Baked beans are way tastier with 1 unusual ingredient

As November comes into full swing and the days continue to grow shorter and colder, it's the perfect time to embrace comforting, warming dishes. Whether it's a jacket potato piled high with beans on a rainy afternoon or a classic Full English breakfast to start a frosty morning, baked beans are a reliable staple of cosy, cold-weather cooking. While a good tin of baked beans is satisfying on its own, there's a surprisingly simple yet surprising trick to elevate them from everyday to exceptional, and that's a splash of root beer.

It may sound unusual to add this American beverage to your cherished baked beans, but root beer brings a unique flavour that works beautifully with the sweet, smoky beans. Traditionally made from sassafras root, which is where the drink gets its name, the drink has a delightful complexity that goes beyond just sweetness.

Elizabeth Okosun from Tasting Table, an American food and drink news website, wrote: "The right can of baked beans will almost make you forget about the best homemade version.

"However, it does take an extra ingredient or two to make them taste like they were freshly made. For us, a splash or two of root beer is just the thing to upgrade your canned baked beans."

The food expert also added that "root beer is the secret weapon for better chili," thanks to its "herbal flavours enhancing the earthiness of the beans" which have the same effect on baked beans.

The hints of ginger, anise, licorice, and juniper, she said, complement the earthy and sweet flavours already present in the beans, creating a layered, more sophisticated taste.

Just a tablespoon or two stirred into your beans once they're almost heated through is enough to create a more rounded, layered flavour that tastes almost homemade.

Another food blogger, Joy, from Joy the Baker, called root beer a "secret ingredient" as well, highlighting how it adds a "whole other world of spice flavour" to the dish.

One person commented: "I love root beer and I love baked beans. This recipe definitely caught my eye."

Someone else added: "This looks delicious! I will try as soon as possible! Thank you so much!"

Root beer can easily be found in the UK and will cost you less than a pound. It's currently being sold for £0.85 at Sainsbury's, Ocado, and Morrisons. It's an alcohol-free, carbonated drink that is caffeine-free, sweet and has a foamy head and its common flavourings are unique vanilla, wintergreen, and spiced herbal flavours, like licorice root, nutmeg, anince or acacia.