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Brown Beans I recently
drove through the hill country of Western Virginia to pick up some apple
butter and the makinÕs for our ice creams. As I passed by the small towns, I
had a persistent hankering for a good old bowl of brown beans fixed Òmountain
styleÓ. Back before fast food joints took over the highways, every small town
had a cafŽ or lunch counter serving brown beans. On the winding mountain
roads, most small country stores had gas pumps out front and kept a big pot
of brown beans simmering on the back of the cook-stove to serve lunch to
local workers and travelers. Finally I could stand it no longer and pulled
into a small truck stop-deli outside of Lynchburg and, lo and behold, they
had a soup-pot full of brown beans just simmering away. I filled a bowl,
topped it with minced onions, asked for two slices of white bread (they were
out of corn bread) and sat down to savor the satisfying goodness of
unpretentious country cooking. And oh, the memories! Mountain-style
beans are cooked slowly for hours or days in plain water with a ham hock or
some salt-cured meat such as fatback, jowl or bacon and seasoned only with
salt and pepper. In spite of prolonged cooking, mountain style beans retain
their individual ÒbeannessÓ. They are soft but not mushy and the flavorful
broth is relatively thin. Generally speaking, flatlanders and Yankees just
canÕt cook beans the same way. They tend to cook them too fast and add all
sorts of aberrant ingredients such as molasses, mustard and tomatoes. Mountain-style
beans are served with broth in a bowl, topped with a dollop of finely minced
onion and accompanied with bread, traditionally corn bread but sometimes
biscuits or white bread. Often the corn bread is crumpled up and added to the
bean broth. When cooked greens, usually collards, are added to the fare, it
is called ÒsupperÓ and constitutes a complete meal, nutritionally and
gastronomically. The brown
bean belt extends about 100 miles on each side of the ÒGreat Warriors PathÓ,
which runs through the valleys from Pennsylvania to Georgia and later became
Route 11 or Lee Highway in Virginia. Scotch-Irish and German settlers
migrated down ancient trails through the valleys and spread out laterally to
occupy every hollow that had a source of water and some flat land to grow at
least enough food to last through the winter, with hopefully enough left over
to trade for necessities. Similar food traditions are found throughout the
mountainous regions of Maryland,
Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, North and South Carolina and
Georgia. Settlers in
these regions quickly learned the value of Indian crops and cropping systems,
notably the planting together of the Òthree sistersÓ, corn, squash and beans.
Corn gives bean vines something to climb on, beans enrich the soil with
nitrogen and help support corn stalks. Squash vines function as living mulch,
shading the soil to keep it cool and moist and discouraging weeds and
varmints. Native
Americans knew instinctively that beans and corn (or any grain) are also
nutritionally synergistic. Succotash, Brunswick stew, bean cakes fortified
with cornmeal and brown beans served with corn bread are all adaptations of
Native American foods. Beans are high in the essential amino acids that corn
lacks and vice-versa. Together they provide the cheapest source of complete
protein available. Squash and other vegetables round out the diet with
additional vitamins and minerals. Meat, though a welcome addition, is not
nutritionally essential. Beans have
been proven by research to be good for your health and longevity. They are
high in fiber and low in fat and have a low glycemic index. They are a good
source of potassium, magnesium, folic acid and other essential vitamins and
minerals. They help reduce cholesterol, reduce the risk of coronary disease
and diabetes and have been shown to reduce the risk of some types of cancer. Many types
of beans were grown by different tribes and traded to settlers who saved
seeds for replanting over many generations. Isolation and selection resulted
in hundreds of local ÒheirloomÓ bean varieties. Many have been lost but many
have been collected and saved by organizations and individuals dedicated to
preserving our cultural heritage. Bean snobs are quick to tell you that, as
in much of agriculture, the few varieties that have been bred and selected
for commercial production are bland, tough and tasteless when compared to the
old ÒunimprovedÓ varieties. Beans
grown by early settlers were multipurpose: When young and while the pods were
still tender, green beans were used fresh as
ÒsnapsÓ or Òstring beansÓ and were threaded and hung to dry for use in the
winter as Òleather breeches.Ó As they matured, the beans were shelled and
became known as ÒshellyÓ or soup beans. These were either eaten as fresh
beans or dried for winter use. Over
time, plants were selected and propagated that were more suitable for one use
or the other. Later maturing varieties were best suited for shelling and
drying and became known as ÒOctoberÓ or horticultural beans. Some cultivars
were better suited as green beans and were harvested during the summer.
