Americans: do you eat baked beans?

[Astonetogo]

And if you don’t, what do you give your children when you cook something simple like sausage and mash, or chicken nuggets and chips / fries? Aren’t they a bit dry without the beans?

We are not English. Our children always have ratatouille with sausages (they love this dish!) Neither of them is overly keen on mash, and DP and I don't like it either so we make it very rarely. With breaded fish or chicken like cordon bleu, we have green veg. like haricot or flageolet beans, broccoli or peas, and carrots, or ratatouille again, or potatoes of some kind. Don't find it dry, the kids can ask for ketchup but only tend to if we have chips.

I would never have beans with sausage and mash. Something about the textures together gives me the ick. I have gravy and some sort of green vegetable matter.
Chicken nugs and chips are a different matter, beans are essential!

No, never.

They're sometimes mixed into sweet potato casserole. It's a 50s style dish.

I serve sweet potatoes mashed with a little molasses and butter, with S&P. I like toasted pecans on top too but I often forget to do the pecans until it's too late.

The mixing of sweet and savoury flavours may well be a hallmark of American cooking.

I'm thinking of bacon with maple syrup, sweet potato casserole served with gravy, a local cheese and caramel popcorn mix... BBQ sauce is often a mix of sweet and piquant ingredients. Ketchup is definitely a mix.

It takes a little getting used to but it's worth it in the end.

Im from the uk. I grew up with sausage, mash and beans. I wasn't keen on the beans, but they were nice mixed with the mash. I can't stand the taste of beans on toast. And mash should only ever be made with fresh spuds.
I, however, will never understand the popularity of the sweet potatoe. Naturally by its very name, its going to be sweet, but who thought it was a good idea to make them into fries?

,but not what you call baked beans
one recipe is
boston bake beans grew in northeast n.y vermont and conn
different kind of baked beans never,never canned one

Oooh, yes - but you need mayonnaise! A big blob on top of the beans. Heaven!

Canadian here, we do a pot of baked beans to go with ribs and corn on the cob.
Sausage and mash are usually with an onion gravy, baby peas, maybe carrots or sprouts too.

Until recently I had thought that chicken nuggets were a now defunct food of the past. Aside, of course, from Macdonalds, KFC etc. I would have thought peas were the traditional accompaniment not beans

But back to beans in the US. We lived in NYC a few years ago. Beans were in the shops. I don’t know what Americans eat them with but I do know it’s not toast or jacket potatoes.

They are often used in this recipe, which I had occasionally growing up.

https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/34375/beans-n-franks/

I was born and raised in the UK but have lived in the US for many years. We ate beans at home when I was a kid, but only with freezer food like potato waffles and breaded chicken. I think those kinds of food have been slowly falling out of favour since the 90s as people’s preferences change.

Here, there are many other varieties of beans. With Mexican food, we have refried (pinto) or borracho beans (not a fan of black beans, personally but they’re a popular choice) and you’d really only have baked beans with BBQ.

In my experience, the Americans I spend my life around eat different kinds of food to British people.

Here, you’re way more likely to eat breaded type foods with ranch than ketchup. People wouldn’t even eat sausage and mash here. I have to go a long way to find British style sausages and as previously posted, Heinz beans cost a fortune (@elp30 I know a HEB screenshot when I see one, 👋🏻!)

A normal week of dinners for my family would be along the lines of pasta with a meat sauce; stir fry chicken and veg with noodles and an Asian-style sauce; chicken and rice casserole (DP is a Midwestern transplant!); braised short ribs or a pot roast with veg and potatoes; and Friday night is usually enchiladas.

The only thing I’d eat UK style beans with these days is an English breakfast or a baked potato.

Peas are vile things so beans are the natural accompaniment to sausage & mash, same as with nuggets.

However I'm totally surprised that mash is considered a luxury as we eat it 5-6 times a week. Probably the only time we don't is when we have jacket spuds or pizza.

