Give Canned Beans A Major Flavor Boost With A Classic Beverage From Your Fridge

Cannellini. Lupini. Kidney. Navy. Pinto. These are a few of our favorite beans, and they all come in cans. They're part of a speedy lunch, a protein-heavy side at dinner or, when it comes to baked beans, a comforting supper that could be scoffed straight out of the tin. Our pantries are full of ingredients, like soy sauce, that will zhzuh up a can of beans, but for this particular flavor boost, go to the fridge and grab an ice-cold can or bottle of beer. You're not going to drink it (though a sip or two won't hurt). Instead, this amber nectar is going into the beans, where it will bring a whole lot of flavor nuance to the dish.

For baked beans in particular, a generous splash of beer provides a counterpoint to the sweetness of the sauce, paring it back enough so the hoppy undertones of your chosen brew can shine through. The creamy beans will tamp down any bitterness from the beer, turning the simplest of ready-to-eat foods into a complex and profoundly tasty dish. The flavor profile of your beans will change depending on the beer you add, too.

Just as we found when marinating steak in beer, there is a vast range of flavor possibilities that can be added to canned beans, depending on the brew. Moreover, the beer you use doesn't have to be one you drink on the reg. If you want to experiment with different taste profiles, you could start out with a splash of bright, crisp lager in your beans, moving through the amber beers, with their warmer notes, through to the heavy richness of stouts.

To some home cooks, canned beans and beer might sound like a random pairing, but it's been around for many years. Lovers of Mexican food will recognize it as something akin to frijoles borrachos, also known as borracho or "drunken" beans, a popular and yummy concoction usually made with pinto beans that are slowly simmered in beer. Combining canned baked beans and booze is a kind of cheat's borracho, but any canned bean sitting in your pantry ought to work just as well, from protein-packed canned lupini to black beans or even garbanzo.

Many borracho recipes also include bacon, so you can serve your beer-infused baked beans in a similar cowboy style, as well as with peppers, tomatoes, and sausage like chorizo or franks. We like the idea of throwing in caramelized onions, too, for a kick of sweetness, while cooking the beans in a smoker will give your dish a wonderful aromatic twist. Although they're plenty filling on their own, these beans can be served with a helping of buttery scrambled eggs, while a pile of fluffy rice will soak up all the tasty sauce. Alternatively, let the whole thing cool, pop it in the fridge, and serve it the day after as a fragrant bean salad.