Wondering what to do with leftover baked beans? In many New England households, leftover baked beans were (and sometimes still are) the perfect filling for a thick baked bean sandwich.
By Aimee Tucker|Aug 16 2022|
Coffee By Design | Portland, Maine
Photo Credit : Katherine Keenan
A large pot of baked beans may be a well-known New England Saturday night tradition, but what about the leftovers? In many families, leftover Saturday night baked beans became a Sunday baked bean sandwich. Yes, that’s right. A baked bean sandwich.
The New England Baked Bean Sandwich. Photo Credit : Aimee Seavey
Of course, it’s always an option to heat up leftover baked beans and serve them in more “traditional” ways – with brown bread, franks-and-beans style, or even alongside eggs and toast. But where’s the fun in that?
Inexpensive, filling, and the hallmark of packed lunches for an entire generation of New Englanders, baked bean sandwiches are perhaps the lunchbox definition of Yankee frugality. This sandwich isn’t pretty, but it’s ours, and we love it with the same loyalty we extend to Moxie and Necco Wafers.
So, just how do you make a baked bean sandwich? I confess I’d never eaten one before, so making it was a bit of an adventure. According to my sources (meaning all of you on Facebook), it’s as easy as plopping a delicious pile of cold baked beans onto a thick slice of white sandwich bread (Anadama bread works great, too) and topping it with another. Some baked bean sandwiches are made with brown bread, but they tend to be more “open-faced,” and that’s just not the same thing as picking up a sandwich and biting into it!
Goes great with potato chips and root beer! Photo Credit : Aimee Seavey
I like my baked beans with a little sauce, so even though these were cold (these had been in the fridge for a day or two), the sandwich was on the messy side, but (amazingly) still held. It actually sat on the plate like you see in the photo for a good 15 minutes without losing more than a little sauce and a few rogue beans. I’ve had a Boston Cream Pie fall apart faster than that!
And the flavor? Well, it tasted like you’d think – like baked beans and thick sandwich bread – but I happen to be a fan of both, so the experience wasn’t unpleasant. It did, however, leave my mouth feeling a little dry, so it was a good thing I had a bottle of Polar root beer in the fridge. And, since all sandwiches benefit from a little crunch and salt, I added a handful (or two) of Cape Cod potato chips. Now there’s a lunch!
Are you a fan? Photo Credit : Aimee Seavey
While many New Englanders have fond memories of baked bean sandwiches, it does seem to be especially popular with Yankees of a certain generation, so we’re wondering… Do you love a good baked bean sandwich? Do you know someone who does? Let us know!
Ready to make your own baked bean sandwich? First you’ll need the beans! Below you’ll find some favorite baked beans recipes from the Yankee archives.
This post was first published in 2015 and has been updated.
As a kid I ate my share of baked bean sammies …. I liked ’em …. but as an adult the idea of cold baked beans isn’t as appealing. As I recalled a little bit of mustard on the bread added extra zing. It was one of those things kids in the 60s could “cook” for themselves without using the stove …
My Mom was born in RI, so of course we had baked bean sammies,, I haven’t had one in years tho, since she has passed on,, but now that I’ve been reminded,, will have to make one soon
Grew up in R.I. Mom was old Yankee and she too soaked beans on Friday night and we had beans, brown bread and franks on just about very weekend. Now 90 years old and living in Texas for past 65 years and still buy B&M baked beans regularly.
But of course. But the best leftovers were from my dad’s biscuits (always made with Maine’s Bakewell Cream). Beans and biscuits were Saturday night’s supper. On some Sundays, he made “milk toast”. Simply half the left over biscuits and toast them in the oven. While they are getting lightly browned and crunchy, make a simple white sauce with extra pepper for zing. Break the toasty biscuit halves into two pieces plop them into the white sauce, stir to coat, and serve immediately. Admittedly these have limited appeal and no appeal at all if they’ve cooled. He did not add eggs to this meal, but sometimes made bacon. He would have been 101 next week, so this is an old woodsman/farmer recipe and is nothing like the biscuits and gravy of the South.
Yes!! You need mayo and lettuce! My friends would laugh when I took one to school for lunch…in Canada yet..but they soon became converts too. This was passed on from my Yankee grandma.
I’m 75 and I love bean sandwiches with mayo , always made for the beach and lunch boxes. Made with
Baked beans home made!!!
My mother always said we were Yankees, her relatives were from cape cod. Her aunt and uncle ran the
Telephones for the cape.
Thanks for the memories. Marilyn a lifetime resident of rhode island
I still eat baked bean sandwiches! Love mine with onion and Gulden’s spicy brown mustard. Great on rye bread because the bean juice does not soak through as easy.
My dad was the cook in our family and some of the things we got for school lunches (yes, back when we had to brown bag it to school) We had our share of bean sandwiches (which no one want to trade for) And I also remember also having peanut butter and ketchup and Cream Cheese and jelly. No, I didn’t have to get up my lunches to the school bullies. but with 8 kids you had to save money any way you could. Ahh the memories. And to think there where kids out there that had nothing for lunch. 🙁
I love bean sandwiches…on crusty bread with butter….out of a family of eight my Mom and I were the only ones that ate them..she always said “more for us”….
We grew up on them, we’d mash them alittle, add salt & pepper and a nice slice of onion. Nothing better.
We were from Rockland & my husband came from a nice French family in Biddeford. He’d never heard of
them until I sent him to work with one. He brought it home and said “I don’t know what it is but I don’t want another one” I ate it later. Still delish!
Same w/liver & onions. Made that one night for supper and when he got home he asked if I was making that. I told him yes and asked how he knew. He said “I could smell it as soon as I drove in the yard”
What a difference a few miles makes.
When I bought a bottle of Moxie my mother in law thought I was getting soda cause I had an upset stomach.
Those kinds of drinks were tonic to her. Tonic to us up the cost was something you put in your hair. Moxie was definitely out.
Your articles are fun to read. thanks. Yes Fluffanutter is great!. So is the afternoon snack of macaroni w/ salt, pepper & butter, mom would add a can of cambell tomato soup along w/the can of milk. She called it “Soupy Macaroni” What this generations have missed. Ya think.
Barb, I thought my dad was the only one that made that. It took me most of my childhood to learn to like it and after that we had all grown up and moved away from home. Dad was a gardener and worked down on the docks the rest of the time emptying the fishing trawlers as they came in. He and mom worked at 40 Fathoms Fishery’s. If you know where that is you know where I’m from. My first job was working in the sardine factories. (still have a few scares from that) I loved that you still call it
supper. Everyone around here calls it dinner. ( N,H,) Dinner was at noon, right!
Another thing that took me most of my childhood to like was Welsh rarebit. We had it atleast once a week at school dinner on crackers. You? By the time I got out of school I liked it if there were enough crackers.
Nice talking at ya, Barb.
donna
WHY USE BREAD ? EAT THEM COLD OUT OF A CONTAINER ! i keep the little cans in the truck for emergency ‘s with plastic spoons and tp , you never know when the need for a quick snack or a visit to the woods should come to you
Lover left over baked bean sandwiches with mayo. Sometimes I add a slice of bologna
It was a Sunday tradition at my grandparents for a light supper and some cards for the men after
Such fond memories.
Welch rabbit was one of favorite school lunches at old Coventry high. I’m from Foster R.I. and old Mill my mother was the best bake bean’er in Hopkins Mills.
My grandfather would make me baked bean sandwiches on toast. He would fry up the leftover beans in a cast iron skillet, toast the bread, add some raw onion, ketchup and mustard; I loved them. I actually had one a few weeks ago, it was like I went back in time.
My father loved baked bean sandwiches however my mother would often fry the left over beans in a little butter for Sunday breakfast. God they were good. I don’t know if they were a family thing or French Canadian.
My dad would take baked bean sandwiches in his lunch pail for work. My mom’s beans were much drier than yours. I never tried it – it never appealed to me.
