Oh not again.
Some of you might remember a thread I started last year about what they'd done to Cadburys chocolate, and we all tried some and generally agreed they'd mucked about with it and it was horrid now. Not had since myself. Yuk.
Just opens a tin of Heinz Baked Beans and they've changed too! One google later and yes, others seem to have noticed it.
I know we've done beans before and lots here eat other makes. But if anyone has recently bought Heinz, or is prepared to try and see, I'd like to know if you think they've changed, very much for the worse too.
Can nothing be left alone?
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Fear not - make the move to Branston Beans
(PS not prepared to sully myself by tasting Heinz - too weak and watery)
Last edited by: Zero on Sun 9 Mar 14 at 19:36
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Now oddly orange and glutinous with a strange aftertaste.
However, you're partly right. I've just discovered they leave YOU weak and watery.
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Suspect another result of of HMG's campaign against salt/sugar.
Aldi do the best I've had recently.
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They all benefit from a dash of Worcester sauce and Tabasco.
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ALDI beans in: I agree - we use no others.
Last edited by: Swing low, sweet chariot! on Sun 9 Mar 14 at 20:25
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As reported previously. Lidl's 'Campo Largo' Baked Beans. 32pence or 4 for a quid. Brilliant and better than the lot including Branston which I used to love.
Strangely enough in a fit of something last night I raided the 'corner' cupboard in the Kitchen cos 'er indoors knows everything that's in there.......yeah right and I found some Heinz Beenz (in date). Yes they have changed and not for the better. Orange and watery is a fair observation.
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I remember the "beans wars", when one could buy a can of decent baked beans for 9p!
We had a LIDL locally then (in West Wales) & we used them for beans and not much else.
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>> Lidl's 'Campo Largo' Baked Beans. 32pence or 4 for a quid. Brilliant and better than the lot including Branston which I used to love.>>
Spot on. A baked bean is a baked bean is a baked bean (you can also get this brand with sausages), the main difference purely being the taste of the tomato sauce.
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>> Suspect another result of of HMG's campaign against salt/sugar.
I look forward to finding the numbers behind it. As so often, it doesn't seem to be easy. Best I've found so far is a BMJ article last year that said that a set of studies might have shown that excessive sugar contributes to an average weight gain of about 2lb. Or possibly not.
I do hope there going to be something better than that published. Anything more solid gratefully received, otherwise it will go into the five a day category for me.
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>> Fear not - make the move to Branston Beans
>>
One man's meat (or beans in this case).... I tried Branston and didn't like them at all, quite unpleasant in fact.
Baked beans of choice chez HM are Tesco's own brand; taste and texture very much like HP beans used to be before they, like Heinz, went crap. Decent thick sauce too.
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>> Fear not - make the move to Branston Beans
I did a long time ago, and now won't touch any other brand of bean.
Have had to source (or should that be sauce) them from somewhere else though as Tesco have stopped selling them.
www.thegrocer.co.uk/companies/supermarkets/tesco/tesco-delists-70-princes-products-in-mystery-dispute/350435.article
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If you cook them properly any beans will do.
Fry bacon, black pudding and sausages in the frying pan then drain off almost all of the fat, Pour beans into the frying pan and heat until bubbling....delicious!
Pat
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Madam, you are to good cooking as Vlad the Impaler was to good childcare!
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My son would agree with you but he thrived, just as my beans are delicious:)
Pat
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My god - has it really come to this, cooking lessons from Pat.
The world has gone crazy.
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>>The world has gone crazy.
No, the world has always bean crazy.
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Try theses much nicer. You need to soak the beans overnight (or in the previous lay-by.)
400g dried haricot or cannellini beans
3 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
2 red onions, finely chopped
150g pancetta or smoked streaky bacon, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
400g can chopped tomatoes
2 tbsp dark muscovado sugar
3 tbsp cider vinegar
Method
1. Soak the beans overnight. Drain them, place in a pan, cover with fresh water and bring to the boil over a medium heat. Cook for about 45 minutes-1 hour until tender, then remove from the heat and set aside for 30 minutes. Drain well.
2. Heat the oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat, add the onions and pancetta and cook for 6-8 minutes. Stir in the garlic, tomatoes, sugar, vinegar and 400ml water, then tip in the beans. Reduce the heat to low and cook for 1½-2 hours, stirring occasionally, until you have a thick sauce and tender beans. Serve the beans on toasted bread with grated cheese, if you like.
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>> If you cook them properly
>> Pour beans into the frying pan and heat until bubbling....delicious!
