Slightly sweet, savoury, and occasionally smoky, baked beans are a quintessential British staple that I adore having for lunch on toasted sourdough bread or atop a crispy jacket potato. Yet, it can occasionally feel as though once you've sampled one tin of baked beans, you've essentially sampled them all.
That's precisely why I enjoy experimenting with various ingredients to elevate the flavour of this British classic. I've previously enhanced baked beans with smoked paprika, and the seasoning provided a wonderful depth of flavour to the mildly sweet beans. I've also tested the beans with Worcestershire sauce, which I became completely hooked on – it didn't overpower the baked beans but added a delicate umami quality to them.
After watching Chef Guntas Sethi, from Le Cordon Bleu, London, incorporate soy sauce into baked beans, I was curious whether this condiment might surpass the flavour Worcestershire sauce brings. Using some soy sauce in baked beans is a way to create a more homemade taste. However, substituting soy sauce in place of salt can result in a far more flavoursome dish thanks to its richer, more layered taste.
To prepare the beans using this method, I began by emptying one of those small tins of baked beans into a saucepan and letting them simmer over medium heat for around five minutes. Don't overdo it with the soy sauce. On this occasion, I spooned the beans over toasted sourdough bread, and it proved to be an ideal lunch.
Out of the three different methods of elevating baked beans I've tested, the soy sauce ranked a close second to Worcestershire sauce for delivering the finest flavour to baked beans. I loved the flavour the soy sauce gave the baked beans, but my favourite still has to be the Worcestershire sauce.
