I’ve never had beans on toast. It is just buttered toast with baked beans in tomato sauce( Heinz Baked Beans) on top. Most people prefer it because it’s quick and cheap.
Yes – they’re both British.. Cheese on toast is an open sandwich with cheese broiled on bread. Made with great British cheese such as a good Cheddar or Chesiire or Double Gloucester, it is one of the simple masterpieces of world cuisine. I lived on it for years.
One of the things to note about dishes such as beans on toast or chip butties – which are French fry sandwiches – or Yorkshire pudding is that carbs were a good, cheap way for poorer people to fill their tummies. That is how a lot of British dishes evolved.
Hillbillies like me have always eaten brown beans and soft bread (no dark sauces or toasted bread though, just salt & beans.) And bread and cheese, not melted, just in your lunch or as a snack.
I don’t think cheese on toast is the same as a grilled cheese sandwich. Usually only one slice of bread is involved, with cheese on the top. With two slices of bread and the cheese in the middle, it becomes a “cheese toastie”.
@Lorna Heinz baked beans. Originally an American product imported into the UK and sold at only the poshest of department stores. Now a days the UK consumes 90% of the worlds baked beans and Heinz makes them here and ships them back to the US to be sold in “British” stores (or at least the last time I was in the US that’s the only place I saw them).
It’s the same Heinz baked beans we have in the USA. You make the toast, heat up the beans and then you spoon them on the toast. They also serve spaghettios on toast too.
Hmm, I lived in England for a while, have a lot of British friends, and never heard of beans or cheese on toast. I hate baked beans anyway, and on a piece of soggy toast – ugh! Sounds gross. I like British food normally – steak and kidney pie, sausage rolls, bubble and squeak, steak, egg and chips. Their cheese pies beat our grilled cheese sandwiches hands down. Wish I could find them here.
Generally, it is cabbage and cheese cooked in a skillet, with maybe some potatoes. I think the name refers to the cheese bubbling and the cabbage squeaking.
@KNOWITALL its the left over cooked vegetables (cabbage and potatoes normally or what ever you have left really) from a roast dinner chopped or mashed up and shallow fried. You usually have it with your cooked breakfast the day after you had your roast diner or served with the left over roast meat as a super.
Potatoes (pre-cooked) are an essential ingredient in bubble & squeak. Any leftover veg will do but cabbage is most traditional. Roughly mash the potatoes, mix in the veg, add an egg or two to bind it (depending on quantity). Fry in a large frying pan with just a tiny bit of oil to brown it. Never heard of adding cheese but it does sound good.