Cycle 15 - Item 101 15 (Mon) April 2024 Taste Test: (Canned) Baked Beans 3.0 by me at home -Changgok, Sujeong, Seongnam, Gyeonggi, Republic of Korea- with the Family Baked Beans are an American dish. Typically made of white beans (e.g., haricot…
-Changgok, Sujeong, Seongnam, Gyeonggi, Republic of Korea-
with the Family
Baked Beans are an American dish. Typically made of white beans (e.g., haricot), which are initially parboiled in water then placed in a sauce (e.g., tomato) and baked (traditionally, simmered in a pot), sometimes with salted pork (e.g., bacon), sweetened with sugar (traditionally, maple syrup or molasses). Developed by colonists in New England (Boston = Beantown), possibly learned from American Indians, at least the maple syrup or molasses part. Settlers carried the dish, using dried beans, on their westward expansion. Now a staple side dish across America, especially at outdoor events (e.g., barbecue, picnic, camping).
In modern times, baked beans are most commonly found in canned form. First produced by American food company HJ Heinz in the late 19th century. Exported to Europe, baked beans became popular in the early 20th century - in England, they soon became an integral component of the traditional English full breakfast - explains why baked beans are served at breakfast buffets in hotels around the world, even though Americans don't really eat them for breakfast. Most products today do not contain pork - HJ Heinz stopped adding pork during World War II due to rationing shortages. According to Wikipedia, canned baked beans were reformulated to be less sweet to accommodate the preferences of British customers, which has since become the dominant style globally, including in America.
The contenders [clockwise from top left]: Heinz Beanz (USA), Sun-Q Baked Beans (Italy), Ayamo Baked Beans (Malaysia), Sama Baked Beans (Korea), Campagna Baked Beans (Italy), Van Camp's Pork and Beans (USA).
Out of nowhere, I suddenly became aware that many options for canned baked beans are available in Korea, not all in one place, but scattered around various mainstream supermarkets and convenience stores. Curious because Korea is not known for variety in imported foods. Also odd because Koreans don't really eat baked beans - off the top of my head, I can only think of its use in budae jjigae (see for example 8.210 Budae Jjigae) and, at least in one specific instance, burrito (see 15.076 Large Chicken Burrito).
We all had our own score card + pencil + spoon + rinsing bowl + glass of water.
With six brands in hand, a side-by-side taste test was conducted this evening.
Six bowls were labelled on their undersides with the names of the brands. With IZ's help, I opened each can while blindfolded - to avoid potential prejudice of the product's appearance (IZ could see them, but I wasn't worried that the knowledge would impact his scoring very much) - and poured the contents into the bowl. The filled bowls were shuffled and labelled on the side with a number from 1 to 6.
All four of us participated. In any order, each taster used the bowl spoon to scoop up three beans from the bowl, placed them onto the tasting spoon, tasted the beans, repeated the tasting with another three beans, gave a score, rinsed the tasting spoon, drank a sip of water, then moved on to the next bowl.
Brands were judged for taste and for texture, both on GMTD's 4.0 scale (potential combined high score of 8.0). To determine the final rankings, the individual scores were added up (potential combined high score of 32.0).
Interestingly, my highest scored brand looked totally unlike the rest, both in color and soupiness, though I don't know if that affected my perception of taste and texture.
Ranked in descending order, plus my tasting notes:
Heinz Beanz (USA) (total score: 22.5) - "tangy, but a bit pasty" (my personal score: 5.5)
Campagna Baked Beans (Italy) (total score: 22.0) - "odd flavor - some kind of spice?" (my personal score: 5.0)
Van Camp's Pork and Beans (USA) (total score: 18.5) - "weird mushy texture, vaguely doenjang" (my personal score: 2.5)
The winner by 0.5 points.
The winner was Heinz Beanz, which is what I'd speculated. After all, they invented the thing. In the bowl, the product looked the most polished, with uniformly shaped beans, pleasing thickness of sauce, and warm orange coloring. On my score card, Heinz lost a half-point (2.5) to Sama (3.0) on taste, which I preferred for being slightly sweeter. But the closeness of the total scores suggests that all of the brands are fine, except perhaps Van Camp's.
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