max Williams, whose name I absolutely no. Thanks to
you for listening, and we hope that lots more good
things are coming your way
Savor News
Hosts And Creators
Anney Reese
Lauren Vogelbaum
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