Mushy Peas or Tapioca Pudding Part 4

When one thinks a little on the potential problems we quickly see the pitfalls. What happens if a label falls off a tin of mushy peas? Now that’s an amazing transformation, mushy peas. How do they do that? Do they pour the peas into a big vat full of bare footed people who march around squashing the perfect pea shaped peas into a squelchy mass? Maybe they have some technical method, like errr .. cooking, which breaks down the pea shapedness. Whatever they do they sure taste good with chips which are perfectly cooked in beef dripping and salt and vinegar. Yum Yum. But it has to be real malt vinegar not the acetic acid which burns holes in your nostrils, and real fine salt, not that imitation Lo-Salt salt that tastes like sawdust sprinkled on your food or the ground salt that gets stuck in your teeth.

Anyway, is a tin which has the label peeled off like a tree that falls in the forest when nobody is there? Do the consequences only come to light when a human being interfaces with the tin?

Let’s follow the contents of a tin, say, baked beans, back to their origin and examine the journey on which they go in order to reach the shelves of our major superstores/hyperstores/ megastores? where next? And from there get transported to our homes, heated up and poured over some nice, thick, crusty, buttered toast.

The common baked beans, as we know them, in tomato sauce, are actually haricot beans also known as Boston Beans or Navy Beans, a variety of Phaseolus vulgaris which surprisingly enough is not a vegetable but a seed or fruit.

The haricot bean is a variety of kidney bean, rich in iron, magnesium and zinc originating in Central and South America and they were probably brought to Europe in the 16th century. The name haricot derives from the French stew or haricot. They are useful in casseroles, purees and salads but are delicious as baked bean in tomato sauce.

One day a farmer labours in the fields, planting, and some months later there are some nice plump juicy bean pods which are taken and transformed through the miracle of science and art, courtesy of a great company like H J Heinz into a delicious feast in a rich tomatoey sauce. The sauce is sweetened with brown sugar, perhaps flavoured with onions and the final product is canned and labelled and then sent to all corners of the earth.
Now all through this process the humble bean has never had any crisis of personality. It has always known from its inception that it was a bean. However when it left the tender care of the farmer and was sold to the baked bean company it went through a transformation indeed one might say a catharsis. Life up till then had been simple. The wonders of genetics ensured that the beans’ identity was safe and secure. After processing and canning it became necessary to label the tin to ensure that everybody who came into contact with the tin could correctly identify the contents.
On arrival at the store the tins will be displayed in the best way possible to ensure a speedy sale. Unfortunately for some baked beans their journey from field to table will be interrupted. Indeed it may come to a sudden halt as a result of their fine suit of clothes becoming detached thereby losing what has become an important part of their identity.
When I was younger there would always be a special display of unlabelled tins, normally in a big basket or a trolley with a big sign declaring “Assorted Tinned Goods Only 10p”. There would be tins of all shapes and sizes and I spent many a happy time rummaging through the tins, shaking them next to my ear hoping to gain a clue as to their contents. Finally after selecting some bargain tins I would quickly go home, looking forward to a surprise repast,…. Yes. Sad, very sad. But unless you have opened an unlabelled tin thinking you will find pilchards in tomato sauce and actually found some beautiful Atlantic salmon, you just haven’t lived!