Back in the 1930’s this was very commonplace-baked beans and franks on Saturday -my mother did not make her beans very juicy so on Sunday AM we had fried Beans with lots of Butter-and then came the sandwiches- I think it’s time for me to bake some not so juicy Baked Beans- soon <3
My mom made excellent homemade baked beans. Beans & franks on Saturday? you bet !! and then the bean sandwiches. plain white bread, no butter, nothing else, just beans and bread ! My mother did put sliced onions on hers. I still eat them today.
Bean sandwiches!!! One of my favorite memories of my grandfather was making a few bean sandwiches, with a cold ginger ale, and eating them on TV trays in the living room while watching something on Sunday afternoon. He really relished those sandwiches… Miss that guy.
If you like cold beans and mayo – you will love this: drain most of the juice from leftover baked beans/ chop, in small pieces, some celery and some red onion/ add a bit of bk pepper/ mix in some mayo- serve chilled from refridge
A variation on this is drain the beans, add sweet pickle relish and mayo. Very good. Just don’t feed it to toddlers! A friend did so (against our advice) and you can imagine what the result was!
I did not know this was a “thing” I have always loved bean sandwiches since I was little I used pork n beans drained on white bread with mayo, one of my faves!! still eat them in my sixties!
Grow up in Boston area..of course franks & baked beans every Saturday nite supper!!. I would hopefully watch to see if any baked beans were left over, for my favorite Sunday morning breakfast…cold baked beans with buttered warm white bread toast. Been a real long time ago, & still the perfect breakfast!!
I loved those “Dagwoods” but never called them that. I also have tried to duplicate my mother’s, with your result of burnt bread. maybe we should broil them lower in the oven. My mother also loved cold bean sandwiches, but I never tried one.
Funny what you learn from your folks. I always ate leftover bean sandwiches ’cause my Dad always ate them with a little vinegar on the beans. I don’t understand putting anything else on the beans – why mess them up with ketchup or mustard, flavors that are too strong for the beans. The vinegar (just a touch) tamed the sweetness of the “bean juice.” Of course I also grew up putting vinegar and salt on my French fries. I grew up in RI and we ate supper every night. The mid-day meal was lunch. “Dinner” was reserved for holidays and the Sunday noon meal. Sunday nights we would go to my Grandmother’s house in the Valley (the Pawtuxet River valley – West Warwick) and the best Sunday supper was when she made “Dagwood” sandwiches. A slice of white bread, tomatoes, American cheese and bacon cooked under the broiler of her electric stove until the bacon was just done to perfection. I have never been able to recreate them (I’m 72 now) because my bread burns long before the bacon is cooked. Must have been some magic in her old stove. I sure miss those times that we don’t appreciate until they’re long gone.
Two things have changed significantly about the “dagwood” sandwiches. Bacon these days is sliced much thicker than it used to be. It would cook faster if sliced more thinly, so in days gone by it would likely have toasted up in the broiler at a different rate. The other point is that bread these days contains a lot more sugar that say homemade or even what was sold on shelves at the store. Sugar content will “brown” or basically burn much faster than bread made with much less sugar.
We always called the bacon/cheese/tomato sandwiches “cheese dreams.” I am from NYC. We used to have B+M baked beans with brown bread from the can, too. Wonderful.
And here I thought baked bean sandwiches were a Mid-western lunch, having grown up in Iowa and Kansas. But ancestors from the East, so maybe it was a New England thing handed down. Love them!
I lived in Woonsocket R.I. (Born in Norwich Ct.) for a long time and we would go to the bakery in Social and get our baked beans and brown bread every Saturday evening for supper. I used to love the brown bread in the cans, but I now live in Michigan and you can’t find good baked beans or brown bread anywhere. Do they still make brown bread in cans, and where is it available??? I still make bean sandwiches using Campbells beans, they are ok, not great.
You can also buy B & M Brown Bread in a can from the Vermont Country Store. We grew up around Boston and my Dad always ate cold bean sandwiches following Saturday night’s hot dogs and beans. I thought he was the only one who did this!
As kids, we would quirt a dollop of ketchup and then crumble some Wise potato chips on top of the beans before the top slice of bread. Also good to add some homemade coleslaw or some cheddar cheese.
Our Saturday night beans were always on the dry side so our bean sandwiches were made with mayo but a leftover frank or two would be cut up and added to the mix as well – delicious!
At least once a year, my brother, sister & I get together for baked bean sandwiches, just like we ate as children. My brother provides the beans, my sister adds her own home-grown ham and I provide the appetite and scintillating conversation!
Brown bread, buns, Maple Leaf Frank’s … all fried in butter … and “doctored” B&M baked beans (yellow mustard, Worcestershire sauce, onion flakes and brown sugar) made up many a Saturday night for my family … followed often by Mom’s Monday school lunches of baked beans and mayo on Wonder bread. It was always a hard sell to find someone willing to trade! And that was doubly true for the cold Maple Leaf franks run through the hand cranked meat grinder and mixed with pickle relish and mayo and spread on Wonder Bread. You get hungry enough and you develop a taste for just about anything …
This article and the following comments bring back fond memories of growing up in New England. My mom, who grew up in the 20’s and 30’s, also made cold baked bean sandwiches, with a slice of onion. Mouth watering and very satisfying. It has been years since I’ve made one. I now live in the Southwest, and bean-eating traditions are different here. No one I know eats brown bread with Boston baked beans and franks. No cold beans in a sandwich. No Welsh Rabbit (Rare Bit), drizzled with a little Worcestershire sauce. I developed a taste for all of them! Thanks, Mom. Maybe it’s time to treat my neighbors to some real New England fare!
My dad (born 1913) grew up in Randolph, MA. He would make bean sandwiches all the time! As a California kid, I never saw them anywhere else. Now I know their origin! Thank you, Yankee!
My dad, born in 1908 in upper Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, was famous for his baked bean sandwiches. No one else in the family even considered eating them. Dad was, by the way, as Pennsylvania German as could be.
If the idea of cold baked beans, mash them and stick them in the microwave for a few seconds to take the cold out, then add onions and Mayo on buttered bread. Remember back in the 60’s we didn’t have microwaves to warm things 🙂
My mother soaked the beans on Friday night, then baked them in the bean pot all day Saturday. Saturday night supper was always beans and…..hot dogs, pork chops, hamburgers, or steak. Then Sunday morning breakfast was beans on toast. Can remember it like yesterday even though I am 82. Great memories!!
“Of a certain generation” must mean baby boomers (I’m 69). We had ham and beans every Saturday night when I was growing up. Home made, not canned. One of the best parts was cold bean sandwiches on Monday.
My dad worked in the lumber camps and got up at 4:00 AM to go to work in the woods. He would make a cold bean and cottage cheese sandwich with salt & pepper and then leave on his long, dark drive to wherever he was working.
Okay here’s the real scoop on making a bean sandwich. You left out the most important things, butter and B&M Baked beans. (beans with a dark delicious molasses) Cold beans, white bread (buttered generously), cold glass of milk. Enjoy!
It never mattered where we were living, my mother always baked beans. She soaked the beans Friday night and baked them all day Saturday. They were delicious and the next day my father, brother and I ate cold bean sandwiches. Unfortunately in one of the family moves the bean crock was broken and we were unable to find a replacement. I still have very fond memories of Saturday night baked beans and cold bean sandwiches the next day.
Guess I am of the ” certain generation ” of Sat. Night B be and dogs! Next day been sandwiches–mayo, beans, slice of onion! Think I ‘ok bake beans this weekend! Yum!
My father was from RI, when we would go there to visit my grandparents my grandmother would make homemade baked beans, cooking them all day. When she served them we would put a big spoonful of mayonnaise in our beans. To this day I still do it don’t know why. I don’t know if it’s a RI thing, an Irish thing,( my grandmother was Irish) or Yankee thing.
I grew up in Connecticut & my Mom always served up baked bean sandwiches ! I don’t remember any ketchup or mayo tho! I just might have to make some in fond memory of Mom ! ?
