[Sca-cooks] The Musical Fruit(s)

[Barbara Benson]

Saluti!

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.

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"

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