[Sca-cooks] Fava beans

[david friedman]

Back in August, Anne (A. F. Murphy) wrote:

...
>If I were making that dish, I would consider using Egyptian fava beans -
>used in  ful. It's probably a cheat, since the recipe specifies large
>beans, and the Egyptian ones are small, but the skins aren't as much a
>problem. Cook the stuff enough, and you don't have to skin them...  I
>got them in one of the odd little stores along 10th Avenue just south of
>the Port Authority, and Sahedi has them, too. You might find them in
>Jersey in an Egyptian neighborhood, but you might not... I could only
>find the canned version in Jersey City. (The Egyptian friend who
>introduced me to ful didn't know they were dried beans... he'd never
>seen one that didn't come out of a can.)

That is very interesting, since our favorite period lentil dish gives
"Egyptian beans" as an alternative, and I have never had any idea
what they were, other than assuming them to be some kind of favas.
(The dish in question is in the Miscellany under "A Cooked Dish of
Lentils".) Of course one doesn't know for sure that modern Egyptian
beans are the same as period ones, but I will have to find some and
try it.

Elizabeth of Dendermonde/Betty Cook