When I was a very small boy back in Fall River, Mass. my frugal yankee mom used to make these sandwiches from her leftover homemade beans (which she made every week) for me. They were made with white buttered bread, a thin layer of ketchup and a thin layer of lightly mashed beans. They were and are still delicious 70 years later although I can’t find anyone here in Florida who shares my enthusiasm!
I just read the comment by the gent from Fall River, MA. I too am from Fall River & also enjoyed those sandwiches made with Mom’s great baked beans. Brings back fond memories of the years during the War. I was in grammar school & remember well my mother’s efforts to make-do for meals with all the shortages of certain foods like butter & bacon. I might even have known that man who lives in FL.
You are not alone — I am from Venice and have cold bean sandwiches once in a while. I use ketchup but will try mayo next time after reading all of the comments.
I am 89 years old, live in Virginia now, but grew up in RI. I bake beans about once a month and had a bean sandwich just last week. Love those home made beans.
Growing up in New England very Saturday nite dinner was franks & baked beans..of course!! I would hope & pray there would be left over baked beans, because my favorite meal was Sunday breakfast, the cold left over baked beans with a warm slice of well buttered toast!!! …and its still at the top of my list!!!.. In some way this has to “be related to” the baked bean sandwich!!!
I grew up enjoying NE food and we used the bean pot every Saturday to make a pot full. The smell of baked beans cooking is the first please, dipping a piece of crusty bread into the bean pot to taste the gravy was the second pleasure, pleasure number 3 was earring them with NE food and again using crusty bread to get at the gravy was a huge treat. On Sunday morning, for after Church, we had brunch usually reheated beans, fried eggs, fried potato, and toast with coffee. Yum, Yum.
My two children (54 and 51) pick on me for sending them to school with baked bean sandwiches with homemade granola bread with mayonnaise on them. They have also divulged that you can’t trade a bullhead (small catfish like fish) for a strawberry pop tart!! They are strong people today due to carrying lunch boxes that weighed several pounds and eating healthy food. Ramona
Eating baked bean sandwiches with Kris Kristofferson in the Rod and Gun club in Germany 1963, the Rod and Gun club had a picnic the day before and these Baked Beans were left over from that event, so they became sandwiches…
I still make home made beans and yes I still have bean sandwich , all I do is toast the bread but put nothing on it but beans. I am also from Fall River also.
Being from upstate NY (Syracuse) we grew up with “GrandMa Brown’s baked beans. The best in the world. Cold bean sandwich with just a taste of ketchup was the best school lunch ever!
I was raised by Southern grandparents, and live in Texas, our bean sandwiches are a little different. I grew up eating cold pinto beans mashed up with a little ketchup, and spread on toasted white bread. I still like cold bean sandwiches. Sometimes I use leftover pintos, sometimes I use leftover baked beans, sometimes I use leftovers from a pan of Brown Sugar Skillet Beans [a recipe given to me by my uncle over 35 years ago].
Born to genuine Yankees from Maine, when visiting grandparents in Lynnfield Center, MA, I looked forward to the traditional Saturday night dinner of baked beans, hot dogs, brown bread and pickled cucumbers! Never did like the baked bean soup Gramma made but still love having baked bean sandwiches with Hellman’s mayonnaise rather than sauce, on white or wheat bread. Memories of childhood that include Maine lobsters, steamers and fried clams, and Indian pudding from an ancestor’s recipe that rivals Durgin Park any day.
My mother always made baked beans every Saturday and the leftovers were cold bean sandwiches. My father, brother and I really enjoyed these sandwiches. We did slightly mash the beans before putting them on the bread. In that way it wasn’t as messy. We did use a little salt though. Just writing about them makes me homesick for my Mother’ s baked beans and this was over 60 years ago. Both parents and grandparents were from Maine so baked beans were the usual Saturday night supper in our home.
Eating these for over 60 years, loved them cold/room temp. Always in Monday’s school lunch and later in my work lunch pail. Always overstuffed but that made them quite messy, which was a good thing, but when I mentioned it to my mother she remedied it by using a grilled New England hot dog roll which cleaned them up when eating in public
This bred and born Midwesterner grew up eating leftover baked beans–probably Heinz– in a sandwich. I still get hungry for one every so often, and we’ll have ‘doctored’ canned baked beans one night with burgers so I can have a couple of sandwiches later in the week. I now like them with mayonnaise on toasted whole wheat, but that’s a relatively new addition to the treat!
OK, I had no idea baked bean sandwiches were a New England thing. I grew up In RI and can’t recall a time when I didn’t eat them. My mom, grandmother and aunts all made home made baked beans and dad and I always had sandwiches after dinner or the next morning. I will eat them on white bread, potato rolls, sourdough bread, tortillas, biscuits and of course, brown bread 🙂
While I don’t make my own beans I always double the amount required just so I can have sandwiches. I guess I am just a damned Yankee!
Baked bean sandwiches are THE BEST! I grew up on them and still enjoy them whenever there are leftovers. I like to heat them up and put on toast. My New Yorker husbands laughs at me but he has never tried one so what does he know? This way I get to have these treasures all to myself.
My New York father and his ten New York siblings grew up eating baked bean sandwiches—and they loved them all their lives. My siblings and I didn’t share in the tradition, nor did anyone else we knew growing up in New York. I landed here during a search to find out if such fare went beyond his family. Now I know it did. My great-great grandfather on my dad’s side was a Bostonian, so it looks like that’s probably where the custom originated!
I love a good baked bean sandwich. Mama use to fix them for our lunch boxes on Mondays. I happened to like them with a shmear of mustard. Yum. I still fix them to eat for breakfast once and awhile.
YES! My dad soaked the beans every Friday night. Saturday morning the electric bean pot came out and in went all the traditional fixings for Boston baked beans. Supper was hot dogs (saugies) or “scotch ham” and brown bread. Oh yeah, always called the night meal supper! Left over beans were eaten like this sandwich or as a side dish to just about anything! I just bought the exact bean pot on eBay. It was a West Bend made in the 60s and made great beans. I grew up in RI with a Yankee dad and Italian mom-best of two worlds!
Ooooh, Blackstone chips! We lived in the next town and sometimes Mom used to go to their factory store and get a huge brown grocery bag full for 50 cents, if I recall correctly. We loved them! Does anybody know if they’re still in business? Wish I had some right now!
Oh, I wish they still were!! We were a family of 8, and on grocery shopping trips, my mother would stop at the Blackstone Potato Chip storefront at the factory in Blackstone and bring home bags, or boxes lined with a large plastic bag, of chips, or cheese popcorn every other week in the 60’s and 70’s. The company went out of business, but one later opened for a short time in Fall River under the Blackstone name with the same logo. To this day, all my siblings agree, we have never found potato chips that tasted the same, or as good!
I remember the first time I had a bean sandwich. It was back in the 60’s in Central MA when I was about 5 years old. Dad, mom and we 3 kids piled into our station wagon to have a picnic lakeside. We stopped at a bakery to buy a quart of baked beans a very fresh loaf of delicious white bread (looked like an Italian crusty loaf) and an apple pie for dessert. Dad parked the car on the edge of the lake, dropped the tailgate, and we all ate bean sandwiches and devoured the apple pie afterwards. I was surprised at how tasty was the bean sandwich! I probably had a few more during my childhood, but it’s not something I eat now.
I hadn’t thought about a baked bean sandwich in a very long time! I have great memories of my Dad and my older brother (now 66) eating and loving baked bean sandwiches…..Me, I just preferred to grab a spoon and eat them right out of the pot! I still make baked beans using my Mom’s recipe (closer to your Classic recipe) in my Grandmother’s pot which must be well over 100 years old now. And I still love to eat the left over baked beans, cold, right out of the pot. Thanks for refreshing that great memory!
My late mother was from Boston and grew up on Cape Cod where I live now and she always made us baked bean sandwiches which I still love! I grew up in NJ and summered on the Cape but every Saturday night was hot dogs and baked beans with brown bread! May those great Yankee New England traditions live on! Heart broken that the famous landmark restaurant Durgin Park at Quincy Market has closed down! BOO! We need to keep historic landmark restaurants up and running, they’re part of our Yankee New England heritage!!