Anyone who has ever had a garden knows how good home grown Kentucky Wonders
are, especially when cooked ÒSouthern-styleÓ; long and slow and seasoned with
a ham hock. Unfortunately, we now have to
settle for commercial beans. The only way for most of us to experience beans
at their best is to grow our own or be fortunate enough to find some at a
farmerÕs market. Even in the mountains, brown beans are usually pintos
instead of Octobers. No article
on beans is complete without addressing the common association between beans
and flatulence. Beans contain complex sugars and starches which are difficult
to digest and pass into the lower intestine to feed the natural population of
harmless bacteria which, in turn, produce particularly odoriferous vapors.
There are several simple ways to minimize the digestive discomfort associated
with legumes in general and dried beans in particular. First: Eat more beans
to build up the population of suitable flora higher in the digestive system.
Start with small portions and increase until beans are an integral part of
your diet. Second: Prepare beans in ways that reduce or denature troublesome
sugars. Soaking overnight and discarding the soaking water helps some, but
you also discard significant nutritional and flavor components. Long, slow
cooking with or without pre-soaking breaks down the complex and indigestible
sugars into easily digested simple sugars. Third: Add some herbs and spices
during cooking. Bay leaves, black pepper and onions improve flavor and
digestibility. Fourth: If you have persistent problems, try some Beano, which provides a digestive enzyme
the body lacks. To prepare
mountain-style brown beans: Spread dry beans out in a pan and pick out any
rocks or foreign matter. Rinse well, then put in a pot and cover with plenty
of water and soak overnight. The overnight soaking softens the beans all of
the way to the center so that they cook faster and more evenly, but with slow
cooking is not really necessary. Most people discard the soaking water
thinking that they are getting rid of the sugars that cause flatulence, but
they are also discarding nutrients and flavor. I prefer cooking them in the
soaking water and rely on long slow cooking to change the sugars to more
digestible forms. Most people add the salted seasoning meat when they start
cooking beans. Salt toughens the skins and acids, such as tomato or vinegar,
prevent softening. I donÕt add anything to the pot until the beans start to
soften. Bring to a boil and then immediately reduce the heat to a simmer or
about 190¡F.
After about an hour, add a ham hock or some fatty cured meat such as bacon
and forget about them for a few hours. They are even better reheated the
second day. Addendum Anasazi Beans¨ Touted as the ÒBest beans in the WorldÓ After I
wrote about brown beans cooked Mountain style, I tried to find heritage beans
similar to the dried ÒshellyÓ beans that pioneers and Indians lived on in the
mountains of Virginia. Some of the surviving heritage varieties have been
collected and preserved but none are commercially available. I then
discovered that the beans originally grown by the mysterious Anasazi Indians were
being grown commercially in Colorado. I ordered some to try and found they
were much better than pintos, red beans or other commonly available
varieties. The Anasazis
were cliff-dwelling Pueblo peoples in the ÒFour CornersÓ region, which
includes part of New Mexico and Colorado. Anasazi means Òancient onesÓ in
Navaho. They flourished about 1300 years ago and then mysteriously
disappeared. One story goes that explorers found a pot of these beans in the
long abandoned cliff dwellings and were able to grow them. Not only do these
beans taste better than most varieties, they also cook quicker and contain
less than 25 percent of the problem carbohydrates of other beans and are
therefore Òsocially acceptableÓ. Cooking –
Mountain Style:
Anasazi beans do not need to be soaked prior to cooking, so you do not
discard the water-soluble nutrients and flavor components. Pick them over for
rocks and other foreign matter, put them in a pot with plenty of plain water
and bring to a boil. I add a scant teaspoonful of kelp powder at the
beginning, but no salt: salt and acid make beans tough and mealy if added too
early. You can also use potato water or un-salted stock for added flavor.
Reduce the heat and simmer at around 190¡ F for two to three hours, or until they get fairly
tender. Next add some salt pork, such as fatback, ham hock, bacon or jowl and
continue to simmer for another couple of hours until they attain the desired
tenderness and flavor. Season to taste with salt and pepper – We use
our KA seasoning blend. Serve with cornbread (we serve our hoecakes) and a
dollop of freshly minced raw onion. |
© Dan Gill - Published in
Pleasant Living Sept. – Oct. Õ09
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