Re: Slush sites

On Fri, 7 Aug 2009 21:19:07 GMT, djheydt@xxxxxxxxxxx (Dorothy J Heydt)
wrote:

In article <v5jn1f7cn6ez$.81ub6cdp4ks8.dlg@xxxxxxxxxx>,
Brian M. Scott <b.scott@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Fri, 07 Aug 2009 17:57:04 GMT, Jonathan L Cunningham
<spam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in
<news:4a7c6a21.695339@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> in
rec.arts.sf.composition:

[...]

Even that quintessentially English food, baked beans,
requires copious quantities of tomatoes in its
construction. [...]

Fiddlesticks. If it includes tomatoes, it isn't proper
baked beans. Molasses, now, is another story, and a bit of
brown sugar, and perhaps some mustard, won't come amiss,
either.

According to the fount (font?) of all wisdom, wikipedia:

"In the United Kingdom, the term baked beans refers almost
exclusively to canned beans in a tomato sauce."

I did notice some interesting factoids:

"There are substantial differences between the Heinz baked beans sold
in the UK and the nearest equivalent US product (Heinz Premium
Vegetarian Beans). The US beans contain brown sugar where the British
beans do not, and the US product contains 14g of sugar per tin compared
to 7g for the British version (equating to 140 vs 90 calories). The US
beans have a mushier texture and are darker in colour than their UK
counterpart."

Welll..... I think of baked beans as *New* English food,
along with the rye'n'injun that was baked in the slow cooker

What I was actually googling for was to find out average per capita
consumption... (some) people (seem to) think of Brits as bowler-hatted,
umbrella-wielding tea-drinkers, although I believe that more tea is
drunk in parts of Germany... but I vaguely remember reading that we eat
more baked beans. Can't find evidence of either assertion without more
work though. [Also, it is not foggy all the time in London.]

Both beans and tomatoes are New World foods, AIUI. (Hmmm. I didn't
realise so many different beans were the same species... learn something
new every day.<g>.)

My favorite recipe for baked beans involves opening a can.
I've tried baking 'em assorted times in assorted ways and
they never come out right.

Students have been known to eat baked beans cold, out of the can.

Another technique, useful if you are on a diet, is to eat them one at a
time by spiking them with a cocktail stick... :-) [No, I haven't tried
this.]

As for making baked beans yourself, I conjecture that it is necessary to
steep them in cold, sweetened tomato juice for several months or years,
after cooking, to get the right texture/flavour. Preferably with bright
orange food colouring.

ObSF: Mike and Donovan[*] are supplied only with baked beans and milk as
supplies in the short story "Escape!" from Asimov's "I, Robot"
collection.

Jonathan
[*] The main inspiration for all my "James and Sally" short stories. I
don't have enough yet for an anthology -- only four. I wonder if there
is any chance of getting an anthology of short stories published, if all
the stories share the same major characters and have a similar theme?
Would there be more or less chance if all/some of them had been
published in magazines, or if they were all previously unpublished (I
haven't submitted any of them yet).

--
Never try to baptise a cat.
.

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