One of the quintessential English foods is beans on toast. Americans often hear about beans on toast, and maybe even try it, but the results are puzzling. American beans on toast is just not quite right, and even someone who has never had English beans on toast can tell there's something off about it.
The problem is that in America, we don't get the same canned beans that you find in England. American canned beans are usually the Boston baked variety, or are heavily sweetened in some way. Most varieties of American beans also usually have more sauce to the can, which makes the result a lot gloppier than you might want.
The heart of the classic English beans on toast is Heinz baked beans with the blue label. I have never seen this particular variety of Heinz beans at the grocery store, except at stores with a big International section. (Even then, they are rare and expensive.)
This variety of canned beans is very low in sugar, unlike the canned baked beans you get in America. It is that non-sweet, savory nature that makes them perfect to serve over toast. The tomato sauce is more like a pasta sauce than the sweet flavoring that we are used to in the States.
You can make your own English baked beans from scratch, of course. (This is a great project for the slow cooker.) But doing it this way kind of defeats the purpose of having beans on toast, which are enjoyed as a cheap and easy meal. Bachelor food, basically.
I have no idea why Heinz does not sell its blue label baked beans in America. There is no apparent reason for it, except that they never have, so Americans don't know about them. If you want to enjoy proper English beans on toast, seek out an international grocery store, a Cost Plus Imports (if you live near one), or you may have to resort to buying them online.
Image courtesy Flickr/jACK TWO
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