My father said his family made a big pot of baked beans every week and he took 14 sandwiches to work every day. I couldn’t visualize a baked bean sandwich. Now I know. Thanks!
I can recall making a sandwich with the beans one night when I was hungry and my mom telling me “you’re just like your father!” I don’t remember seeing him eat them before that but I did after. I guess i wasn’t paying attention. Never took them to school but have been know to have them for breakfast. RI raised.
Originally from Connecticut, there is nothing better than a cold baked bean sandwich! I have been eating them since I was a kid and now at 75 years old and living in Minnesota, I can tell you that is still a WONDERFUL way to eat leftover baked beans!
Relatives from England handed down the baked bean sandwich or beans on toast. Grew up in New England and had a bean sandwich from leftovers. Delicious with ketchup. Dad objected to waste so this sandwich was perfect.
Went to day camp when child (am 76) and they made lunch for us, sadwhich was baked bean with peanut butter and lettuce on white bread. When I told my parents they were not impressed but to tell the truth the sandwiches weren’t that
bad … maybe I was just hungry.
I grew up on these samiches!! Lol. Born in Mass loved Saturday hotdogs and beans so we can have these sandwiches the next day! Our great Aunt made the best beans in a pressure cooker!! THE BEST!! Dad enjoy taking these to work with raw onion on the sandwich too!! Yummy!!!
Some of us Mid-westerners grew up with baked bean sandwiches, too! Of course, some of the great-great-greats came from New England, so maybe that’s why. I enjoyed one for lunch just yesterday from the day before’s cold leftover beans. Lightly toasted bread and mayo for me. Marian
I grew up in the 60s and 70s in Clifton Park NY. My Mom made homemade baked beans every Saturday so we could have “samitches” all week. Cold beans lightly mashed with a wee bit of good vinegar and finely diced onion on white bread is onw of my all time favorites. I make beans with my Moms recipe and in her Mother’s bean crock to this day and always make sure there’s enough leftover for all 5 of my adult children to stop by and have a cold bean “samitch”. We all live in Florida now but my Mom’s NE traditions live on! My grandkids love them now too!
I grew up on the North Shore in the 60s. My mom made baked beans every Saturday. We’d have hot bean, hot dogs and brown bread from a can or homemade. I love warm baked bean sandwiches either on buttered brown bread or wheat bread. Delicious!
Pam I grew up on the North Shore too and still love cold baked bean sandwiches. I was transplanted (against my will) to CT where they never heard of such a thing (plus I talked funny according to them) but I never lost my love for real Yankee food – and I’m not talking pinstripes here!
I love them. Having one for lunch right now! I grew up having these anytime there were leftover beans. I make my pot of baked beans from scratch so they are extra good. Delicious, the sandwich as good as the original pot of beans!
I grew up in R.I. eating baked bean sandwiches. Now 84 yrs young in Fl. and still eating them but I put a slice of cheese on top of the beans and usually use dark whole wheat bread. Yum!!!
My mother always made me “open face” bean sandwiches – bread, layer of beans, and cheese on top, toasted in the toaster oven. Delicious! I still make them for myself.
Wonderful memories of dad making his “samitches” for us on white bread, he added a little mayo, yellow mustard and diced white onion. A handful of original Lays chips and a rootbeer and you were set! (Thats how we used to do it on the West Coast) Thanks for the sweet memories!
I’ve been in Virginia for 14 years after spending my first 60 in Connecticut. I was introduced to baked bean sandwiches in the spring of ’54. An 8-year old with a Vermonter dad who loved to fish the brook at the back of our property. On the eve of the opening day of fishing season, he told me we would be getting up at 5am to go fishing. He said we would bring four fisherman’s sandwiches and something to drink. Sometime probably between 7 and 8 am he handed me my sandwich. Baked beans with Hellman’s mayonnaise on white bread. Just had one for lunch and decided to see if they were on the internet. Of course it would show up in a Yankee Magazine. Before we moved here we subscribed to Yankee for many years. Thanks for the memories!
Well, that is because the author obviously used canned baked beans. Real home cooked have less runny sauce. And they are graat, although I prefer whole wheat bread.
I grew up in Maryland, but I’ve always loved baked bean sandwiches. My parents would get mad when I’d make them at the dinner table with bread or rolls! I like ’em with a lot of pickles. Everyone makes fun of me, but I don’t care!
I live in England(UK) and was wondering if it’s a ‘thing’ to eat cold baked beans.Your site seems to say it’s ok to give it a go, so I’m going to rustle up some white bread and give it a try. Nb Baked beans are massively popular in the UK
I grew up on baked bean sandwiches in CT! I still enjoy them in land-locked Colorado. Just baked beans on a hard roll. Was a Saturday afternoon staple.
My father-in-law ate his bean sandwiches with peanut butter because a man with a fancy car said it was how he ate them. Me, I’m happy with a blob of ketchup on top. Yummm
At this moment I am enjoying a baked bean sandwich with Hellman’s mayo on soft white bread. Wish I had a thin slice of onion, and a few handfuls of Herr’s lightly salted chips to go with it. My aunt from western PA got us hooked on these sandwiches!
Wow. I remember one of my friends from college (UVM) was from Maine and showed up freshman year with this sandwich maker contraption (think waffle iron) and he introduced me to the joys of baked bean sandwiches on sandwich maker made toast.
I also love baked beans. When I was a kid, my mom would fry up hamburgers and put it on white bread, and cover them with baked beans. I put on some catchup and I am in heaven. I still do that now and then to this day.
I grew up in NY State, but with relatives who directly descended from New England and I’ve lived in CT myself now for 56 years. I grew up enjoying cold baked bean sandwiches and, just like “Joe” earlier commented, I like my sandwich with a touch of mayonnaise on white bread. I don’t even need the onion added to have a tasteful, protein-loaded lunch sandwich. Chips on the side are a nice touch, of course, along with iced tea or any other drink of choice. My children laughed at “poor Dad” and his baked bean sandwiches. Look who has the last laugh now!
Among my most cherished childhood memories are summertime trips to visit relatives way Downeast in Washington County. We would arrive at one aunt’s to kitchen scents of fresh-baked bread and beans still baking in the oven. Hot beans just out of the oven bean=pot and fresh bread for supper — yum, But then the next morning it was off to their lakeside camp — where the beans chilled in the ice box (yes – an ice box, no electricity so no refrigerator) and the bread in the breadbox on the counter. The rest of the week, lunch or supper were often cold beans (drain mine just a bit, please) on home-made white bread spread with just a skim of ketchup. Some Humpty-Dumpty’s on the side and the aunt’s home-made molasses cookies for dessert — definitely a Downeast feast of the highest order! If you have never had a cold bean sandwich on thick-sliced home-made bread, you have no idea what you’re missing!
Yes, I to grew up on baked bean sandwiches. I’ve had them made using white bread, Italian bread, wheat bread, rolls, and also used wraps. When I make them
I put butter or margarine on the bread, then mayonnaise, the beans, more mayonnaise and lettuce. Sometimes I make the sandwich open faced, using the
mayonnaise, margarine, lettuce, and the beans on top. So, so good. Another
sandwich that I love, especially in the heat of the summer, is a green pepper sand-
which. My mom would put butter or margarine on the bread, then she would cut
up a fresh green pepper into large pieces and place the pepper between the bread.
It was fresh, crunchy, and oh so good. I grew up in Rhode Island and these sand-
witches were passed down from generations long ago.
As a kid I ate my share of baked bean sammies …. I liked ’em …. but as an adult the idea of cold baked beans isn’t as appealing. As I recalled a little bit of mustard on the bread added extra zing. It was one of those things kids in the 60s could “cook” for themselves without using the stove …
Baked bean sandwitches with mayo!!! My gram passed it down! Sounds gross but its wonderful.
Yes I like baked beans sandwich they are great
My Mom was born in RI, so of course we had baked bean sammies,, I haven’t had one in years tho, since she has passed on,, but now that I’ve been reminded,, will have to make one soon
Grew up in R.I. Mom was old Yankee and she too soaked beans on Friday night and we had beans, brown bread and franks on just about very weekend. Now 90 years old and living in Texas for past 65 years and still buy B&M baked beans regularly.
