[Sca-cooks] The Musical Fruit(s)

[Terry Decker]

> In Cuoco Napoletano there is a recipe for "Kidney Beans" that I am
> looking at, and of course this comes around to the whole "which beans
> are old world and which are new world" mental gymnastics.
>

I think you are being bitten by a little translation problem.  I think the 
recipe you are referring to is titled "De' fasoli" in the original text. 
Fasoli translates to "kidney bean" in English, but the use of the word in 
the Latin form, "phaseolus," dates to Antiquity.  For pre-1600 Italy, 
black-eyed peas are fasoli, although there is some disagreement as to the 
precise beans referred to in Antiquity.

> Piddling about on the internet a bit I came across this:
> http://plantanswers.tamu.edu/publications/vegetabletravelers/beans.html
>
> Which appears to have the illustrious providence of having been
> published in National Geographic in 1949. It seems interesting, if
> simplistic. But what struck my curiosity was this statement:
>
> "The English first used the name "kidney bean" in 1551 to distinguish
> our American common bean from Old World types"
>

Kidney bean seems to have first appeared in William Turner's "Names of 
Herbes," where he conjoins it with Smilax hortensis (Phaseolus vulgaris) 
thus connecting kidney beans to New World beans.  Several years later in "A 
New Herball," (1562) he distinctly differentiates between the Phaseolus of 
Discorides and Smilax hortensis, stating that the the former should be 
referred to in English as "faselles."

I believe you can also find Smilax hortensis in Fuchs Herbal.  If that is 
the case, then the New World beans appear to have become rather widespread 
in Europe by the mid-16th Century.

> and piddling around more I came across claims that the new wold beans
> were commonly being imported to the old world in the 15th century.
> Now, this makes common sense to me - beans are easy to ship, easy to
> plant and easy to grow. Europeans were already growing plenty of beans
> and I can see the new varieties being easily accepted.
>
> So, I know the word geeks on this list (with your fancy pants OED)
> could probably easily confirm/debunk the above claim vis a vis the
> earliest use of Kidney bean. Hopefully someone will find it an
> interesting enough thing to look into (please ;) ). And I am wondering
> if, considering that I am looking at a late 15th century source, it
> would be safe to make the leap that one of the new world beans
> (Kidney, Black, Pinto, White Northern ...) might be an acceptable
> choice in interpreting the recipe?
>
> [Kidney Beans (#41)
> Cook the kidney beans in pure water or good broth; when they are
> cooked, get finely sliced onions and fry them in a pan with good oil
> and put these fried onions on top [of the beans] along with pepper,
> cinnamon and saffron; then let this sit a while on the hot coals; dish
> it up with good spices on top.]
>
> I am looking forward to hearing others thoughts on this subject.
>
> -
> Serena da Riva

On November 4, 1492, Columbus wrote in his journal, "faxones and fabas very 
diverse and different from ours."  Two days later he wrote, "land well 
cultivated with these fexoes and habas much unlike ours."  Since those are 
the first European encounter with New World beans and Columbus arrived in 
Lisbon on March 4, 1493, you have just under 8 years for them to be used in 
the 15th Century.  Their use in Italy within that time would be highly 
unlikely, but not impossible.

Considering the limited contact with the New World until the 16th Century, I 
doubt beans were a common import of the 15th Century.

Bear