That's not cooking them properly. By lettting them bubble, you're burning all the goodness out of them. You should stop cooking them before they reach the bubbling stage.
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I was not aware, until recently, that all our beans are imported and then tinned.
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The variety of beans "navy beans" used to make baked beans will not grow in the UK. For many years it has been an aim of plant breeders to achieve a home grown bean. Would sAve millions in imports.
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Letting them bubble reduices the watery content and absorbs the remainder of the fat from the bacon etc.
Resulting in a nice thick mush!
Pat
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I cut down on my bean habit (family would say addiction) after finding out the colossal amount of sugar and salt added.
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My Dad was involved in designing a replacement production line for Heinz Beans at Wigan in the late 80's. He reported that seeing the industrial quantities of ingredients going in the front end was enough to put you off - and this was not helped by the use of 316 stainless in the plant that only lasted a few months - high temperature, salty, acidic food is somewhat agressive on most metals...!!
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>>the industrial quantities of ingredients going in the front end was enough to put you off
Con-venience food see, best avoided really, or eaten in, erm, moderation.
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Is this 'ere Mr Arjades Mr Dog in disguise?? - it looks like his word style!!
Last edited by: devonite on Mon 10 Mar 14 at 18:56
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>>Is this 'ere Mr Arjades Mr Dog in disguise?? - it looks like his word style!!
D'you mean doggy style ike??
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I bought some Heinz beans recently, because we had a stock of Tesco ones and Waitrose ones that are like bullets. I thought it must have been a bad year!
I've noticed that the Heinz are different from what I remember - the sauce looks 'thickened' and isn't as sweet which is good. I didn't mind them, but they are a bit bland.
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>>................ but they are a bit bland.
>>
I refer you to my 19:59 post on Sunday. :-)
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>> >>................ but they are a bit bland.
>> >>
>>
>> I refer you to my 19:59 post on Sunday. :-)
I resorted to the Hendo's Relish :)
www.hendersonsrelish.com/
which I import from Sheffield. Morrisons at Catcliffe sells it, so I pick up a dozen for myself and friends now and then when I travel by on the M1.
Very cheeky of Lea & Perrins to use such a similar label.
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Pat is quite clearly correct - frying baked beans in the frying pan used to make the rest of the breakfast first is the way to go.
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>> Pat is quite clearly correct - frying baked beans in the frying pan used to
>> make the rest of the breakfast first is the way to go.
Cobblers, no wonder you had to leave the country.
The only thing in the frying pan is the Fried eggs, and the Fried bread.
The beans are served cold.
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>> The beans are served cold.
Yuk. What is this, the breakfast revenge?
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>> >> Pat is quite clearly correct - frying baked beans in the frying pan used
>> to
>> >> make the rest of the breakfast first is the way to go.
>>
>> Cobblers, no wonder you had to leave the country.
>>
>> The only thing in the frying pan is the Fried eggs, and the Fried bread.
>>
>> The beans are served cold.
>>
Straight out of the tin.
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I like cold beans, straight from the tin, with fresh bread. Yum yum.
But when on my breakfast they need to be fried.
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Cold beans? Yuck!
You lot will be telling me that you eat black pudding next.
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>> Cold beans? Yuck!
>>
>> You lot will be telling me that you eat black pudding next.
Yeah but,
Not cold.
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Black pudding > pink slime
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>> Black pudding > pink slime
Try the Stornoway version:
www.charlesmacleod.co.uk/online-shop.aspx
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>>.. as Tesco have stopped selling them.>>
News to me, but Morrisons definitely sell them.
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>> >>.. as Tesco have stopped selling them.>>
>>
>> News to me, but Morrisons definitely sell them.
Advert on TV Monday night said Costcutters have them on offer at the moment. 4 cans for 99p.
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S'funny how good beans means different things to different folk, Pat likes them mushy but, on the very rare occasions I allow wifey anywhere near my cooker, if I see the beans a'bubbling all hell will break loose!
I use the Heinz jobbies mostly, but I'd sooner have Cross & Blackwell or HP of course.
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Anyone tried Heinz Five Beans? We did, once was enough, even when flavour enhanced.
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Heinz has always been peculiar food, because although the products have never tasted anything like the ingredients, they nonetheless have inspired generations of kids-at-heart to love the stuff.
So they monkey with the flavour at their peril.
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Predictably, I sent Heinz a mildly intemperate email last night.
If they respond as promised "within 24 to 48 hours, our customer care team are gagging to help, dear god we love you, without you we'd be nothing, do you hear, nothing more than two hours closer to a cold and lonely death" I'll let you know.