Im not American nor British and we dont ever eat baked beans. DH and I both tried it once and thought it looked and tasted yuk. Many years ago I bought a can of baked beans as a lighthearted gift for DH and that ended up in the bin after getting lots of dust. We just dont like food in a can in general unless its coconut cream or milk for making curries.

I'm with you OP. Sausage, mash and beans is a great combo.

I also recently introduced DH to fish pie and beans. Sooo good! I've eaten it since childhood and loved it. He was super dubious but is now a convert!

He probably hasn't eaten them right. I've seen Americans on YouTube eating beans on toast on DRY bread, IN THEIR HANDS!!! . 😱 You may need to take it on yourself to educate him on the proper way to eat them.

@TeenLifeMum

that sounds revolting.

I'm a British 70s child (actually born 1970), so lived at a time when tinned baked beans were pretty ubiquitous. My mum soon realised that I absolutely detested them, so very quickly gave up serving them to me. My brother would have beans on toast for lunch while I had spaghetti hoops on toast. Similarly, he would have mince, beans and mashed potato while I had mince, tinned sweetcorn and mashed potato. That sort of thing.

Years later I was with my DH in a cafe ordering a cooked breakfast. We quite clearly stated on ordering, "NO BEANS". Both plates arrived with beans. Cue sharp looks, and, "We said, NO BEANS." Plates were taken away, and returned, with the beans scraped off, and a residue of bean juice 🤮 still on the plates. No, that won't do. No beans means no, not even a microscopic trace, of beans. The plates were finally returned, bean free.

Tldr; don't try to fob off a beans hater, particularly one whose hatred extends to struggling with even being near someone eating the evil wee fuckers things.

Thanks for this, so interesting to hear what your usual weekly food is like. I had expected Americans not to eat beans, but the sausage and mash thing has been a surprise.

I will also sometimes cook pasta or stir fry, and we’ll also have casserole, although with potatoes, not rice. I’d only ever really serve rice with curry. Enchiladas I’d have at a mexican restaurant but I wouldn’t make them, and I’m not sure what a pot roast is!

https://gardeninthekitchen.com/classic-pot-roast/

DH and I are empty nesters now, but when we had children to feed, we often cooked pot roast. It's very good the day you cook it, and then you can use the beef for sandwiches and other recipes. A slow cooker is great for making a pot roast.

It has potatoes in it, but we always also served rice. Any time gravy is involved, an American Southerner will want rice.

I'm American and I make mashed potatoes from scratch all the time. My grandmother would turn over in her grave if I used potato flakes.

In my US city, until recently there was a baked bean factory I drove past every day on the way to work.

We also have community baked bean suppers where they cook lots of different kinds of baked beans from scratch. There’s usually also fresh baked brown bread, hot dogs, cole slaw, and home made pies there too.

So the news that Americans apparently don’t eat baked beans was surprising to me :-)

Midwestern casseroles are different to British casseroles, I had no idea there were so many! I think our British ones are mostly gravy based where the Midwestern ones have a cream or mushroom soup base to the sauce. This is the recipe I often use for Chicken and Rice Casserole, it’s delicious.

I’d never had pot roast before I moved here, but it’s a pretty popular classic American weeknight family dinner. I tend to make it when I WFH though. I work a 50-55 hour week (yay for American work culture, I’d never have worked that long in the UK but thankfully I love my job! 😂) and pot roast can be a bit time consuming but definitely worth it!

Food is one of the best things about the diversity offered by the US culture of immigration. We live in a major city and every cuisine imaginable is here.

@CarolinaInTheMorning I didn’t see your post before I made mine and we’ve linked the exact same recipe! I love it!

Boston baked beans are a very old molasses and salt pork based dish. Without pork it may go back to an old Jewish dish that would bake over the sabbath.

As an American I don’t eat English style baked beans because I find them watery snd tasteless—I mean I did when I had them in England. I eat plenty of beans in soups, stews, chilis, and french/alsatian dishes.

As for the question of what I fed my children: home cooked chinese or indian food, mostly.