Saturday, January 5, 2019

Exotic/Disgusting Foods and Beverages Forum--Some Obscure Beans

     I didn't realize there were so many different kinds of beans.  While I was in a Hannaford's grocery in Maine a couple of months ago, I saw some sorts I'd never seen before--yellow eye beans, soldier beans, and Jacob's cattle beans.  So it wasn't long before they were in my shopping cart.
    Soldier beans, like the other ones discussed in this post, and most beans period, take their name from their appearance.  They are whitish in color, with a distinct red pattern on them.  Some think this looks like a toy soldier, so there we have it.  (Personally, I can see a helmeted head shape.  But of course, the phenomenon of pareidolia, in which different people can interpret random or natural shapes as being something clear and distinct, such as those who see religious figures on their slice of toast, is obviously a thing.)  The history of the soldier bean is a little hazy, but one website posited that they originated in the New England area around the year 1800.   The New England climate is ideal for growing them, as this bean likes a cool temperature.  It's also resistant to drought conditions.
     The yellow eye bean's name is pretty easy to guess.  They're basically like black eyed peas, only with a yellow oval on them that looks like an eye, staring out from an otherwise whitish bean.  They appear to have developed in the Old World somewhere, in about 1860.  (Sorry I can't be more detailed, but that's all I could find.)  They are related to kidney beans, which I'll get into further, in the last paragraph.  This kind of bean is also very popular in the New England states (Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine), especially in the region's signature baked beans.  They are also commonly used in soups, casseroles, and dips.  Some consumers grade them as being superior in taste to navy and great northern beans.  Yellow eye beans are also relatively easy to grow.
     The history of Jacob's cattle beans is disputed.  One website claims that the first to cultivate them was the Passamaquoddy Native American group in the area which is now Northeast Canada/Maine in the 1600's.  Another said that a different Native American tribe, the Nez Perce, domesticated them in the area which is now Washington State and Idaho.  One of the common alternative names for this bean is appaloosa bean, from one of the horse types that the Nez Perce used.  Yet another claim is made for a man named Jacob Trout who supposedly invented this bean in Virginia.  (Some people call them "trout beans" after his surname, and others just use his first name, clearly.)  And one final website said they were developed in Germany.  Anyway, the "cattle" part of one of the common names is because the bean's whitish color with mottled splotches of pink reminds some of the hide pattern of the Hereford cattle breed.  Anyway, whatever you call it, this bean is said to have a dense, meaty texture, and a fruity and nutty flavor.  It's also often used in soups and casseroles.
   
1) Bar Harbor Foods yellow eye beans:  These were baked beans, in their special sauce made from water, evaporated cane juice, fancy molasses, salt, and ground mustard.  I thought these were solid baked beans, both by themselves and mixed with Taco Bell Nachos Bell Grande.  Not great, but about average.   They did look a little strange, though, as their "eyes" were reddish, not yellow.  To paraphrase a Dave Attell joke, the beans looked as if they'd been up all night, trying to solve a murder or something.  (I'm guessing the sauce caused this color change for real.)

2) Look's Gourmet Food Company, Atlantic brand, New England style Jacob's cattle beans:  These were also baked, with a sauce made from water, evaporated cane juice (sugar), fancy molasses, pork, salt, and ground mustard.  Their appearance was as advertised, basically.  These were also good, but not spectacular baked beans, either alone or eaten with the Taco Bell Nachos.  The label also mentioned that these beans contained no artificial ingredients, MSG, or GMOs, and that the can that contained them was non-BPA lined.  (The label went on to warn allergy sufferers that the facility used also processes milk, wheat, fish, and shellfish.)

3) Look's Gourmet Food Company, Atlantic brand, New England style soldier beans:  Same ingredients, other than the bean type, obviously, and same lack of GMOs, BPA, etc.  I could see the alleged soldiery pattern on these, and the beans themselves were a bit bigger than the others.  I liked these the best of the three.  They seemed a bit tangier.  They were also eaten plain, and with Taco Bell's Nachos.

     Wrapping up, despite being such an ubiquitous food item for people all over the world, some beans can be dangerous to eat if prepared improperly.  I mentioned this in my post on lupini beans (See my post on September 15, 2018), but kidney beans also have a toxin in them, called phytohemagglutinin.  Raw kidney beans need to be boiled for at least 30 minutes, and slow cooking actually increases the hazard.  Moving on, to be a little crude, beans have the reputation of causing flatulence in consumers.  One website advised people to both soak raw beans in water for a while before cooking, or to rinse canned beans in water to combat this.  Also, the leaves of bean plants can help against bed bugs.  The tiny microscopic hairs can trap the miniature pests, kind of like a natural form of flypaper.  Dating back to ancient times, and even surviving up in the present day, some people have used beans to predict the future.  This practice, called favomancy, involves throwing a handful of beans and interpreting the results.  Or a PETA-approved alternative to reading animal entrails, I suppose.  Finally, I rather enjoyed many of the names for the various types of beans.  One of them is the"orca bean", since that sort has a black and white pattern which resembles the aquatic animal, and another is named, very dramatically, the "tongue of fire bean."






























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