Bean

The seed pod of various legumes, distinguished from both peas and lentils. Beans were a staple of the Roman and Greek diets, and several recipes for bean stews continue to exist from that era. Many beans were first brought to Italy from the Middle East, but some, like fava, were indigenous and used as ritual offerings to the dead. Alexander the Great brought the white bean from India and started the tradition of white bean salad in Macedonia, Greece and probably Rome, which has survived to this day. In Italy, we find mention of the first trace of bean cultivation about 1528 in the town of Belluno, where a certain humanist named Valeriano started sowing beans imported from Peru. Valeriano considered the discovery of beans similar to the discovery of a treasure, and under his influence, bean agriculture was extended to other regions of Italy.

In France, the first mention of beans was in a document dated about 1564, which related that beans were cultivated in the region surrounding the town of Vienne, having been introduced from a monastery near Lisbon, Portugal. Pietro Andrea Mattioli, a Sienese botanist, described the strange new food: "When eaten, they bloat the stomach but they generate virile seed and encourage sexual intercourse and even more so if they are eaten with long pepper, sugar and galingale." By the end of the 16th century, the cultivation and lore of beans was well established throughout Italy, France and Spain, and these regions were the basis for the further expansion of beans to other areas of the world. Beans have always been a popular peasant food, but during the Renaissance, Catherine de' Medici attempted to refine Italian cuisine and failed. Thanks to their highly nutritious and economical qualities, beans and pulses have once again become an important ingredient in cooking.

Whether a bean is a snap bean, pod bean, shell bean or a dry bean is determined by its stage of development and harvest. Green beans, yellow wax beans and purple wax beans are picked at a very early stage and are actually the undeveloped pods of the bean. Shell beans, such as kidney beans, long beans and cranberry beans, are the mature fresh seeds. Dried beans are the seeds that have dried in the pod.

After eating beans, some people experience the problem of flatulence. Gas is produced by the fermentation of complex sugars called raffinose sugars, which are found in beans and other vegetables. The small intestine does not have the proper enzyme to break down the sugar, so it passes into the large intestine, where bacteria break down and ferment it, producing hydrogen, methane and carbon dioxide gases. Flatulence was first studied when it became a problem for pilots (the higher the altitude, the more gas expands). At 35,000 feet (10 km), gas will expand to 5.4 times more than at sea level, causing pain.

See also azuki bean, black bean, black-eyed pea, black turtle bean, borlotti bean, cannellini bean, fava, fermented black beans, flageolet, ful medames, haricot bean, horticultural beans, kidney bean, lima bean, mung bean, navy bean, pigeon pea, pink bean, soybean, tonka bean, white bean.

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