[Sca-cooks] Beans, beans...

[Terry Decker]

Interesting.

You might wish to read the following:

http://www.colonialwilliamsburg.com/history/CWLand/resrch2.cfm

As for the lentil, it is discussed in Pliny, praised in Aristophanes, and 
has recipes in Apicius, Anthimus and Platina.  While it was loved by the 
Romans, and was apparently eaten during the early Medieval period 
(Anthimus), it may have fallen out of favor because of it's humoral nature 
(cold and dry, Platina).  I suspect it was primarily peasant and hardship 
fare through the High Middle Ages and Renaissance.  BTW, I was unable to 
find lentils mentioned in Leonard Fuchs Herbal (1545) or Charlemagne's 
Capitulary de Villis or in the inventory of one of his small estates.

Bear

>
> Here is my attempt to sort out the information from our last bean 
> discussion...
>
> http://users.ece.gatech.edu/~ldh/aoghann/peasandbeans.html