Beyond Baked Beans
Back to the question of cooks in the kitchen. A web friend of mine in the UK, Fiona Beckett, has been producing a series of books and now this web site called Beyond Baked Beans for British students who want to cook. With cheap air fares and a restaurant explosion in the UK, the British student tends to be a fairly adventurous eater and it’s all a far cry from the student food of my youth. If you know a student in the UK (or in other places) they might like to check out this site. Guy Millon’s videos are delightfully undoctored.
Now for those of you who are not British it may be a complete mystery why the site would be called Beyond Baked Beans.
Well, part of the answer is that following World War II, and particularly in the late 1960s Heinz blanketed the country with ads shouting Heinz Meanz Beanz. Heinz of course was an American company based in Pittsburgh but it had long seen an opportunity in Britain.
For their account of the history of baked beanz in Britain, follow this link. They came up with that brilliant slogan. Indeed the UK Advertizing Slogan Hall of Fame has awarded the Heinz slogan–which was used for a staggering thirty years–top place.
Which leads to a question. How did baked beans, which had essentially no precedents in Britain, come to have this grip on British eating? They have even by now invaded the traditional English breakfast of bacon, egg and tomato.
To be clear, if you know American baked beans, which are very sweet and quite strongly flavored, disabuse yourself of the idea that British baked beans are anything like that. Heinz came up with a much milder version (whether it’s like American pork and beans I can’t say, never having had pork and beans).
I think another part of the answer is that baked beans slotted right in to a standard British light meal or heavy snack, the kind of preparation that never makes it into recipe books. We can call this the ON TOAST meal.
Looking back at my childhood, this was the go-to preparation when we returned home after a day out. We had scrambled egg on toast. Cheesy scrambled egg on toast. Cheese on toast (heaven with good cheddar and burnt edges). Sardines on toast. Grilled tomatoes on toast. Grilled mushrooms on toast (extraordinary with mushrooms straight from the field). Soft herring roe on toast (more bliss). Well, you get the idea.
There were refinements and distinctions. British bakery bread was an excellent bread. The sliced loaf was yet to take over. Most stoves had accessible grills where the toast was made. Toasters had not yet become common equipment. That meant you could toast just one side of the bread and then add, say, cheese to the soft side. Or you could toast both and then butter one side lavishly before adding the mushrooms or roes or what have you. The topping, now I look at it, was usually soft to contrast with the crisp toast.
First cousin in fact to bruschetta. Or perhaps Distant Aunt.
And then came baked beans. Cheap and always there on the shelf. Soft to mash into the toast. Actually not a bad combination nutritionally as far as complementary proteins are concerned.
At least that’s my hypothesis about their popularity. Any thoughts welcome.
And don’t forget that students can go beyond baked beans.
If you have access to The Times archives it is well worth looking at the Heinz adverts from the 1920’s on wards. In general they are genius, even before “Heinz Meanz Beanz”. It is quite amazing that the made the consumption of their products a patriotic duty, given the origins of the company.
Adam, you have me intrigued. They were selling Heinz Beans in WW II? I’ve never seen a mention of them. When did this patriotic duty emerge? Do you have a link rather than trolling all the archives? Please tell more here or on your own blog.
The Times, Saturday, Feb 12, 1944; pg. 3; Issue 49778; col A
“Always ready to serve…..
Don’t think Heinz are making less! They are making more. But fighting men must be fed first; so civilian supplies are limited. But those with a quick eye for the famous name will still find such first-class buys as Heinz Baked Beans, Soups and Salad Cream.”
The “Always ready to serve” (get it?) seems to be the slogan used in ’44, prior to this there was a odd “basic English for basic foods” series of adverts (patriotically taking about how johnny foreigner will be talking basic English after the war).
Oddly enough, in the ’30’s prior to the war there doesn’t seem to be any adverts, so maybe the War made the product popular?
Fascinating, Adam. Could the lack of ads may have had to do with the fact that they were a luxury good (as Spam is today still in much of the world). In the various books and magazines from the war that I inherited from my parents I don’t remember any mention of baked beans. Nor do I remember encountering beans until the late 1950s (though that could have been that my family was pretty traditional). I would guess their general popularity was post war.
