Baked beans are a dish traditionally containing white common beans that are parboiled and then, in the US, baked in sauce at low temperature for a lengthy period. Canned baked beans are not baked, but are cooked through a steam process.
Baked beans in tomato sauce
Three beanpots used for cooking homemade baked beans. The small one is glazed with the letters "Boston Baked Beans".
Baked beans made with BBQ sauce, brown sugar, cider vinegar, Dijon mustard and sliced bacon
Canned beans
Baking is a method of preparing food that uses dry heat, typically in an oven, but can also be done in hot ashes, or on hot stones. The most common baked item is bread, but many other types of foods can be baked. Heat is gradually transferred "from the surface of cakes, cookies, and pieces of bread to their center, typically conducted at elevated temperatures surpassing 300°F. Dry heat cooking imparts a distinctive richness to foods through the processes of caramelization and surface browning. As heat travels through, it transforms batters and doughs into baked goods and more with a firm dry crust and a softer center. Baking can be combined with grilling to produce a hybrid barbecue variant by using both methods simultaneously, or one after the other. Baking is related to barbecuing because the concept of the masonry oven is similar to that of a smoke pit.
Freshly baked bread
Anders Zorn – Bread baking (1889)
A Palestinian woman baking markook bread on tava or Saj oven in Artas, Bethlehem, Palestine
A terracotta baking mould for pastry or bread, representing goats and a lion attacking a cow. Early 2nd millennium BC, Royal palace at Mari, Syria