But of course. But the best leftovers were from my dad’s biscuits (always made with Maine’s Bakewell Cream). Beans and biscuits were Saturday night’s supper. On some Sundays, he made “milk toast”. Simply half the left over biscuits and toast them in the oven. While they are getting lightly browned and crunchy, make a simple white sauce with extra pepper for zing. Break the toasty biscuit halves into two pieces plop them into the white sauce, stir to coat, and serve immediately. Admittedly these have limited appeal and no appeal at all if they’ve cooled. He did not add eggs to this meal, but sometimes made bacon. He would have been 101 next week, so this is an old woodsman/farmer recipe and is nothing like the biscuits and gravy of the South.
Yes!! You need mayo and lettuce! My friends would laugh when I took one to school for lunch…in Canada yet..but they soon became converts too. This was passed on from my Yankee grandma.
I’m 75 and I love bean sandwiches with mayo , always made for the beach and lunch boxes. Made with
Baked beans home made!!!
My mother always said we were Yankees, her relatives were from cape cod. Her aunt and uncle ran the
Telephones for the cape.
Thanks for the memories. Marilyn a lifetime resident of rhode island
I still eat baked bean sandwiches! Love mine with onion and Gulden’s spicy brown mustard. Great on rye bread because the bean juice does not soak through as easy.
My dad was the cook in our family and some of the things we got for school lunches (yes, back when we had to brown bag it to school) We had our share of bean sandwiches (which no one want to trade for) And I also remember also having peanut butter and ketchup and Cream Cheese and jelly. No, I didn’t have to get up my lunches to the school bullies. but with 8 kids you had to save money any way you could. Ahh the memories. And to think there where kids out there that had nothing for lunch. 🙁
Love, love, love cold beans sandwiches!! Nothing on the bread, just good ole’ beans!
I love bean sandwiches…on crusty bread with butter….out of a family of eight my Mom and I were the only ones that ate them..she always said “more for us”….
My father and his father loved these sandwiches and would take them to work .
LOVE cold bean sandwiches with mayo!
We grew up on them, we’d mash them alittle, add salt & pepper and a nice slice of onion. Nothing better.
We were from Rockland & my husband came from a nice French family in Biddeford. He’d never heard of
them until I sent him to work with one. He brought it home and said “I don’t know what it is but I don’t want another one” I ate it later. Still delish!
Same w/liver & onions. Made that one night for supper and when he got home he asked if I was making that. I told him yes and asked how he knew. He said “I could smell it as soon as I drove in the yard”
What a difference a few miles makes.
When I bought a bottle of Moxie my mother in law thought I was getting soda cause I had an upset stomach.
Those kinds of drinks were tonic to her. Tonic to us up the cost was something you put in your hair. Moxie was definitely out.
Your articles are fun to read. thanks. Yes Fluffanutter is great!. So is the afternoon snack of macaroni w/ salt, pepper & butter, mom would add a can of cambell tomato soup along w/the can of milk. She called it “Soupy Macaroni” What this generations have missed. Ya think.
Barb, I thought my dad was the only one that made that. It took me most of my childhood to learn to like it and after that we had all grown up and moved away from home. Dad was a gardener and worked down on the docks the rest of the time emptying the fishing trawlers as they came in. He and mom worked at 40 Fathoms Fishery’s. If you know where that is you know where I’m from. My first job was working in the sardine factories. (still have a few scares from that) I loved that you still call it
supper. Everyone around here calls it dinner. ( N,H,) Dinner was at noon, right!
Another thing that took me most of my childhood to like was Welsh rarebit. We had it atleast once a week at school dinner on crackers. You? By the time I got out of school I liked it if there were enough crackers.
Nice talking at ya, Barb.
donna
WHY USE BREAD ? EAT THEM COLD OUT OF A CONTAINER ! i keep the little cans in the truck for emergency ‘s with plastic spoons and tp , you never know when the need for a quick snack or a visit to the woods should come to you
Lover left over baked bean sandwiches with mayo. Sometimes I add a slice of bologna
It was a Sunday tradition at my grandparents for a light supper and some cards for the men after
Such fond memories.
I’m of 80 years old an I still like a cold bean sandwich, Still can bake a mean pot of bake beans.
With a good hot mustard
Welch rabbit was one of favorite school lunches at old Coventry high. I’m from Foster R.I. and old Mill my mother was the best bake bean’er in Hopkins Mills.
trade them bean sandwiches for a meat sandwich all the time for some of friends mother could not make a good pot yellow eye’s.
My grandfather would make me baked bean sandwiches on toast. He would fry up the leftover beans in a cast iron skillet, toast the bread, add some raw onion, ketchup and mustard; I loved them. I actually had one a few weeks ago, it was like I went back in time.
My father loved baked bean sandwiches however my mother would often fry the left over beans in a little butter for Sunday breakfast. God they were good. I don’t know if they were a family thing or French Canadian.
My husband thinks I am so weird for eating them but yes, they are wonderful! Grew up on them
My dad would take baked bean sandwiches in his lunch pail for work. My mom’s beans were much drier than yours. I never tried it – it never appealed to me.
The secret is buttering the bread. Well, my secret.
Mom heated them in a cast iron frying pan and mashed them with a fork. We put mustard, onions and celery seed on the sandwich too.
Sandwitches. Is that what they eat in Salem?
I miss the word “supper” too. I live in Va., have all my life, my mother always called it “supper” and it will always be supper to me.
ETA she grew up in Camden, NJ in the late 30s and ate bean sandwiches.
That sounds fantastic! What a beautiful memory.
Back in the 1930’s this was very commonplace-baked beans and franks on Saturday -my mother did not make her beans very juicy so on Sunday AM we had fried Beans with lots of Butter-and then came the sandwiches- I think it’s time for me to bake some not so juicy Baked Beans- soon <3
baked bean sandwiches are the best. Dad got us enjoying them as a kids with a little butter on the bread.( in the 60’s)
My mom made excellent homemade baked beans. Beans & franks on Saturday? you bet !! and then the bean sandwiches. plain white bread, no butter, nothing else, just beans and bread ! My mother did put sliced onions on hers. I still eat them today.
Bean sandwiches!!! One of my favorite memories of my grandfather was making a few bean sandwiches, with a cold ginger ale, and eating them on TV trays in the living room while watching something on Sunday afternoon. He really relished those sandwiches… Miss that guy.
My Dziadziu (great-grandfather) used to make himself a “pound cake sandwich” – – a thick slice of pound cake between two slices of bread.
A pound cake sandwich — I love it!
If you like cold beans and mayo – you will love this: drain most of the juice from leftover baked beans/ chop, in small pieces, some celery and some red onion/ add a bit of bk pepper/ mix in some mayo- serve chilled from refridge
A variation on this is drain the beans, add sweet pickle relish and mayo. Very good. Just don’t feed it to toddlers! A friend did so (against our advice) and you can imagine what the result was!
Now that is the way with mayo and onion on toast or good white bread.
I did not know this was a “thing” I have always loved bean sandwiches since I was little I used pork n beans drained on white bread with mayo, one of my faves!! still eat them in my sixties!
Grow up in Boston area..of course franks & baked beans every Saturday nite supper!!. I would hopefully watch to see if any baked beans were left over, for my favorite Sunday morning breakfast…cold baked beans with buttered warm white bread toast. Been a real long time ago, & still the perfect breakfast!!
I loved those “Dagwoods” but never called them that. I also have tried to duplicate my mother’s, with your result of burnt bread. maybe we should broil them lower in the oven. My mother also loved cold bean sandwiches, but I never tried one.