There may be a spot of hyperbole in the above.
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Pulses are good for the gut and are nutritious. You can live on them without suffering ill health. Like others here I like an occasional proletarian fry-up and baked beans go all right with that. Needless to say though Herself tends to be a bit scornful about it. However we often make soups in which tinned butter beans, red beans or borlotti beans can be included. With couscous the sauce should contain chick peas.
All these sorts of pulses are troublesome to cook from dried, so tins are the norm. Yesterday I obeyed the order to get 'a vegetable' to go with our tuna steaks by getting a jar of garden peas and small carrots (despite the recent bizarre claim in the comic that carrots 'are not a gentleman's vegetable'). I was scolded, but secretly triumphant having known perfectly well that what she meant was ghastly broccoli or something else unpalatable. However the jarred veg were a bit tasteless.
All this talk of baked bean sauces reminds me of Heinz tinned spaghetti which I liked when small, but went off suddenly on discovering what spaghetti ought to be like.
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SWMBO wasn't well last week so I was catering. I found a tin of 'Heinz Beanz' in the back of a cupboard with a 2011 date on it. We agreed they tasted the same as ever...
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It's interesting how if you make the beans from scratch, then you have to boil them for hours.
The moment they're canned, boiling them causes them to fall to pieces.
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I prefer the mushy pea (home made from the dried variety) to the baked bean, but I concede it's a poor breakfast item.
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>> We agreed they tasted the same as ever...
Yes, rubbish.
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I got Branston baked beans once, expecting a flavoursome delight with a hint of pickle in the sauce.
They were crap.
Maybe they are best eaten cold a la Zero.
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>> I got Branston baked beans once, expecting a flavoursome delight with a hint of pickle
>> in the sauce.
It would have said "pickled beans"
Jeez I though you quacks had to go to university or summink.
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>> Pulses are good for the gut and are nutritious. You can live on them without
>> suffering ill health.
I was given to understand that beans are actually mildly poisonous to humans, and that's the reason they cause their famed polluting after effects. They start eroding the stomach lining causing irritation and flatulence, and consumed in big enough quantities would actually kill you.
I likes 'em though. Aldi's and Lidl's are the best, as recommended by others.
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>>
>> I was given to understand that beans are actually mildly poisonous to humans,
>>
Quite markedly so I think in the case of red kidney beans. People vary in their tolerance of chili con carne for example if the beans haven't been soaked or cooked for long enough.
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The toxicity of raw kidney beans, and the palaver of preparing (soak over night and boil for at least 30 minutes) is why I only use tinned kidney beans as they are safe straight from the tin.
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We did notice a couple of years ago that they reduced the salt content of the Heinz beans to satisfy the health fascists. we have got used to that, but I haven't yet noticed a current change.
Love them, but I can't do with them in a fry up. I hate the combination of egg yolk and the sauce. I can't have ketchup with egg either.
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>>
>> Love them, but I can't do with them in a fry up. I hate the
>> combination of egg yolk and the sauce. I can't have ketchup with egg either.
>>
Funny that - I agree absolutely.
I have a very subjective view about inappropriate mixtures. I can't stand raisins in chocolate or peanuts and raisins, but I love them independently.
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>> eroding the stomach lining causing irritation and flatulence, and consumed in big enough quantities would actually kill you.
Tsk. Anything would, consumed in big enough quantities.
Anyway there are pulses other than beans. Small red lentils for example, which make the dal huge numbers of Indians live on. You put that yellow stuff in them which is supposedly a specific against prostate cancer in particular, with a bit of gum arabic fried with cumin seeds as a topping and as much chili as you fancy.
I don't much like black lentils although the big yellow ones are OK.
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I had some very good black lentils on Friday night as it goes, at a particularly good newish Indian restaurant in Reading. Called House of Flavours, highly recommended to anyone local, or indeed visiting civilization from a nearby WDH or elsewhere. Not your bog standard anglicised menu, many unusual dishes and seemingly prepared in a much more authentically Indian way. Place was full, at least least half of the tables filled by Indians, kiddies and all. Which says it all I suppose. Really good place.
And no parping in the morning.
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>I had some very good black lentils on Friday night as it goes,.. Really good place.
Does that mean you won't be coming in for your Chicken & Bacon Ranch Melt as often Alanović?
Is House of Flavours buffet only?
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>> Is House of Flavours buffet only?
>>
Not at all, proper menu jobbie. Seriously, if you like a curry and you're in the Capital City of the Thames Valley, give it a try. A real step up from the bog standard curry house.
