[Sca-cooks] Fava bean recipes

Gretchen Beck grm at andrew.cmu.edu
Mon Sep 10 10:28:49 PDT 2007



--On Monday, September 10, 2007 1:18 PM -0400 "Jadwiga Zajaczkowa / Jenne 
Heise" <jenne at fiedlerfamily.net> wrote:

>> Admittedly I have not been to that many feasts, but I've been to a few
>> major and minor events over the years. Is it because favas are harder
>> to get than other beans, and there is a general unawareness of them?
>
> I can get favas fresh, frozen and dried-- but I go to ethnic markets.
> You aren't going to find them at Shop-Rite generally, which I expect is
> the issue. Haven't found canned favas.


Odd -- I've found them canned in most grocery stores around Pittsburgh. My 
local grocery store has been carrying fresh favas for the past month or so, 
too.

I think a lot of folks don't use favas because they aren't familiar, but 
also because they are afraid of the allergy issue:

"Favism is a genetic disorder which involves the lack of a blood enzyme. 
Eating fava beans (broad beans) or inhaling pollen of the bean plants will 
produce favism, a hemolytic (blood) disease. General symptoms are fatigue, 
extreme paleness, nausea, abdominal and/or back pain, fever, chills and 
difficulty breathing. Symptoms in severe cases are jaun-dice, renal failure 
and hemoglobinuria (hemoglobin in the urine). Onset time for favism is 5 to 
24 hours. Recovery occurs when further exposure is avoided."
("Food Allergies" 
<http://www.healthgoods.com/education/nutrition_information/Nutrition_and_Health/food_allergies.htm>)

Given that some number of folks of Mediteranian (sp) background lack this 
enzyme, and many have probably never eaten fava beans, I think there is a 
certain fear of triggering something nasty.

toodles, margaret




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