背景介绍：
19世纪末，亨利·J·亨氏将罐装烤豆引入英国，起初作为奢侈品备受推崇。历经百年，烤豆已成为英国人日常饮食的重要组成部分，每日消耗量惊人。近年来，随着健康饮食趋势的兴起，豆类作为营养丰富的食材备受青睐，烤豆的受欢迎程度更是持续增长。同时，新兴品牌与科学家正努力推动豆类的多样化与创新，致力于将其打造为英国乃至全球饮食文化的重要象征。
Britain’s
obsession
with baked beans
英国人对烤豆的痴迷
Health trends
and gourmet beans are driving demand for other varieties
健康趋势和美味豆食正在推动英国人对其他品种豆类的需求
When Henry J. Heinz lugged five cases of
tinned baked-bean samples to Fortnum & Mason, a luxury department store in
London, in 1886, he cannot have imagined the impact he would have on British
diets. Back then the American dish of haricot beans cooked with tomato sauce
and pork (the meat was later dropped during wartime rationing) was a delicacy.
1886年，当亨利·J·亨氏将五箱罐装烤豆样品运抵伦敦著名的奢侈品百货公司 Fortnum & Mason 时，他未曾预见到这一举动会对英国的饮食文化产生何种深远的影响。彼时，以番茄酱和猪肉（后因战时配给制度而舍弃猪肉）精心烹制的芸豆，仍是一道备受推崇的美味佳肴。
Britons today get through over 2m cans of
the stuff a day—more than the rest of the world combined. Both Princess Diana
and Queen Camilla have claimed it as a favourite meal. But this singular
obsession has crowded out other forms of pulses, reckons Professor Eric Holub
of Warwick University. “We’ve become canned in by that.”
如今，英国人每日消耗的烤豆量已超过200万罐，这一数字竟超过世界其他地区的总和。戴安娜王妃与卡米拉王后均坦言，烤豆是她们的心头好。然而，华威大学的埃里克·霍卢布教授却认为，这种过分的偏爱已导致其他种类的豆类被边缘化，“我们因此陷入了饮食的困境。”
Changing food trends mean that other types
of bean are now getting a look in. In 2022 meat consumption in Britain was at
its lowest level since records began in the 1970s; pulses are cheap, filling
and healthy alternative sources of protein. Rising awareness of gut health is
helping their case, too.
不断更迭的食品潮流正引领着其他豆类逐渐崭露头角。2022年，英国的肉类消费量降至20世纪70年代有记录以来的最低点；而豆类，作为价格低廉、饱腹感强且健康的蛋白质来源，备受青睐。民众对肠道健康意识的增强也进一步推动了豆类的普及。
Fewer than one in ten Britons get enough fibre, which is essential for digestion; beans are rich in it. Some local authorities have pledged to serve more beans in canteens at hospitals, schools, government buildings and prisons. Scientists from the University of Oxford have conducted trials of pulse-heavy menus at schools in Leicestershire.
英国仅有不到十分之一的人口摄入足够的纤维，而纤维对消化系统至关重要；恰好，豆类是纤维的宝库。部分地方政府已承诺，将在医院、学校、政府大楼及监狱的食堂中提供更多豆类食品。牛津大学的科学家也在莱斯特郡的学校内试验了富含豆类的菜单。
These can also be seen as arguments for
Britons to eat even more baked beans. But less-processed beans are healthier
still, and more aspirational. Amelia Christie-Miller, the founder of Bold Bean
Co, a British startup, says she wants to change the perception that beans are
“dull, uninspiring and associated with poverty”.
这些因素均可视为英国人增加烤豆摄入量的正当理由。但值得注意的是，加工较少的豆类不仅更为健康，也受到了更广泛的欢迎。英国初创企业 Bold Bean Co 的创始人阿米莉亚·克里斯蒂-米勒，立志要改变人们对豆子“单调乏味、缺乏创意且与贫困相关联”的刻板印象。
Her company sells supersize chickpeas and butter beans in sleek glass jars. They are marketed as the centrepiece of meals rather than a side—which helps justify the price. Sales are forecast to reach 2m units this year; that would be a tenfold increase on 2022, the year in which the firm made its supermarket debut.
她的公司推出了装在精致玻璃罐中的超大颗鹰嘴豆和黄油豆，并将其作为膳食的主体而非配菜进行营销，从而合理提升了其价格定位。预计今年的销量将达到200万份，这一数字是其2022年在超市首次亮相时的十倍。
Ms Christie-Miller is now working on her
second cookbook. A number of other recipe volumes, published in September and
October, increasingly
extol
pulses for their flavour, not just their function.
克里斯蒂-米勒女士目前正在撰写她的第二本食谱。而九月与十月出版的众多食谱中，越来越多的内容开始颂扬豆类的独特风味，而非仅仅强调其功能。Bean is How 是联合国发起的一项运动，旨在到2028年将全球豆类消费量翻倍。
Paul Newnham of Beans is How, a UN campaign to double global bean consumption by 2028, says that it helps to link pulses with heritage and identity. “It becomes about being proud of who I am, where I am from,” he says.
该运动的负责人保罗·纽纳姆表示，此举有助于将豆类与传统文化和身份认同相联系。他说：“这变成了一种为自我身份和来源感到自豪的表达。”
If beans really are about identity,
Britain’s baked-bean
juggernaut
will be hard to stop. According to Kantar, a
market-research firm, in the year to January 2024 beans were the only big
canned-food categories to grow in sales volume. But baked beans grew by 1.7%
whereas other types grew by only 0.2%.
若豆类真的成为身份的象征，那么英国的烤豆巨头将面临难以阻挡的挑战。根据市场研究公司 Kantar 的数据，截至2024年1月的一年里，豆类是唯一实现销量增长的大型罐头食品类别。其中，烤豆的增长率为1.7%，而其他类型仅增长了0.2%。
Many shoppers still don’t quite know what to do with canned pulses. But everyone knows how to eat baked beans, be it hot on toast or—if you’re weird—cold out of the can.
许多消费者仍不知如何将罐头豆类进行多样化处理。但烤豆的食用方式却为众人所熟知，无论是热食还是——或许听起来有些奇怪——直接从罐头中取出的冷食。
Even gourmet brands like Bold Bean have
accepted that familiarity matters. In September the company added baked
varieties (with “
tangy
” notes of tamarind) to its plain-cooked range.
即便是像 Bold Bean 这样的高端美食品牌也承认，熟悉度至关重要。九月，该公司在其原味烹饪系列中新增了烘焙品种（带有“浓郁”的罗望子风味）。
Professor Holub is working on the country’s first home-grown baked bean, with the eventual aim of replacing imported navy beans from America, Canada, China and Ethiopia. After a successful trial in Lincolnshire last year, he hopes that his canned beans will hit supermarket shelves by 2026. Then baked beans can claim to be truly British.
霍卢布教授正致力于研发该国首款国产烤豆，其最终目标是替代从美国、加拿大、中国和埃塞俄比亚进口的海军豆。去年，在林肯郡的成功试验后，他期望自己的罐头豆类能在2026年摆上超市的货架。届时，烤豆将真正意义上成为英国的标志性食品。
obsession
[
ə
b
ˈ
s
ɛʃ
n] n. 迷恋；执着；难以摆脱的想法
extol
[
ɪ
k
ˈ
stɑ
ː
l] v. 赞美；颂扬；高度赞扬