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Oligosaccharides is wot causes windiness. Banned in spaceflight. With cabbage/sprouts/beer etc.
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The king of lentils are those from Le Puy. Big, green and very tasty indeed. Serve with Toulouse sausages as Saucise aux Lentilles.
tinyurl.com/mxdjyx5 (recipe)
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>> Oligosaccharides is wot causes windiness. Banned in spaceflight. With cabbage/sprouts/beer etc.
>>
So the proverbial "fart in a spacesuit" is not just unpopular but actually prohibited?
I've got to ask; apart from the unpleasant smell.... why? Is it actually dangerous? Surely a certain amount of flatulence is unavoidable no matter what you eat?
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>> Surely a certain amount of flatulence is unavoidable no matter what you eat?
Funnily enough, when I used to do my 5 day apple fasts, I'd still produce flatus, and a purrfectly formed stool.
:}
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>> I've got to ask; apart from the unpleasant smell.... why? Is it actually dangerous?
Methane gas at a guess.
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I seem to remember an edition of Blue Peter some 40 years ago where a kid had reached the age of 18 eating only baked beans. Strange the things which stick in the memory.
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>> All this talk of baked bean sauces reminds me of Heinz tinned spaghetti which I
>> liked when small, but went off suddenly on discovering what spaghetti ought to be like.
>>
I was disappointed with their 'alphabetti spaghetti ' ....The tin I bought only had 'O's in it !
HO
>>
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Oooo!
Sure they weren't spaghetti 'oops?
I like that tinned spag bol. Lord knows what's in it though, and spag bol it isn't.
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>> I was disappointed with their 'alphabetti spaghetti ' ....The tin I bought only had 'O's
>> in it !
I dropped mine on the floor, and that spelt disaster.
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>>
>> >> I was disappointed with their 'alphabetti spaghetti ' ....The tin I bought only had
>> 'O's
>> >> in it !
>>
>>
>> I dropped mine on the floor, and that spelt disaster.
I bought mine at Aldi.
It only had A, S, B and O in it.
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Strangely, the Spanish - who produce lots of vegetables - are fond of vegetables in glass jars.
We ate in a few restaurants - only once in each one, though - who served these abominations as part of an a la carte menu.
One expects cheap in a cafe menu del dia for 4 to 6 euros, but not in a so-called restaurant.
Last edited by: Swing low, sweet chariot! on Mon 10 Mar 14 at 20:46
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>>So they monkey with the flavour at their peril.>>
Don't forget that Heinz has new owners... Not always the best recipe.
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First thing I thought of was had they been taken over by Kraft or someone. Oh well, that probably explains a lot. They'll be cost cutting til the pips squeak and beyond now. Bet loads of Heinz products change or vanish over the next little while.
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OTT - but I notice that the iconic HP brown sauce is now made in Belgium!
Sacre bleu!
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>> OTT - but I notice that the iconic HP brown sauce is now made in
>> Belgium!
>> Sacre bleu!
>>
It was orginally made for a mixed English/French market, I think troops on the Western Front.
Hence the French wording on the old bottles, now sadly discarded, along with the proper square Big Ben shape.
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www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHj3CQ5XLmA
Cette sauce de haute qualité est un mélange de fruits orientaux, d'épices et de vinaigre. Elle est absolument pure et ne contient aucune matière colorante synthétique, ni aucun agent de conservation artificiel. Elle est délicieuse en accompagnement de viandes (chaudes et froides), poisson, jambon, fromage et salades. Elle est également excellente pour enrichir la saveur des soupes, hachis et ragoûts.
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I had an actual letter from Heinz. It said in fairly short sharp terms that they hadn't changed the recipe at all, thank you very much.
So, I say it's changed, and "the internet" agrees, (although not here particularly), and Heinz say it hasn't. That's exactly what happened with Cadbury's too. Odd.
Oh well. Time to try some of the other ideas above. Thanks all.
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Apparently the CDM recipe hadn't changed, but the size and shape of the cubes had, and some scientist on TV gave a credible explanation of how they now melted in the mouth in a different way and order meaning more (or less can't remember which) of the milk fats hit the taste buds first.
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>> some scientist on TV gave a credible explanation of how they now melted in the mouth in a different way
Correct
www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-24223182
Last edited by: VxFan on Thu 13 Mar 14 at 10:10
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It's not that the beans are now little dodecahedra or something though.
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ALDI fruit & nut chocolate is much superior to Cadbury's offering.
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If Aldi sold tinned mouldering rats in Cambodian ditch water you would say they were great.
Last edited by: Zero on Thu 13 Mar 14 at 10:47
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Phrase added to my "to be shamelessly plagiarized" list.
