Carob

Also locust bean, St. John's bread. Bean that yields the well-known chocolate substitute for people who cannot tolerate the real thing. A tree legume, Ceratonia siliqua, it is native to Syria and has been cultivated in Mediterranean countries for centuries. Carob beans served as forage for the cavalry of the Duke of Wellington in his Peninsula Campaign and for Sir Edmund Allenby's cavalry in Palestine. The beans were imported to the U.S. to flavor chewing tobacco and dog biscuits, as a chocolate substitute and as a thickener and additive for foods.

The name came out of a confusion about the English translation of passages in the gospels of Matthew and Mark, which note that while living in the wilderness, John the Baptist survived on "locusts and wild honey", making some believe that the prophet made repast of swarming insects. It's said that he was actually eating the more appealing carob bean, also known as "locust." Etymologically, the name comes from the Arabic karr˜uba.

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