Baked Beans With a Pioneer Flavor

PORTLAND, Me. —  In 1912, L.L. Bean set up shop in Freeport and went on to become a world-famous outdoors outfitter. A year later and 15 miles to the south, another bean business was born.

Today, as it celebrates its 80th birthday, the four-story Burnham & Morrill plant sits fortress-like at One Bean Pot Circle on the edge of Casco Bay--the only producer of traditional baked beans distributed nationwide.

If the wind is blowing in the right direction, motorists can savor the aroma of beans as they drive on Interstate 295 alongside the plant.

B&M; prides itself on baking its beans for seven hours in open kettles inside the plant’s 144 brick ovens, a technique that remains essentially unchanged from that used by the Puritans in Colonial times.

Most competitors, the company says, use the less costly method of putting raw beans and sauce in a can, which is then steam cooked. As a result, B&M; beans cost up to 50% more than rival brands.

“Our products are a premium item. You only need to go to the grocery store to see that . . . ,” said Kent Rapp, marketing manager. “It’s not just beans in salt water. It’s a product that is cooked, prepared, nurtured, loved.”

This, of course, doesn’t amount to a hill of . . . well, it doesn’t matter to most people, but it means a lot to the people at B&M.;

Earlier this year, the Tennessee-based manufacturer of Bush’s Best Baked Beans prodded Massachusetts officials to drop a little-known state rule that says only oven-baked beans can be labeled “baked beans.”

B&M; has vowed to challenge the rule change.

The company was buoyed recently when Massachusetts designated baked beans in molasses as an official state food. The third-grade class that pushed for the bill got to tour the B&M; plant and sample its output.

During the class visit, plant manager Jon Tupper showed how the 400,000 pounds of beans hauled in each week in railroad hopper cars from Michigan are processed.

The youngsters got to watch while plant employees used oversized spoons to hand-stir the contents of huge cast-iron pots, each containing 600 pounds of baked beans.

“We do take offense at people who call their product baked beans, but don’t bake them in ovens inside a pot,” Tupper said.

B&M; says the only other true baked bean that it’s aware of is produced by California-based S&W;, distributed regionally on the West Coast.

Another big difference is the ingredients. While many popular brands of canned beans use a tomato-based sauce, B&M; bakes its beans with molasses and adds sugar, mustard, pork, salt and spices.

To bean counters at Pet Inc., B&M;’s St. Louis-based parent, B&M;’s $36 million in sales make up a mere 2% of the giant food corporation’s $1.8 billion in revenues last year.

New England is B&M;’s regional stronghold, accounting for one-third of the plant’s sales, according to Rapp. Some of the beans marketed in the six-state region carry the Friend’s label, acquired by B&M; when it was part of the William Underwood Co.

Although the Saturday night supper of beans and franks remains a tradition among many New Englanders, consumers in other parts of the country prefer their beans as a side dish, Rapp said.

B&M; claims more than half the baked and baked-style bean market in New England and 21% of the $140-million national market. Its share of the broader prepared-beans category, valued at $380 million, is 7%, well below that of industry leader Van Camp’s.

The B&M; plant also bakes a canned brown bread that New Englanders in particular often serve as an accompaniment to baked beans.

B&M;’s other pockets of strength include the West Coast, the mid-Atlantic states and Florida. Most of the South and the Midwest, by contrast, tend to favor pork and beans, Rapp said.

B&M; has attempted to position its product as a wholesome “comfort food” that scores high on the nutrition scale. To play up the health benefits, it included a “fiber burst” on the label that highlights beans as a good source of dietary fiber.

B&M; has had success with some new product introductions in recent years, including beans with honey, barbecue beans and vegetarian beans.

He says the company is working on some new products, but for competitive reasons he’s reluctant to spill the . . . well, to tell all.