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>> Phrase added to my "to be shamelessly plagiarized" list.
The last Chairman of the quango I worked for said 'plagiarise with pride' was a motto worth adopting.
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Heinz has definitely changed. The translucent gloop is now more of a mush.
Of course it could be waxing, with the winter temperatures.
Any road, I am about to sample the Campo Largos, on toast, with a poached egg and a mouldering rat.
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Campo Largo Baked Beans are unremarkable (which is good, for baked beans). The sauce is the old translucent kind, not especially thick or tomatoey.
They are slightly lower (not materially so) in carbohydrates and sugars than Heinz, and Tesco. They also contain a slightly higher percentage of beans, according to the labels - Tesco 49%, Heinz 51%, Campo Largo 52%.
CL contain 6% tomato puree, Tesco 20% tomato puree, Heinz 34% tomatoes.
Salt equivalent of all are 0.6%.
Energy content (kcal) per 100g is 79 (Heinz), 81 (Campo) 90 (Tesco).
At £1 for 4 x 420g tins, they're OK. I'm not a major consumer of baked beans, mind.
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>> Campo Largo Baked Beans are unremarkable (which is good, for baked beans). The sauce is
>> the old translucent kind, not especially thick or tomatoey.
In the case of fairness, I just had some for lunch. They are pretty horrid, they look ok slightly pale colour, the beans are a good size. Taste wise however they don't cut it at all, appearing at first to be just bland, but then a nasty after taste builds and the beans themselves start to feel and taste rather chalky.
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I realise I didn't bring you all up to date with this weary saga.
Out in the garden the other day, chatting to neighbour - we always stop for a chinwag.
Subject moves to other neighbour, who we don't see at all often, and they're not chatters. Chatty neighbour drops bombshell, not knowing about this saga - yes, other neighbour is apparently (a) UK manager of some sort for Heinz.
No, I've not been round and said hello, guess what, you'll laugh, no honestly you will.
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>> >>
>>
>> The last Chairman of the quango I worked for said 'plagiarise with pride' was a
>> motto worth adopting.
>>
"Plagiarise,
Let no one else's work evade y'eyes.
But remember always to call it "research" "
I can remember the tune, but not where it comes from.
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Plagiarise... that's why the Good Lord made your eyes...
American satirical songwriter... can't recall his name just now, but it will come back to me. There was an LP of his songs including 'Hello Mudduh, hello Faduh, here I am in Camp Granada...'
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Yup. Herself who is less gaga than me came up with Tom Lehrer's name just now.
'And Nikolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky is his name, Hai!'
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And 'Hello Mudduh, hello Faduh" was Allan Sherman, (born Allan Copelon)
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Points for the first person to name the Simpsons episode in which a variant of that quote is used...
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The Simpsons: Season 7, Episode 11.
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silly typing finger!!! -season 11 ep 6 !!!!!
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>> silly typing finger!!! -season 11 ep 6 !!!!!
Oh, double points. I was thinking of Marge Be Not Proud (s7e11), so good second spot.
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>> And 'Hello Mudduh, hello Faduh" was Allan Sherman,
Oh damn...
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SWMBO had a 10" EP of Tom Lehrer. I think that his songs were once banned by Aunty Beeb.
See here for examples!
www.iankitching.me.uk/humour/lehrer/
But this is my favourite!
I hold your hand in mine, dear,
I press it to my lips.
I take a healthy bite
From your dainty fingertips.
My joy would be complete, dear,
If you were only here,
But still I keep your hand
As a precious souvenir.
The night you died I cut it off,
I really don't know why.
For now each time I kiss it
I get bloodstains on my tie.
I'm sorry now I killed you,
For our love was something fine,
And till they come to get me
I shall hold your hand in mine
Last edited by: Illegitimi non carborundum on Thu 13 Mar 14 at 15:27
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I still have 2 Tom Lehrer LPs.
Here's the other great man singing....
www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jjiWS__Mp0
HO
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Thank you Horatio... gentle humour, but one can't help liking it.
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Gerard Hoffnung is/was of similar style. Try:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=sq-q6TcbHLE
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Anybody else like Heinz Curried Beans?
I haven't had them for a while but I got a hankering. The little tins have disappeared, to be replaced by the 390g size Curry Beans (fair enough, the little ones cost nearly as much) but they are now terrible, super-bland and no sultanas in.
Maybe I'll make my own using the Campo Viejos.
Last edited by: Manatee on Mon 31 Mar 14 at 17:05
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Heinz beans - Zero