So you parents didn’t read The Times?..
There are a reasonable number of adverts in the ’20s and the first factory producing baked beans in the UK opened in 1928. But I don’t think that the big factory in Wigan opened until after the war. I guess the thing that needs to be done is to look at production figures for the 20th century.
No, my parents didn’t read the Times. The Farmer’s Weekly and the Listener (then an excellent weekly put out by the BBC) was more like it. And stacks of books from the traveling library.
I’ve gotten quite a chuckle following this discussion. I grew up in southern Idaho (my parents read the Statesman) where Heintz 57 was steak sauce and local lore told me that the name came from the fact that there were 57 ingredients and that was why it was so much better than other things you might put on your steak. Now I read evidence that this company from Pittsburgh advertised in The Times (not New York) to encourage citizens of the UK that it was their patriotic duty to give custom to these products. Well, so they did come from a plant in the UK. They would have been a safe and non-perishable item in a bomb shelter. And, only ‘forbidden’ would make an item more attractive than ‘limited supply’ could do.
And there were 57 varieties too. Or was that some other company.
The 57 varieties never came up in Boise for some reason and the only other Heintz product that I remember from that era was Catsup and Catsup didn’t have 57 on the label. I know that this falls under the category of oral history and the personal memory is often suspect as documentation.
Maybe that was just a British advertising campaign.
Just found an early reference of Heinz Baked beans in England, “Veal Cutlets a la Heinz” by Mrs de Salis (1904). Basically breaded veal arranged on a plate with bacon, beans in the middle, tomato sauce poured all over….
That’s extraordinarily early. Veal was presumably expensive even then. So Heinz beans were also presumably an upscale and modern addition. Would that fit with the rest of the book?
As far as I can tell Harrod’s was one of the few places selling baked beans at this stage.
Mrs Harriet de Salis published numerous books in the late 19th/early 20th century (Assuming that this is a real person, not just a marketing gimmick). Most of these books had “à la Mode” in the title, this is an introduction to one of the books to set the feel of the series:
“The success which has attended ‘Savouries a la Mode’ has emboldened me to offer to the public the present little volume of ‘Entrees’. These recipes I have collected (both in England and France) from all the best schools of cookery, personal experiences, and Cordons Bleus. As in ‘Savouries a la Mode’ many of the recipes are entirely original: and I trust that lovers of gastronomy will find some amongst the number which they can both relish and recommend. The rage for novelty in plats for the table is so great, that to produce appetising dishes has become quite a fine art, as it is a sine qua non that the eye as well as the palate should be satisified. Perhaps some of my readers will say that a few of the dishes are expensive. Those that are so are intended more for epicurean feasts, but the majority will be found to be within reach of all. Although I have endeavoured to describe the recipes as simply as possible, some of the terms are necessarily technical, my book being not so much intended for the use of novices as for those who already know something of the art.”
Some one to learn more about. I loved the comment on the drive for novelty, now taken for granted but quite novel (ha) at the time. And baked beans were clearly novel.
Which actually raises a question that you or Ken Albala might have thought about. Why so few bean dishes in England by this stage. Pease pudding seems to be about it. OK they were lower class. But were there lots of bean dishes earlier?
Ken will know more, but historically I would guess that the main bean in the UK was the pea. Pease were eaten extensively. In some regions grew beans aplenty, but these seem to be of the broad/fava type, rather then of the New World type.
In all cases they seem to be the food of the poor or perceived so. The smallest fava grown was called the “horse bean” (which is still the name in general for fava beans in many regions world wide) as it was grow as animal food and also to feed slaves.
Hard to imagine, but compared to many parts of Europe, England was a bread basket, so maybe the demand for beans was also due to alternate sources of food.
Or may be it was the difficulty of drying in that damp climate, But if so, how come they dried peas and not broad beans, for example, or lentils? Hmm
Back to Heinz and baked beans for a moment. Here’s a link to a post World War II photo celebrating the 57 varieties. http://www.flickr.com/photos/jbcurio/2559368987/
Thanks to Karen Resta for the link.