Skip Hot Sauce: Add This Spicy Ingredient To Canned Baked Beans For Twice The Flavor

The average Brit will likely claim that canned baked beans are a home-grown product, but they originated, as we all know, from this side of the Pond. Whether you're a loyal fan of Bush, will only ever eat Heinz, or don't give a hoot about the brand on the can, baked beans are much-loved among Americans. As well as being cheap, tasty, and convenient, they're also ridiculously easy to customize. If you've tried cowboy-style baked beans made with salt pork and are looking for even more of a taste twist, say hello to gochujang — also known as fermented red chile paste. This Korean sauce is a one-stop flavor shop, bringing something for everyone to the table.

At a distance, it looks a little like tomato purée or maybe ketchup, but close-to, there's so much more to it than that. Gochujang is a blend of glutinous rice, fermented soybeans or soybean powder, salt, and barley malt and chile powders. The taste is a near-indescribable kaleidoscope of sweet, spicy, umami, hot, and smoky (with lots of subtleties in between), and a dollop of it added to canned baked beans does something magical to their flavor. The gochujang amplifies the sweetness of the sauce, while also complementing the buttery, creaminess of the beans. It turns a simple supper dish or speedy lunchtime meal into something unforgettable.

Gochujang (sometimes called kochujang) has been a stalwart of Korean cuisine for thousands of years, and was primarily eaten to make rice more digestible. It gets its name from the earthenware jars that are used to ferment the sauce and is now available to buy in grocery stores as well as specialty outlets.

If you're new to gochujang and a little sensitive to heat, it's worth checking the labels before bringing a bottle home, as they vary from mild to hot. We recommend any home cooks using it for the first time dose their gochujang sparingly to find your preferred level of warmth. After all, once it's in your beans, there's no turning back!

While it gives baked beans a delicious boost, gochujang is also as flexible as it is flavorful. Add a dash while you're warming up a can of soup (gently, for maximum soup nutritional value), or pop a spoonful in your next chili or stew to give it extra levels of oomph. Many people use it as a dipping sauce, like ketchup or mayo, mixing it with the latter and plunging their fries straight in. You can smear gochujang on a humble sandwich, it pairs amazingly with eggs (especially the fried kind), and if you're sautéing up some veggies, give them a dab in the pan too.