In message , brian mitchell
writes
A friend who's fairly knowledgeable about food thinks the beans that
Heinz use in their baked beans are cannelloni (sp?) beans. Can anyone
confirm, or definitely state otherwise?
I think you mean Canellini Beans ?
I thought that Heinz BB used Haricot beans, but I'm not sure there is
really any great difference. Canellini Beans are small creamy/white
beans and Haricot are small creamy/white beans.... I guess both are just
different varieties of French Beans - though Canellini are 'Italian'
beans.
If it's so, can they be grown in the UK, and where would one get
seeds/plantable beans?
French Beans are easily grown in the UK. Any seed suppliers will have a
variety of them. Just choose a variety that gives the required type of
bean - Lots are dwarf beans - which are low growing and don't require
supports. We prefer to grow climbing ones - they need support, but get
much better yields per area. We've grown the variety Blue Lake has small
white Haricot type beans.
They are easy to grow. They are tender plants so need to be grown once
the chance of frost has passed (around the end of May, but it depends on
area) We get them going in Rootrainers in the Greenhouse in April and
then plant out later. But they can also be sown direct from about mid
May.
Googling for 'how to grow climbing french beans' gives plenty of links
This seems a reasonable article:
http://www.channel4.com/food/on-tv/j...ome/how-to-gro
w-french-beans_p_1.html
Or any book on growing veg will cover it.
To get the dried beans you leave pods on the plant to mature and then
dry out - you might need to harvest them and then finish drying them off
in a shed or whatever.
However, it all seems faff to me for the amount of beans you get, and
fresh green French beans are much to yummy to waste :-) I'd just eat the
beans green and then buy the driedHaricot/Cannelini beans from the
supermarket/wholefood shop.
Finding a recipe that comes anywhere near the taste of the tinned beans
will be difficult I imagine, though plenty around for Boston Baked
Beans, which are good, but not the same thing really.
--
Chris French