I’ve been thinking about summer a lot lately. Probably because it is colder than anything outside and we are covered with about 3 feet of snow. So I went into the archives and tried to find something that screamed, “summer”. Of course, I came up with a gelatin. Enjoy!
Let’s see a show of hands: Who out there likes canned baked beans?
I have to admit that I do enjoy baked beans, even of the canned variety. And I can understand adding a few ingredients to a can of baked beans to perk up the flavor, which is very common in mid-century recipes. However, this is the first time I’ve ever “perked up” the flavor of canned baked beans with tomato juice and GELATIN.
Behold, Barbecue Bean Mold.
This recipe was submitted in our recent gelatin contest by Veg, aka Bob. And even though it is referred to as a “peppy salad” in the recipe description, I can’t imagine that it would taste like anything but baked beans. It seems like the “pep” is all from lemon juice and Worcestershire sauce.
AuthorRetroRuth
Tested Recipe!
[cooked-sharing]
Soften gelatin in 1 cup of the tomato juice in a 2-cup measuring cup.
Combine remaining 1 cup tomato juice, brown sugar, lemon juice, and Worcestershire sauce in a large saucepan; heat to boiling; simmer 5 minutes. Stir in gelatin mixture until dissolved; remove from heat. Stir in beans and mix well.
Spoon into a 6-cup mold. Chill several hours, or until firm.
Just before serving, run a sharp-tip, thin-blade knife around the top of the mold, then dip mold very quickly in and out of a pan of hot water. Invert onto serving plate; lift off mold. Serve plain, or with mayonnaise or salad dressing, if you wish.
Yield: 6 servings
Ingredients
Directions
Soften gelatin in 1 cup of the tomato juice in a 2-cup measuring cup.
Combine remaining 1 cup tomato juice, brown sugar, lemon juice, and Worcestershire sauce in a large saucepan; heat to boiling; simmer 5 minutes. Stir in gelatin mixture until dissolved; remove from heat. Stir in beans and mix well.
Spoon into a 6-cup mold. Chill several hours, or until firm.
Just before serving, run a sharp-tip, thin-blade knife around the top of the mold, then dip mold very quickly in and out of a pan of hot water. Invert onto serving plate; lift off mold. Serve plain, or with mayonnaise or salad dressing, if you wish.
Yield: 6 servings
Notes
By the way, I halved this recipe because I couldn’t see Tom and I trying to choke down two pounds of cold baked beans.
I have to admit, by the time I started working on this salad I was pretty sick of gelatin, so Tom and I didn’t have a lot of witty banter going back and forth while we were making this. It was mostly just me sighing and Tom looking forlornly at the mixture of tomato juice and baked beans.
I perked up a little bit when I got to use my favorite gelatin mold.
I didn’t know how it would turn out with the chunky texture of this crazy thing, but it ended up not looking too bad.
If you ignore all the beans.
So many, many beans.
“Look at the all the beans in this thing.”
“It could have been worse. This is only half a recipe.”
“Wow…that doesn’t look like it is good at all.”
“It tastes like baked beans.”
“Well, that’s not so bad.”
“Cold baked beans.”
“Ew.”
The Verdict: Cold baked beans
From the Tasting Notes:
The initial taste is rough, very tomato-y and strong. After that it just tasted like cold baked beans. Not totally disgusting, but not very good either. The whole things is sort of ridiculous and a waste of time because you could just open a can of beans and warm it up and it would taste better. But if you love cold baked beans and tomato juice, then maybe this is the gelatin mold for you!
I loved this bit of your post: “I do enjoy baked beans, even of the canned variety” – until recently I had no idea that there was anything BUT the canned variety. I wonder why Brits eat loads more tinned baked beans than anyone else?
I am plucking that statistic out of the air but I bet it is true. We just love them. Heinz of course. Recently I was amazed to spot a new product “Boston Baked Beans” in a can. I got some immediately. But the Heinz bog-standard baked beans are in my blood. The Boston Baked Beans just didn’t cut it for me. I’m keeping an eye on that bit of the enormous baked bean aisle in my local supermarket – I bet they don’t last long.
You are so right. Get the beans out of the can and put them in a saucepan. Serve with sausages, bacon, scrambled eggs and toast. That’s how we would do it here in the UK.
Beans and gelatin? CRAZY! I loved that you tried it though. So that nobody else has to…
Jenny x
I have to say you put some cut up hot dogs in this and I would take a whack at it.
Y’know, that might have been pretty good had you melted it and served it hot. But then the recipe writers decided “Hey, let’s gelatinize it!”
No one was more surprised than me to find baked beans when I visited the UK! Surprised to see them, and surprised to see them at breakfast. Here in the US, we generally serve them with burgers or hot dogs, potato salad, etc so I guess I thought we “owned” them as they’re part of such classic American summer food. Really good homemade ones come from the New England area (especially Boston!), but in the Midwest it’s usually Bush’s from a can. Oddly enough Heinz baked beans are usually only found in British foods section of larger grocery stores. I’ll have to try them!
I have been to the UK many times over the last 30 years and love the English breakfast. However, the beans I have always been served are more comparable to the US brand of Van Camps pork and beans (I know the UK version is Heinz). They were the staple of many children growing up in the 50’s. I don’t view them the same as US baked or barbecue beans. The sauce is totally different.
BTW – I love this site. It is the bright spot in my week. Please don’t ever stop.
my husband grew up in England, so I know about baked beans, eggs and toast. I cannot imagine them with gelatin and tomato.