Episode 55 18th Century Legumes - Creating the American Bean

-
Listen to "055 18th Century Legumes - Creating the American Bean" on Spreaker.

Link to the Episode:

this is what the unripe pods of just about every
 Phaseolus vulgaris
or American (North & South) bean looks like.
And yet - in America we regularly call them
"French beans" or "haricot vert"
which is French for green bean


The most American bean, and the French grabbed the naming rights.  They’ve been pressing us to appreciate the baby vegetable since the 1780’s (F.P. La Varenne) – and we just thought baby vegetables were a 1980’s introduction.

 





So work this through with me.  So we sell, in our freezer cases, green beans that are cut short and split - or "frenched" to imitate the tiny "filet beans" served in fancy places that harvest baby vegetables.


So while French Toast - is named after a Mr. Joseph French who was advertising his version of Pain Perdu or Eggy Bread or Custard Bread etc.  But French Fries refers to the potatoes being cut thin - like French beans.  Instead of those. big English chips of Irish potatoes.  It's all very silly.  But also very embedded.


The Boston Classic - 


Overnight Baked beans – really an underrated classic that could stand to get more plate time.  It wasn’t so good for the Instagram values– maybe it’ll get a new life on TikTok?

Anyway - the stoneware pot that was used to cook beans in a crock with molasses and salt pork - using the stored heat of the wood fired ovens was sturdy and not particularly glamourous.


BUT - for those used in communal oven situations, having your name on the pot was important.





 



Hands down the most fascinating part here - kitschy tourist stuff has 

been made bearing the "Boston Baked Beans"

phrase since the late 19th century.



Bean Flowers – I mean they are fascinating

This one is from Bartram's Garden - can't get away from this family! 



And our man before his time - Samuel Bowen, introducing soy beans to the US/British Colonies in 1765.
Every farmer recognized them as a "vetch" a class of legumes that make good animal fodder.  And you can find a version in just about every yard and field in the US.  Once you know what to look for, you'll see them everywhere.




Soy Bean
common weed "vetch"

                        



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Episode 65 Pudding & Cream & Cake that is Not a Lie

-
Listen to "065 Cream & Pudding & Cake that is Not a Lie" on Spreaker. Link to the Episode:  Episode 65 Pudding & Cream & Cake that is Not a Lie 18th Century, pre-revolutionary cake was generally a heavy dense thing compared to our modern, airy baking powder assisted cakes.  The only leavening was yeast and eggs.  And sugar?  Expensive.  Cakes were definitely less sweet.  If you were not wealthy, or it wasn't a wedding, birth or a death,  molasses and maple syrup (more generally known as "maple molasses" in the 18th century) would stand in.  And these too would tend to make your cake more dense as well. It was also common for cakes to be only slightly sweetened and then studded with dried or sugared fruit - think fruit cake.  Either the dense bricky stuff of English descent - or the new Italian star of the modern American winter holiday scene, panettone 18th century cake American cakes were largely thick, moist things that were lightly sweetened.
Read more

Episode 61 - 18th Century North American Rice – A History

-
Image
Listen to "061 18th Century North American Rice - A History" on Spreaker.  Link to the Episode: Episode 61 Rice has Arrived & It is Boiled Rice comes to America at least three separate times.  The first time is in the end of the 17th and the start of the 18th century, when it becomes an economic force in South Carolina - and later Georgia. Unlike later rice, this rice is came most recently from Africa.  The export rice that will build family fortunes is an Oryza sativa  or Asian sourced variety, but it was a variety that was grown previously in Africa - by Africans.   But there was also Oryza glaberrima a rice of entirely African extraction.  Unlike the O. sativa  rice, it grows more like other cereal - simply in the dirt, instead of in rice paddies that must be transplanted, flooded and drained. Navigational Alchemy View the world like a compass and astrolabe only sailor.  As someone who recently felt proud of herself for being able to go a single kilometer without loo
Read more

Episode 64 Milk & Butter Money

-
Image
Listen to "064 Milk & Butter Money" on Spreaker. Link to the Episode: Episode 64 Milk & Butter Money The Dairy Maid arrives on the scene.  Unlike so many depictions of this or that type of colonial person or other, which tend to be overly idealized depictions, the representation of Dairy Maids is not too far off. She's going to be seen in a colonial dress (don't forget the cap or head wrap), and apron and carrying pails, hanging out with cows, or seated at a churn.  The main place they miss is giving her slim forearms and shoulders.  Between the milking,  the carrying and the churning, she would be a first pick for any arm-wrestling team.   Colonial Williamsburg did lots of the heavy lifting for me - and has excellent photographs of 18th century dairymaid dress , and the dairy out buildings - as well as longer explanations of how they functioned. Dairy House in Colonial Williamsburg Long eaves and slats - but no windows.  And a stone foundation. Dairy Cow and
Read more