Funny what you learn from your folks. I always ate leftover bean sandwiches ’cause my Dad always ate them with a little vinegar on the beans. I don’t understand putting anything else on the beans – why mess them up with ketchup or mustard, flavors that are too strong for the beans. The vinegar (just a touch) tamed the sweetness of the “bean juice.” Of course I also grew up putting vinegar and salt on my French fries. I grew up in RI and we ate supper every night. The mid-day meal was lunch. “Dinner” was reserved for holidays and the Sunday noon meal. Sunday nights we would go to my Grandmother’s house in the Valley (the Pawtuxet River valley – West Warwick) and the best Sunday supper was when she made “Dagwood” sandwiches. A slice of white bread, tomatoes, American cheese and bacon cooked under the broiler of her electric stove until the bacon was just done to perfection. I have never been able to recreate them (I’m 72 now) because my bread burns long before the bacon is cooked. Must have been some magic in her old stove. I sure miss those times that we don’t appreciate until they’re long gone.
Two things have changed significantly about the “dagwood” sandwiches. Bacon these days is sliced much thicker than it used to be. It would cook faster if sliced more thinly, so in days gone by it would likely have toasted up in the broiler at a different rate. The other point is that bread these days contains a lot more sugar that say homemade or even what was sold on shelves at the store. Sugar content will “brown” or basically burn much faster than bread made with much less sugar.
We always called the bacon/cheese/tomato sandwiches “cheese dreams.” I am from NYC. We used to have B+M baked beans with brown bread from the can, too. Wonderful.
And here I thought baked bean sandwiches were a Mid-western lunch, having grown up in Iowa and Kansas. But ancestors from the East, so maybe it was a New England thing handed down. Love them!
I lived in Woonsocket R.I. (Born in Norwich Ct.) for a long time and we would go to the bakery in Social and get our baked beans and brown bread every Saturday evening for supper. I used to love the brown bread in the cans, but I now live in Michigan and you can’t find good baked beans or brown bread anywhere. Do they still make brown bread in cans, and where is it available??? I still make bean sandwiches using Campbells beans, they are ok, not great.
Try Amazon … bought a package of six and have only one left!
You can also buy B & M Brown Bread in a can from the Vermont Country Store. We grew up around Boston and my Dad always ate cold bean sandwiches following Saturday night’s hot dogs and beans. I thought he was the only one who did this!
As kids, we would quirt a dollop of ketchup and then crumble some Wise potato chips on top of the beans before the top slice of bread. Also good to add some homemade coleslaw or some cheddar cheese.
Our Saturday night beans were always on the dry side so our bean sandwiches were made with mayo but a leftover frank or two would be cut up and added to the mix as well – delicious!
At least once a year, my brother, sister & I get together for baked bean sandwiches, just like we ate as children. My brother provides the beans, my sister adds her own home-grown ham and I provide the appetite and scintillating conversation!
My grandmother added onion slices atop her homemade baked kidney beans. I never tried it. Nice memory though, and the beans were so good–great memory.
Brown bread, buns, Maple Leaf Frank’s … all fried in butter … and “doctored” B&M baked beans (yellow mustard, Worcestershire sauce, onion flakes and brown sugar) made up many a Saturday night for my family … followed often by Mom’s Monday school lunches of baked beans and mayo on Wonder bread. It was always a hard sell to find someone willing to trade! And that was doubly true for the cold Maple Leaf franks run through the hand cranked meat grinder and mixed with pickle relish and mayo and spread on Wonder Bread. You get hungry enough and you develop a taste for just about anything …
This article and the following comments bring back fond memories of growing up in New England. My mom, who grew up in the 20’s and 30’s, also made cold baked bean sandwiches, with a slice of onion. Mouth watering and very satisfying. It has been years since I’ve made one. I now live in the Southwest, and bean-eating traditions are different here. No one I know eats brown bread with Boston baked beans and franks. No cold beans in a sandwich. No Welsh Rabbit (Rare Bit), drizzled with a little Worcestershire sauce. I developed a taste for all of them! Thanks, Mom. Maybe it’s time to treat my neighbors to some real New England fare!
Grew up with them! Elementary school teacher used to gag when when he saw me with one! That and meatloaf sandwiches!! Those used to get some ketchup.
My dad (born 1913) grew up in Randolph, MA. He would make bean sandwiches all the time! As a California kid, I never saw them anywhere else. Now I know their origin! Thank you, Yankee!
My dad, born in 1908 in upper Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, was famous for his baked bean sandwiches. No one else in the family even considered eating them. Dad was, by the way, as Pennsylvania German as could be.
If the idea of cold baked beans, mash them and stick them in the microwave for a few seconds to take the cold out, then add onions and Mayo on buttered bread. Remember back in the 60’s we didn’t have microwaves to warm things 🙂
My mother soaked the beans on Friday night, then baked them in the bean pot all day Saturday. Saturday night supper was always beans and…..hot dogs, pork chops, hamburgers, or steak. Then Sunday morning breakfast was beans on toast. Can remember it like yesterday even though I am 82. Great memories!!
“Of a certain generation” must mean baby boomers (I’m 69). We had ham and beans every Saturday night when I was growing up. Home made, not canned. One of the best parts was cold bean sandwiches on Monday.
My dad worked in the lumber camps and got up at 4:00 AM to go to work in the woods. He would make a cold bean and cottage cheese sandwich with salt & pepper and then leave on his long, dark drive to wherever he was working.
Okay here’s the real scoop on making a bean sandwich. You left out the most important things, butter and B&M Baked beans. (beans with a dark delicious molasses) Cold beans, white bread (buttered generously), cold glass of milk. Enjoy!
It never mattered where we were living, my mother always baked beans. She soaked the beans Friday night and baked them all day Saturday. They were delicious and the next day my father, brother and I ate cold bean sandwiches. Unfortunately in one of the family moves the bean crock was broken and we were unable to find a replacement. I still have very fond memories of Saturday night baked beans and cold bean sandwiches the next day.
Love baked bean sandwiches w/a slice of onion.
Guess I am of the ” certain generation ” of Sat. Night B be and dogs! Next day been sandwiches–mayo, beans, slice of onion! Think I ‘ok bake beans this weekend! Yum!
My Dad would always make us cold baked bean sandwich with butter on the bread! Loved it! One of my favorite memories growing up☺
My father was from RI, when we would go there to visit my grandparents my grandmother would make homemade baked beans, cooking them all day. When she served them we would put a big spoonful of mayonnaise in our beans. To this day I still do it don’t know why. I don’t know if it’s a RI thing, an Irish thing,( my grandmother was Irish) or Yankee thing.
I grew up in Connecticut & my Mom always served up baked bean sandwiches ! I don’t remember any ketchup or mayo tho! I just might have to make some in fond memory of Mom ! ?
When I was a very small boy back in Fall River, Mass. my frugal yankee mom used to make these sandwiches from her leftover homemade beans (which she made every week) for me. They were made with white buttered bread, a thin layer of ketchup and a thin layer of lightly mashed beans. They were and are still delicious 70 years later although I can’t find anyone here in Florida who shares my enthusiasm!
I just read the comment by the gent from Fall River, MA. I too am from Fall River & also enjoyed those sandwiches made with Mom’s great baked beans. Brings back fond memories of the years during the War. I was in grammar school & remember well my mother’s efforts to make-do for meals with all the shortages of certain foods like butter & bacon. I might even have known that man who lives in FL.
You are not alone — I am from Venice and have cold bean sandwiches once in a while. I use ketchup but will try mayo next time after reading all of the comments.
I am 89 years old, live in Virginia now, but grew up in RI. I bake beans about once a month and had a bean sandwich just last week. Love those home made beans.
Growing up in New England very Saturday nite dinner was franks & baked beans..of course!! I would hope & pray there would be left over baked beans, because my favorite meal was Sunday breakfast, the cold left over baked beans with a warm slice of well buttered toast!!! …and its still at the top of my list!!!.. In some way this has to “be related to” the baked bean sandwich!!!
I grew up enjoying NE food and we used the bean pot every Saturday to make a pot full. The smell of baked beans cooking is the first please, dipping a piece of crusty bread into the bean pot to taste the gravy was the second pleasure, pleasure number 3 was earring them with NE food and again using crusty bread to get at the gravy was a huge treat. On Sunday morning, for after Church, we had brunch usually reheated beans, fried eggs, fried potato, and toast with coffee. Yum, Yum.
