adam funk

http://www.guardian.co.uk/food/Story/0,,1778543,00.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/food/Story/0,,1777300,00.html

--> The struggle to produce the world's best beans on toast has
--> entered a new phase with the first [frozen] ready-made
--> sandwich version, which is designed to be cooked in a
--> toaster for about 60 seconds.


--> "If people take the time to cook beans and put it on toast,
--> why shouldn't we cut the process for them?" asked Heinz CEO
--> Bill Johnson, presumably rhetorically, but let's answer him
--> anyway. First of all, you don't cook baked beans; they're
--> already cooked. You just heat them up a little, either on
--> the stove or in a microwave, which takes about the time it
--> takes to make the toast. There is no meaningful gain to be
--> made timewise. Second, the new frozen product may be many
--> things - "You would know it as a Pop Tart, almost," says
--> Johnson - but it is not baked beans on toast. The
--> competition isn't necessarily worried. Steve Marinker from
--> Premier Foods, which makes Branston Baked Beans, said: "I
--> don't think there will be a large demand for
--> super-convenience products ... I can well imagine that
--> there'll be different ways of bringing complete meals to
--> people in an instant, but do people want this level of
--> convenience?" Bill Johnson says his company needs to give
--> people "new ways to use beans", as if he were answering some
--> kind of outcry: Give us more ways to use your beans! We've
--> run out of ideas!

--
Vielen Dank

notbob

I'm still trying to get a handle on "beans on toast". I guess it's
not really all that weird if one is a canned bean aficionado. I am,
being long addicted to Van Camps Pork and Beans. In fact, had some
cold, right out of the can, last night. I think I'll try some BoT this
morning.

nb

dave smith

Holy Cow. I had not heard of beans on taste in years. When I was a kid I
used to love beans on toast. Somewhere along the way I lost my enthusiasm
for beans and haven't eaten them in years. If Beano worked a lot better
than it does I would try them again.

karen aka kajikit

We used to eat leftover spaghetti sauce or savoury mince on toast...
beans on toast isn't much different. But that pre-prepared frozen
product sounds GROSS. How much simpler can you get than wielding a
can-opener and shoving a slice of bread in the toaster?

tammym

One of my late father's "specialties " <ahem> was Dennison's chili con carne
and a slice of American cheez on toast. Pretty darned tasty. Haven't had
it in years!

TammyM

aem

Well, it's an English thing, isn't it? If you think of beans on toast
as an alternative to other breakfast offerings like kippers, black
pudding, or devilled kidneys, b.o.t. sounds pretty good. -aem

fairwater

I love this paragraph;
--> Britain was meant to have turned a corner in terms of its
--> attitude to food. Farmers' markets are springing up everywhere.
--> A chastened Jamie Oliver has brought the woeful state of the
--> nation's school dinners to public attention. Manufacturers have
--> been pressured into reducing the salt content of processed foods,
--> and everybody is meant to understand the importance of fresh,
--> healthy, simply prepared meals. And yet Britain now spends £900m
--> in a year on ready meals, with 31,000 more of them bought every
--> month than a year ago.

It appears the UK food press and foodies are just as disconnected from
reality as their US counterparts.

D.
--
Touch-twice life. Eat. Drink. Laugh.

-Resolved: To be more temperate in my postings.
Oct 5th, 2004 JDL

fairwater

Whatever it's faults - frozen beans on toast won't go stale (as a loaf
of bread will), and you don't have to find something to do with the
rest of the can. To some folks, this will be important.

D.
--
Touch-twice life. Eat. Drink. Laugh.

-Resolved: To be more temperate in my postings.
Oct 5th, 2004 JDL

notbob

I tried it this morning. Eh...

It's not bad, nor particularly good. It's just what it sounds like,
beans on toast. I can think of dozens of other ways I'd prefer to eat
these two items. But, I understand culinary legacy. Eat it as a
child and learn to like/love it.

I have a similar problem with baloney sandwiches. Two of the
ingredients, balogna or white bread alone, I never ever buy or eat.
Together, flavor nirvana! And I don't really understand why. I
didn't really like baloney sandwiches as a kid. But now, dacades
later, I go apey for Oscar Meyer Beef bologna and Best Foods mayo on
some crapy bleached white bread. Go figure. Fortunately, I
understand it's only a childhood memory triggered
affliction, so rarely eat it.

As for beans n' bread, I'll go with tortillas and frijoles topped
with pico de gallo any day.

nb

ken knecht

Fry up a lot of onions and pepper, spread with the baked beans (I prefer
Campbells) add a little cheese on a slice of toasted home-made bread.
Microwave. Quite good.

Ken

--
Untie the two knots to email me

A politician thinks of the next election;
a statesman, the next generation.

James Freeman Clarke