Beans offer excellent nutrition and have achieved a unique place in American culinary tradtion. More than 100 varieties of beans are cultivated in America, with most produced in Michigan, North Dakota, Nebraska, and Colorado. Whether dry (kidney, navy, and pinto), or fresh (string, snap or wax), American farms yield 1,500,000 tons annually. Beans occupy places in American slang and fads, from "spilling-the-beans," to "bean-bag" chairs to "Beanie Babies®," and one bean dish is classic American.

BAKED BEANS: ORIGINS OF A CLASSIC AMERICAN DISH

Boston baked beans is a classic American dish consisting of navy beans cooked slowly with molasses and salt pork. Several historical sources report that early American colonists did not bake beans, and that slow cooking technique was Native American in origin and subsequently adopted by the New England colonists. Other scholars argue, however, that baked beans had long been a traditional Sabbath dish among North African and Spanish Jews, who called this food "skanah." They suggest that sea captains introduced the concept of baked beans to New England ports after long voyages along the coast of north Africa and the Mediterranean. Regardless of origin, recipes for baked beans are closely associated with the city of Boston, Massachusetts, where Colonial Puritan women baked beans on Saturday, to avoid cooking on the Sabbath, and served them for Saturday dinner and as left-overs for Sunday breakfast and lunch. So ingrained is the association between Bostonians and beans, that the city is sometimes known as "bean town." [3: 1].

AMERICAN BEANS DESCRIBED BY EARLY EXPLORERS

Peas they have, which the Natives call Asasentemmens and [these] are the same which in Italy they call Fagloh. Their beans are little, like a French bean, and are the same which the Turks call Garnances, and [this] kind of pulse they much esteem for their dainties.

     William Strachey, 1612 [3: 2]

DINE WITH ME TOMORROW

Since our arrival at [West Point] we have had a ham, to grace the head of the table; a piece of roast beef adorns the foot; and, a small dish of greens or beans decorates the center... [The Cook has discovered] that apples will make pyes.

     George Washington, 1779 [3: 3]

AMELIA SIMMONS AND THE FIRST AMERICAN COOKBOOK

The first American cookbook The Art of Cookery was written by Amelia Simmons in 1796. Her stuffed turkey recipe has changed little in over 200 years...

One pound of soft wheat bread, 3 ounces beef suet, 3 eggs, a little sweet thyme, sweet marjoram, pepper and salt, and add a gill of wine; fill the bird therewith and sew up, hand down to a steady solid fire, basting frequently with salt and water, and roast until a steam emits from the breast, put one third of a pound of butter into the gravy, dust flour over the bird and baste with the gravy; serve up with boiled onions and cranberry sauce. [3:4]

CHRISTMAS ON THE TRAIL WITH LEWIS AND CLARK

Lewis and Clark explored the American west for over two years. When their provisions ran out, they lived off the land. Both were extraordinary men, but poor spellers!

December 25th, 1805

We would have Spent this day in feasting, had we any thing either to raise our Spirits or even gratify our appetites, our Diner concisted of pore Elk, so much Spoiled that we eate it thro, mear necessity, Some Spoiled pounded fish and a few roots. [3: 5]

THE USEFUL KITCHEN AX

In New England lumber camps, beans and corn meal were cooked with stew meat or soup bones, a relatively high fat dish. Sometimes camp cooks prepared bean porridge in quantity and set it out door to freeze. When needed for dinner, the first utensil the cook reached for — was an ax.

Timeline: 1776-1848

1776 Declaration of Independence

1781 American Revolution ends

1796 Amelia Simmons' The Art of Cookery

1801 Jonathan Chapman (Johnny Appleseed) activen in American west

1804 Lewis and Clark Expedition

1818 Tin can introduced to America

1836 Alamo defended

1838 Underground Railroad established

1838 Cherokee Relocation (Trail of Tears)

1848 Gold discovered in California