National Baked Bean Month – July 1, 2026

Expected National Baked Bean Month Deals

Throughout National Baked Bean Month, expect major grocery retailers like Kroger, Walmart, and Target to feature sales on canned baked beans from brands like Bush’s Best, Heinz, and B&M. Local barbecue restaurants and diners may offer special baked bean sides or unique dishes incorporating the legume. Keep an eye out for coupon codes from online grocers and recipe sites promoting bean-centric meals. We will update this page with confirmed live deals as July approaches.

History of National Baked Bean Month

Food historians have not yet reached a consensus about the origins of baked beans, although they subscribe to a couple of popular theories about where this dish came from.

One theory states baked beans are rooted in Native American cuisine — specifically, dishes cooked by indigenous peoples in the northeast and belonging to tribes including Iroquois, Narragansett, and Penobscot. Back then, they baked beans in earthenware pots with maple syrup and, sometimes, venison meat and even bear fat.

Another theory claims baked beans have evolved from the cassoulet, which is a slow-cooked stew from southern France using Tarbais beans, flageolet, or cannellini beans. This dish has similarities to the modern baked beans and people believe English colonists brought this — or versions of it — into America.
Records show varying recipes from around the world that could have had an influence on baked beans such as ‘fagioli al fiasco’ from Italy, feijoada from Portugal and Brazil, and white beans and bacon from medieval England.

In the U.S., baked beans as we know them are made with the same beans as was used in the indigenous American recipes: a type of haricot bean known as navy beans, which are native to South America. Records show that Puritan Christian pilgrims that arrived on the east coast of America learned these recipes, which spurred the usage of baked beans as a stored treat. Since their religion did not allow cooking on the sabbath, these pilgrims cooked the beans as a Saturday supper, kept them warm in a wood-fired oven, and ate them for breakfast after Sunday church. This recipe changed shape, form, and flavor, taking on a new life as different communities adapted the recipe to their tastes. For example, in Maine, so-called ‘bean-hole beans’ were baked in cast-iron pots buried in the ground. They would use yellow eye beans for this recipe, which is still used for traditional Maine baked beans today.

Baked (or unbaked) beans were first canned in the 18th century, and the H.J. Heinz Company took this to another level. Over time, baked beans arrived in the U.K. — they were marketed as a luxury item, sold for nine pence a can, and proved to be a huge hit as time passed. Baked beans gradually made their way around the world, being eaten in a variety of ways. In the U.S. however, baked beans are more likely to be the side dish rather than the main.

National Baked Bean Month was founded by the Michigan Bean Commission to promote all the benefits of the beans and to share the best ways to prepare baked beans.