Lately, I’ve been watching video after video on TikTok of Brits defending their local cuisine, from mushy peas on chips to Chinese takeout. I feel for them—Americans on the internet aren’t exactly kind to British food, even though the country exports some absolute bangers (trust me, try a biscuit with your morning coffee). And no dish seems more divisive than beans on toast.
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To Americans, it sounds almost like a prank. A can of Heinz baked beans on buttered toast? But in the UK, it’s a celebrated staple. In a YouGov ranking of the most popular British dishes in 2024, beans on toast came in fifth, ahead of bangers and mash and roast beef. Sir Patrick Stewart proudly declared the dish was “the only dish I can make” and one he’s eaten “thousands of times” (via X).
Despite being so famous in the British Isles, there is no real proven explanation for how beans on toast came about or why it is so popular and widely known. The obvious is: it is a cheap and quick meal for breakfast, lunch or dinner, and the ingredients are ready and easy to find. But I have not been able to find the origin of the oft-repeated claim that an executive at the American company Heinz invented the dish in 1927 as a marketing ploy to sell more baked beans in the UK.
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What makes beans on toast so British?
We may not know exactly why baked beans on toast are so often served in the UK, but there are a few reasons why the dish is so popular with so many people—and why Americans are so confused by it.
For one thing, Heinz’s canned baked beans in the UK are sold in a tomato sauce that contains no pork, molasses or other sweeteners found in typical American baked bean recipes, a variation that appears to have been adapted to British tastes. Of course, this tastier preparation makes them more suitable for pouring over a slice of toasted bread.
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Second, Heinz products arrived in Britain just as two world wars were breaking out. The company was founded in western Pennsylvania in the late 19th century.th Century and opened a factory in England in 1905. Heinz Baked Beans were a popular product in Britain in the first half of the 20th century.th Century – the company claims that its canned beans were declared a staple food by the British Ministry of Food during food rationing in World War II. Bread was never rationed during the war, so it’s easy to see how beans and bread formed a happy marriage during this time.
