Baked beans review

We have review on baked beans due to be released next week :plate_with_cutlery:

Do you like baked beans - if so what brands, and how do you eat them? Vote in our poll and share your thoughts in the comments below.

  • Just no. I’m not a fan of baked beans
  • I love them on buttered toast
  • I eat them cold, straight from the can
  • Essential part of a big brekkie - it’s the only way
  • Great as a toastie filling
  • Only homemade for me
  • Something else (see comments)

0 voters

3 Likes

We fry chopped bacon rashers in the saucepan then add the baked beans, heat well, and serve on multigrain toast with freshly ground pepper & salt, and sriracha sauce on top.

We cook enough for several breakfasts and simply reheat some of the mixture in the microwave the following mornings.

We ate them for breakfast yesterday and today and we have enough left for tomorrow.

8 Likes

Good baked beans, esp ‘Boston Baked Beans’ are great side dishes for American BBQ to compliment coleslaw and corn on cob.

The American expectation for baked beans is any meal except brekkie. Of the canned varieties Bush’s (American product, at Woolies) was for us far better than anything else on the shelves but have since been discontinued. Heinz is full of themselves and ordinary and SPC is overly tomato for our taste. We add some brown sugar and molasses, amounts depending on the meal.

The choices in the Choice question reflect that Americans and Australians eat beans for different meals, and thus rightly expect different base flavours to suit.

7 Likes

You are in luck as I have found a retailer of Bush’s Baked Beans in Melbourne.

And only $4.99 a can.

As for the question of whether baked beans are eaten at breakfast or later in the day, the classic comedy western provides the definitive answer for the USA.

5 Likes

Force of habit: Heinz in tomato sauce and low salt if available. On buttered toast.

Or served with a sunny-side-up egg.

Baked beans are my go-to food when I don’t feel like cooking.
But not for breakfast: doesn’t go well with AllBran :neutral_face:

8 Likes

Baked beans with onion, salami, olives and herbs (basil, oregano and garlic) in jaffle irons cooked on coals from a fire…bliss.

Edit: we usually by Aussie made SPC baked beans…but wish they could source Aussie navy beans to make them with.

9 Likes

Ta, they were 2.49 full price at Woolies :frowning:

6 Likes

Heinz for me, unmatched.

6 Likes

We buy most brands and no name brands. For cooking with other things prefer the ham sauce flavoured varieties and sometimes the BBQ flavoured sauce ones. Cooked with bacon, onion, mexican chilli powder, a dash of worcesstershire sauce and some maple syrup or hickory/smoky flavour sauce makes a great easy meal.

6 Likes

Cold from the can, and in a sandwich, also cold. Don’t like them heated. As for brands, it always used to be SPC or Heinz for me, but I bought some Coles brand cheapie some time ago and now prefer those. go figure.

4 Likes

Drain most of the sauce off, replace with sweet chili, heat and pour to cover buttered toast

5 Likes

We have a split household - I like SPC and my husband will only eat Heinz (English recipe) because as a Pom ‘Heinz means beans’ - just goes to show that advertising slogan/campaign had a long reach. It is still his catch cry in any conversation about BB and he’s now 70 years old! Our favourite is either on hot buttered toast, or on top of a soft poached egg sunny side up on toast. Great rescue when it’s late and I don’t want to cook :wink:

6 Likes

A must have :- Sausages (Bangers) and Mash with preferably Heinz Baked Beans. Hot mustard on the side of course.

4 Likes

Don’t waste my Choice subscription on a taste and use (less) test. I’m not paying my subscription to find out how everyone else eats baked beans (Phaseolus vulgaris). I just want to know whose beans I should be eating to save the planet. A life cycle analysis. Country of origin of beans, environmental consequences of growing, canning and shipping them, Australian vs overseas ownership of the company i.e who profits from my bean feasts (SPC Australian, Heinz overseas?), from where do Coles, Woollies procure their brand beans? Chemical additives that make me younger and stronger (salt free but sugar strong?)… Please take the lid off the Pandora’s Box of baked beans so we can give maximum support to Australian products if they are good for us and our our country.

1 Like

Australian only for me -SPC /Ardmona

5 Likes

Choice does take the lid off many products. (No pun intended.) You raise some principles concerning the ownership of brands, the origin/contents of products and the footprint of products. Without judging what is best or better, being able to judge a product choice on some or all of these factors is important to many.

With baked beans, and many other products we all have our preferences. We subscribe to Choice to be better informed. It works for us. This forum is a great opportunity to constructively provide input.

True, not everyone eats baked beans. But then not everyone uses disposable baby nappies, cots, strollers, and many other products or services that Choice has put the spotlight on. Hopefully there is room for both select and the broader needs of the community to be considered, even where the benefit is not for all.

6 Likes

I resent vulgar language in the Community Forum posts.

4 Likes

That’s exactly how we have them.

4 Likes

According to the can, Coles beans are from the USA or Canada, and the product is manufactured in Italy. I was sure they would be chinese.

3 Likes

One has to wonder about the economics when product can be sourced from a high dollar country, shipped to the EU for ‘manufacturing’ (processing and canning?) and then on to Australia and sell for about 2/3 the price of a local name brand, all grown and ‘manufactured’ locally.

4 Likes