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Pork and beans is a dish largely thought of as a part of American cuisine. Although its principal ingredient is of Mesoamerican origin, pork and beans no doubt has antecedents in Europe. The recipe varies considerably, but generally consists of navy beans stewed with pork or rendered pork fat. At present, pork and beans is usually also stewed with tomatoes, but this is a 19th century development. Pork and beans is a dish that is routinely purchased canned and reheated on a stove or in a microwave oven.

Although the time and place of the dish's invention is unclear, it was well established in the American diet by the mid-1800s. The 1832 cookbook The American Frugal Housewife lists only three ingredients for this dish: a quart of beans, a pound of pork, and pepper. ^[1] The earliest canned pork and beans were sold by Van Camp's, who were the first to include tomatoes in their recipe, to the US Army during the American Civil War.

According to the 1975 Better Homes and Garden Heritage Cookbook, canned pork and beans was the first convenience food.

The best-selling brand of canned pork and beans - Van Camp's - has 220 calories per cup (240 ml). It is quite low in fat - 2g of fat and only 1g saturated fat - and it has no significant quantity of cholesterol. However, it is very high in salt. At 1g of sodium per cup, a single serving has 42% of the US Recommended Dietary Allowance of sodium. Roughly three-quarters of the calories in a serving of Van Camp's pork and beans come from carbohydrates, with the bulk of the remainder coming from protein.

• One of professional wrestler Dusty Rhodes most famous monologues went; "I have wined and dined with Kings and Queens, but I also slept in alleys and dined on Pork and Beans"

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1. ^ The American Frugal Housewife pg 51 - Project Gutenberg free ebook