My two children (54 and 51) pick on me for sending them to school with baked bean sandwiches with homemade granola bread with mayonnaise on them. They have also divulged that you can’t trade a bullhead (small catfish like fish) for a strawberry pop tart!! They are strong people today due to carrying lunch boxes that weighed several pounds and eating healthy food. Ramona
Eating baked bean sandwiches with Kris Kristofferson in the Rod and Gun club in Germany 1963, the Rod and Gun club had a picnic the day before and these Baked Beans were left over from that event, so they became sandwiches…
I still make home made beans and yes I still have bean sandwich , all I do is toast the bread but put nothing on it but beans. I am also from Fall River also.
Being from upstate NY (Syracuse) we grew up with “GrandMa Brown’s baked beans. The best in the world. Cold bean sandwich with just a taste of ketchup was the best school lunch ever!
Igrew up in Pa. We always had baked bean sandwiches, I still do today.Love them!!
I was raised by Southern grandparents, and live in Texas, our bean sandwiches are a little different. I grew up eating cold pinto beans mashed up with a little ketchup, and spread on toasted white bread. I still like cold bean sandwiches. Sometimes I use leftover pintos, sometimes I use leftover baked beans, sometimes I use leftovers from a pan of Brown Sugar Skillet Beans [a recipe given to me by my uncle over 35 years ago].
Born to genuine Yankees from Maine, when visiting grandparents in Lynnfield Center, MA, I looked forward to the traditional Saturday night dinner of baked beans, hot dogs, brown bread and pickled cucumbers! Never did like the baked bean soup Gramma made but still love having baked bean sandwiches with Hellman’s mayonnaise rather than sauce, on white or wheat bread. Memories of childhood that include Maine lobsters, steamers and fried clams, and Indian pudding from an ancestor’s recipe that rivals Durgin Park any day.
My mother always made baked beans every Saturday and the leftovers were cold bean sandwiches. My father, brother and I really enjoyed these sandwiches. We did slightly mash the beans before putting them on the bread. In that way it wasn’t as messy. We did use a little salt though. Just writing about them makes me homesick for my Mother’ s baked beans and this was over 60 years ago. Both parents and grandparents were from Maine so baked beans were the usual Saturday night supper in our home.
I love baked beans on top of waffles.
Eating these for over 60 years, loved them cold/room temp. Always in Monday’s school lunch and later in my work lunch pail. Always overstuffed but that made them quite messy, which was a good thing, but when I mentioned it to my mother she remedied it by using a grilled New England hot dog roll which cleaned them up when eating in public
I take leftover beans, put them on white bread. Sprinkle parmesan cheese on top and broil until warm.
This bred and born Midwesterner grew up eating leftover baked beans–probably Heinz– in a sandwich. I still get hungry for one every so often, and we’ll have ‘doctored’ canned baked beans one night with burgers so I can have a couple of sandwiches later in the week. I now like them with mayonnaise on toasted whole wheat, but that’s a relatively new addition to the treat!
I always “doctor” my canned beans. I add onion, mustard, ketchup and molasses. So I guess they are semi-homemade.
Summer time they were good cold on buttered bread. Most of the time I heat them up and put on buttered bread. Love baked beans. Even for breakfast.
First time I had a bean sandwich was in Dublin. Very messy, but delicious breakfast.
OK, I had no idea baked bean sandwiches were a New England thing. I grew up In RI and can’t recall a time when I didn’t eat them. My mom, grandmother and aunts all made home made baked beans and dad and I always had sandwiches after dinner or the next morning. I will eat them on white bread, potato rolls, sourdough bread, tortillas, biscuits and of course, brown bread 🙂
While I don’t make my own beans I always double the amount required just so I can have sandwiches. I guess I am just a damned Yankee!
Baked bean sandwiches are THE BEST! I grew up on them and still enjoy them whenever there are leftovers. I like to heat them up and put on toast. My New Yorker husbands laughs at me but he has never tried one so what does he know? This way I get to have these treasures all to myself.
My New York father and his ten New York siblings grew up eating baked bean sandwiches—and they loved them all their lives. My siblings and I didn’t share in the tradition, nor did anyone else we knew growing up in New York. I landed here during a search to find out if such fare went beyond his family. Now I know it did. My great-great grandfather on my dad’s side was a Bostonian, so it looks like that’s probably where the custom originated!
I love a good baked bean sandwich. Mama use to fix them for our lunch boxes on Mondays. I happened to like them with a shmear of mustard. Yum. I still fix them to eat for breakfast once and awhile.
YES! My dad soaked the beans every Friday night. Saturday morning the electric bean pot came out and in went all the traditional fixings for Boston baked beans. Supper was hot dogs (saugies) or “scotch ham” and brown bread. Oh yeah, always called the night meal supper! Left over beans were eaten like this sandwich or as a side dish to just about anything! I just bought the exact bean pot on eBay. It was a West Bend made in the 60s and made great beans. I grew up in RI with a Yankee dad and Italian mom-best of two worlds!
Butter the bread and salt and pepper the beans. Also, maybe add a little molasses.
We always put them on toast for Sunday’s evening meal, since Sunday dinner was in the afternoon.
Mayo, gotta have mayo spread on that bread!
Smear some mayo on that sandwich!
I am from MA , Baked bean sandwiches are amazing with a BIG spoonful of mayo. Maybe some Blackstone chips on the side. YUMMY!!
Ooooh, Blackstone chips! We lived in the next town and sometimes Mom used to go to their factory store and get a huge brown grocery bag full for 50 cents, if I recall correctly. We loved them! Does anybody know if they’re still in business? Wish I had some right now!
Oh, I wish they still were!! We were a family of 8, and on grocery shopping trips, my mother would stop at the Blackstone Potato Chip storefront at the factory in Blackstone and bring home bags, or boxes lined with a large plastic bag, of chips, or cheese popcorn every other week in the 60’s and 70’s. The company went out of business, but one later opened for a short time in Fall River under the Blackstone name with the same logo. To this day, all my siblings agree, we have never found potato chips that tasted the same, or as good!
As a native Mainer, baked beans, hot dogs was a Saturday night regular, Piccalili was my favorite condiment on my bean sandwich
Baked beans on waffles! A favorite!
I remember the first time I had a bean sandwich. It was back in the 60’s in Central MA when I was about 5 years old. Dad, mom and we 3 kids piled into our station wagon to have a picnic lakeside. We stopped at a bakery to buy a quart of baked beans a very fresh loaf of delicious white bread (looked like an Italian crusty loaf) and an apple pie for dessert. Dad parked the car on the edge of the lake, dropped the tailgate, and we all ate bean sandwiches and devoured the apple pie afterwards. I was surprised at how tasty was the bean sandwich! I probably had a few more during my childhood, but it’s not something I eat now.
I hadn’t thought about a baked bean sandwich in a very long time! I have great memories of my Dad and my older brother (now 66) eating and loving baked bean sandwiches…..Me, I just preferred to grab a spoon and eat them right out of the pot! I still make baked beans using my Mom’s recipe (closer to your Classic recipe) in my Grandmother’s pot which must be well over 100 years old now. And I still love to eat the left over baked beans, cold, right out of the pot. Thanks for refreshing that great memory!
My Uncle in Western MA, liked a cold baked bean sandwich and a beer to start the day.
I grew up in the Berkshires. My favorite baked bean sandwich is with Ketchup and a thin slice of onion. YUMMY! Which I had last week.
I grew up on these. Ketchup and onion. The best. My Mom would bring every thing and we’d have a picnic. They’re the best ever at the beach.
My late mother was from Boston and grew up on Cape Cod where I live now and she always made us baked bean sandwiches which I still love! I grew up in NJ and summered on the Cape but every Saturday night was hot dogs and baked beans with brown bread! May those great Yankee New England traditions live on! Heart broken that the famous landmark restaurant Durgin Park at Quincy Market has closed down! BOO! We need to keep historic landmark restaurants up and running, they’re part of our Yankee New England heritage!!
