May I introduce your inner (and possibly undiscovered) food geek to The Bean’s? If you were truly on familiar terms, you might affectionately call them legumes. Either form of address is acceptable.
The Bean’s are your friends. They deliver an economical source of protein. In other words they are cheap and good! But that’s not to say they are without prestige. Harold McGee, food geek extraordinaire, says that in the ancient world of the Romans, four prominent families based their names on four major beans, Lentulus from the lentil, Fabius from the fava, Piso from the pea and Cicero from the chickpea.
That’s your history moment for the day! Let’s get back to the here and now and start with some practical stuff. Dried beans, before you buy them, are washed with stones. What you must do before cooking them is check them for those pesky little rocks. Spread your beans out on a baking sheet, picking out any stones and also discarding any beans that look weird.
That’s what this picture is about. In two cups of black beans I found four small stones. Not very many, but it only takes one to crack a tooth. Something that I’ve experienced first hand and would highly recommend avoiding.
While you go back to studying the Romans, I’m going to work on my next entry:
‘Beans: To Soak or Not to Soak’. Bet you can’t wait for the next installment!
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