Two
of my first vegetarian recipe books were the prolific
Rose Elliot’s Beanfeast and The Bean Book. Their
titles encapsulated the importance of beans in vegetarian
and vegan cuisine. However, it was only when I read
Ken Albala’s Beans: a History that I came to
appreciate their significance to so many cultures
and civilisations.
Beans:
a History is not a recipe book, vegetarian or otherwise.
Although it contains around fifty recipes they are
included for historical interest, rather than for
culinary purposes, as few of them specify quantities
or preparation times. Rather, as the title suggests,
the book describes the cultural and gastronomic significance
of beans from their earliest recorded use to the present
day. Most Western societies have traditionally regarded
beans as a food of the poor, suitable only for rustic
labourers able to digest their tough, fibrous skins
and unperturbed by the noisy side effects of dried
beans. As the song goes, “Beans, beans, they’re
good for your heart – the more you eat the more
you f**t”. However, times and attitudes change,
and the ubiquitous soy bean has now become an integral
part of modern European and North American diets in
its many guises, whilst the UK has the highest per
capita consumption of baked beans in the world. Meanwhile,
countries such as China and India have embraced beans
enthusiastically for centuries and show no sign of
losing interest.
Author
Ken Albala, Professor of History at the University
of the Pacific in Stockton, California, has researched
his subject meticulously. “To truly understand
beans, to become one with my subject, I resolved to
eat beans every single day, ideally a new species
or variety with every meal”. The fact that he
maintained this diet for about a year demonstrates
not only extraordinary commitment but also the incredible
diversity and variety within the Fabaceae family,
which includes nearly 19,000 species. Many of these,
including plants as diverse as peanuts (not a nut!),
garden peas, chickpeas, lentils, broad beans, carob
and fenugreek are used as food.
It
might be overstating the case to claim that beans
“saved civilisation”, as the writer Umberto
Eco has done, but Ken Albala is undoubtedly correct
in saying that “the cultivation of beans has
been crucial to the development of civilisation: as
a source of protein, as cattle fodder and as a means
of replenishing nitrogen in the soil”. As such,
the future of beans seems assured, and indeed their
uses may well extend to non-food items such as fuels
and building materials. With their variety, versatility
and virtual indestructibility in dried form, beans
are likely to form an essential part of the human
diet for generations to come.
Beans:
a History is scholarly but surprisingly readable and
full of fascinating detail. However, at roughly 250
pages of rather small print the book is hard going
at times, and it is unlikely to appeal to a wide audience:
this is not a book for the coffee table or the kitchen.
A major drawback is the absence of illustrations.
Beans might not be the most photogenic of foods, but
some photographs or line drawings would have broken
up the monotony of the text and helped the reader
appreciate the different varieties of bean. Nevertheless,
Beans: a History would make a valuable addition to
the bookshelf of anyone hungry to know the cultural
and gastronomic history of the food on their plate.
Synopsis
If
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