BUTTER baked bean sandwiches need butter
My father said his family made a big pot of baked beans every week and he took 14 sandwiches to work every day. I couldn’t visualize a baked bean sandwich. Now I know. Thanks!
I can recall making a sandwich with the beans one night when I was hungry and my mom telling me “you’re just like your father!” I don’t remember seeing him eat them before that but I did after. I guess i wasn’t paying attention. Never took them to school but have been know to have them for breakfast. RI raised.
Originally from Connecticut, there is nothing better than a cold baked bean sandwich! I have been eating them since I was a kid and now at 75 years old and living in Minnesota, I can tell you that is still a WONDERFUL way to eat leftover baked beans!
Relatives from England handed down the baked bean sandwich or beans on toast. Grew up in New England and had a bean sandwich from leftovers. Delicious with ketchup. Dad objected to waste so this sandwich was perfect.
My father-in-law likes a baked bean sandwich with…. peanut butter? He’s 89. Makes him happy, makes us….bleck.
Went to day camp when child (am 76) and they made lunch for us, sadwhich was baked bean with peanut butter and lettuce on white bread. When I told my parents they were not impressed but to tell the truth the sandwiches weren’t that
bad … maybe I was just hungry.
I grew up on these samiches!! Lol. Born in Mass loved Saturday hotdogs and beans so we can have these sandwiches the next day! Our great Aunt made the best beans in a pressure cooker!! THE BEST!! Dad enjoy taking these to work with raw onion on the sandwich too!! Yummy!!!
Some of us Mid-westerners grew up with baked bean sandwiches, too! Of course, some of the great-great-greats came from New England, so maybe that’s why. I enjoyed one for lunch just yesterday from the day before’s cold leftover beans. Lightly toasted bread and mayo for me. Marian
I grew up in the 60s and 70s in Clifton Park NY. My Mom made homemade baked beans every Saturday so we could have “samitches” all week. Cold beans lightly mashed with a wee bit of good vinegar and finely diced onion on white bread is onw of my all time favorites. I make beans with my Moms recipe and in her Mother’s bean crock to this day and always make sure there’s enough leftover for all 5 of my adult children to stop by and have a cold bean “samitch”. We all live in Florida now but my Mom’s NE traditions live on! My grandkids love them now too!
I grew up on the North Shore in the 60s. My mom made baked beans every Saturday. We’d have hot bean, hot dogs and brown bread from a can or homemade. I love warm baked bean sandwiches either on buttered brown bread or wheat bread. Delicious!
Pam I grew up on the North Shore too and still love cold baked bean sandwiches. I was transplanted (against my will) to CT where they never heard of such a thing (plus I talked funny according to them) but I never lost my love for real Yankee food – and I’m not talking pinstripes here!
Memories. B&M baked beans on a sandwich. Never forget em.
Carol’s Husband
with a little mayo on the bread! YUM
I love them. Having one for lunch right now! I grew up having these anytime there were leftover beans. I make my pot of baked beans from scratch so they are extra good. Delicious, the sandwich as good as the original pot of beans!
I grew up in R.I. eating baked bean sandwiches. Now 84 yrs young in Fl. and still eating them but I put a slice of cheese on top of the beans and usually use dark whole wheat bread. Yum!!!
My mother always made me “open face” bean sandwiches – bread, layer of beans, and cheese on top, toasted in the toaster oven. Delicious! I still make them for myself.
I’m from Jersey but my Dad was from NH; I brought bean and mayonnaise sandwiches to work for years. Mom would put them on a soft hamburger bun.
Wonderful memories of dad making his “samitches” for us on white bread, he added a little mayo, yellow mustard and diced white onion. A handful of original Lays chips and a rootbeer and you were set! (Thats how we used to do it on the West Coast) Thanks for the sweet memories!
I’ve been in Virginia for 14 years after spending my first 60 in Connecticut. I was introduced to baked bean sandwiches in the spring of ’54. An 8-year old with a Vermonter dad who loved to fish the brook at the back of our property. On the eve of the opening day of fishing season, he told me we would be getting up at 5am to go fishing. He said we would bring four fisherman’s sandwiches and something to drink. Sometime probably between 7 and 8 am he handed me my sandwich. Baked beans with Hellman’s mayonnaise on white bread. Just had one for lunch and decided to see if they were on the internet. Of course it would show up in a Yankee Magazine. Before we moved here we subscribed to Yankee for many years. Thanks for the memories!
Looks pretty grim tbh
Well, that is because the author obviously used canned baked beans. Real home cooked have less runny sauce. And they are graat, although I prefer whole wheat bread.
I grew up in Maryland, but I’ve always loved baked bean sandwiches. My parents would get mad when I’d make them at the dinner table with bread or rolls! I like ’em with a lot of pickles. Everyone makes fun of me, but I don’t care!
I live in England(UK) and was wondering if it’s a ‘thing’ to eat cold baked beans.Your site seems to say it’s ok to give it a go, so I’m going to rustle up some white bread and give it a try. Nb Baked beans are massively popular in the UK
I grew up on baked bean sandwiches in CT! I still enjoy them in land-locked Colorado. Just baked beans on a hard roll. Was a Saturday afternoon staple.
My father-in-law ate his bean sandwiches with peanut butter because a man with a fancy car said it was how he ate them. Me, I’m happy with a blob of ketchup on top. Yummm
At this moment I am enjoying a baked bean sandwich with Hellman’s mayo on soft white bread. Wish I had a thin slice of onion, and a few handfuls of Herr’s lightly salted chips to go with it. My aunt from western PA got us hooked on these sandwiches!
Wow. I remember one of my friends from college (UVM) was from Maine and showed up freshman year with this sandwich maker contraption (think waffle iron) and he introduced me to the joys of baked bean sandwiches on sandwich maker made toast.
I also love baked beans. When I was a kid, my mom would fry up hamburgers and put it on white bread, and cover them with baked beans. I put on some catchup and I am in heaven. I still do that now and then to this day.
Sounds great! Try it with some A-1 steal sauce.
I grew up in NY State, but with relatives who directly descended from New England and I’ve lived in CT myself now for 56 years. I grew up enjoying cold baked bean sandwiches and, just like “Joe” earlier commented, I like my sandwich with a touch of mayonnaise on white bread. I don’t even need the onion added to have a tasteful, protein-loaded lunch sandwich. Chips on the side are a nice touch, of course, along with iced tea or any other drink of choice. My children laughed at “poor Dad” and his baked bean sandwiches. Look who has the last laugh now!
Among my most cherished childhood memories are summertime trips to visit relatives way Downeast in Washington County. We would arrive at one aunt’s to kitchen scents of fresh-baked bread and beans still baking in the oven. Hot beans just out of the oven bean=pot and fresh bread for supper — yum, But then the next morning it was off to their lakeside camp — where the beans chilled in the ice box (yes – an ice box, no electricity so no refrigerator) and the bread in the breadbox on the counter. The rest of the week, lunch or supper were often cold beans (drain mine just a bit, please) on home-made white bread spread with just a skim of ketchup. Some Humpty-Dumpty’s on the side and the aunt’s home-made molasses cookies for dessert — definitely a Downeast feast of the highest order! If you have never had a cold bean sandwich on thick-sliced home-made bread, you have no idea what you’re missing!
Yes, I to grew up on baked bean sandwiches. I’ve had them made using white bread, Italian bread, wheat bread, rolls, and also used wraps. When I make them
I put butter or margarine on the bread, then mayonnaise, the beans, more mayonnaise and lettuce. Sometimes I make the sandwich open faced, using the
mayonnaise, margarine, lettuce, and the beans on top. So, so good. Another
sandwich that I love, especially in the heat of the summer, is a green pepper sand-
which. My mom would put butter or margarine on the bread, then she would cut
up a fresh green pepper into large pieces and place the pepper between the bread.
It was fresh, crunchy, and oh so good. I grew up in Rhode Island and these sand-
witches were passed down from generations long ago.