Once upon a time, far far away, the king summoned Blair P. Houghton
> who replied:

>Matt Probert > wrote:
>>Keeping it short. Did Heinz invent baked beans, or did he package and
>>market an existing American dish?
>>
>>Yes, I have asked Heinz, Heinz UK don't know and I am awaiting
>>(without much hope) on a reply from Heinz USA.
>
>Americans have been baking beans for far longer than Heinz
>has been in business.

That's what I thought, now the trouble is finding evidence, for which
I mean contemporary written accounts. Do you know how rare 19th
century American recipe books are in the UK ???

>
>And Americans probably got it from Europeans.
>

There are two schools of suggestion here, one is that it is of Italian
origin, and one that it is of "native American" origin, though no one
suggests which particular native American people, that said New
England and Boston in particular claim to have a heritage of baked
beans.

Matt

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