July is National Baked Bean Month

We all love baked beans right. In fact baked beans are popular all around the world. We eat them at barbecues and breakfast too! Wow! I guess that's why we honor baked beans the whole month of July. Happy Baked Bean Month everyone! Now let's talk about baked beans.

Definition of Baked Beans
Baked beans is a dish containing beans, sometimes baked but, despite the name, usually stewed, in a sauce. Most commercially canned baked beans are made from haricot beans, also known as navy beans in a sauce. In Ireland and the United Kingdom, a tomato sauce is most commonly used, and they are commonly eaten on toast or as part of a full English, Scottish, or Irish Breakfast.

Pictured Above
The delicious picture above is a bowl of brown sugar baked beans with fried bacon crumbled on top. (I love the little bean pot) I'm guessing this is the most popular way to eat them in the United States. I know it's how I always make them. Sometimes I put molasses in them if I have any in my pantry. I always put a bit of mustard in mine.

 American Boston Baked Beans are made from a sauce that combines molasses and salt pork too. I read an article that said it was the most popular canned baked bean in America but everyone I've talked to says Bush's Baked Beans are their favorite canned bean.
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I looked up the HISTORY of Baked Beans

The beans presently used to make baked beans are all native to South America and were introduced to Europe around 1528. The dish is commonly described as having a savory-sweet flavor and a brownish or reddish tinted white bean once baked, stewed, canned or otherwise cooked. According to alternative traditions, sailors brought cassoulet from the south of France or northern France, and the Channel Islands, where bean stews were popular. Most probably, a number of regional bean recipes coalesced and cross-fertilised in North America and ultimately gave rise to the baked bean culinary tradition familiar today.

While many recipes today are stewed, traditionally beans were slow baked in a ceramic or cast-iron beanpot. A tradition in Maine, of "bean hole" cooking, may have originated with the native Penobscot people and was later practiced in logging camps. A fire would be made in a stone-lined pit and allowed to burn down to hot coals, and then a pot with 11 pounds of seasoned beans would be placed in the ashes, covered over with dirt, and left to cook overnight or longer. These beans were a staple of Maine's logging camps, served at every meal.

Canned beans, often containing pork, were among the first convenience foods, and it is in this form that they became exported and popularised by U.S. companies operating in the UK in the early 20th century. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration stated in 1996: "It has for years been recognized by consumers generally that the designation 'beans with pork,' or 'pork and beans' is the common or usual name for an article of commerce that contains very little pork." The included pork is typically a piece of salt pork that adds fat to the dish.

Canned baked beans with small pork sausages are still available, as are variants with other added ingredients such as chili.

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In Closing

Ok guys it was fun scanning the Internet reading about baked beans; mainly because baked beans are a favorite of mine. In the summer time I eat them at least once a week. I'm planning on doing a couple more post about baked beans before the month is out. Maybe I can get a recipe posted too. lol!
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Resources: dictionary.com / wikipedia / Chicago Tribune / foodandhealth.com /
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