ANST --..Historical references to beans...

[RAISYA at aol.com]

I've been listening in on the discussion of period beans with interest.  I
have an interest in plants, not as much as a cook but as a gardener.  New
world shell beans were available before 1600 in Europe, whether or not they
were common, they were known in Europe within our period. I haven't found a
description of snap beans, I'd be interested in that.

Fava or broad beans, however, were not the only period bean.  Charlemagne's
CAPITULARE DE VILLIS (ca. 800 AD) refers to a "kidney" bean as well as a fava.
The 14th century TACUINUM SANITATIS IN MEDICINA includes illuminations of both
favas and another quite different plant called a bean.  There are several
obscure Old World candidates, the Asian dolichos or lab-lab bean seems to fit
the illumination and descriptions the best.  Additionally, in the TACUINUM
there are illuminations of a chickpea and a plant I haven't yet identified
called a vetchling that seems to have pods and was cooked much like the beans.

>peas, frenched beans, mashed beans, sieved beans or beans in their shell 

In the TACUINUM, the author recommends eating favas cooked in water and
vinegar and eaten unshelled to treat dysentary.  I generally get an impression
that the pods aren't considered too tasty, though, so this reference interests
me <G>.

I don't really care one way or another about the inclusion of New World foods,
that's the discretion of the cooks, or should be.  I just found this part of
the discussion intriguing.  It's amazing what we can learn when we share
information.

However, my husband is deathly allergic to all legumes, and we had a bad scare
a while back when someone used the same spoon to stir several pots,
accidentally adding some peas to a dish that wasn't supposed to have any.
Luckily, he spotted a pea in his bowl.  Now, we rarely eat feasts that include
legumes, which means we won't be eating this one.  We don't eat pot-luck
feasts for the same reason.  

BTW, one of the reasons for the importance of favas as a food had to do with
WHEN they were grown.  Favas don't tolerate warm weather and were planted
after other crops were harvested, getting extended use out of the same space.
New World beans are a tender warm weather crop.  Also, the fava seed I have is
flat, brown and large, larger than a quarter.

Raisya Khorivovna
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