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231st out of 568 books
—
839 voters
Beans: A History
by
Ken Albala (Goodreads Author)
Whether refried, baked, falafelled, or complementing a nice Chianti, the humble bean has long been a part of gourmet and everyday food culture around the globe. As Ken Albala shows, though, over its history the bean has enjoyed more controversy than its current ubiquity lets on. From the bean's status as seat of the soul (at least, that's what Pythagoras thought) to seed o...more
Hardcover, 256 pages
Published
August 15th 2007
by Berg Publishers
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Just nominated for an IACP award in the food reference category. Plus I like beans.
Albala explores the political, cultural, and linguistic history of our friend the bean. Each chapter focuses on a different type of bean, from the lentil (thought to be the first legume cultivated) to the soy bean (a much later edition to our tables, only having been cultivated a few thousand years ago), including a chapter on poison beans and cryptobeans. Interspersed with the history are quotes from medical texts, novels, songs, memoirs, travelogues, poems, and of course cookbooks. There are e...more
Beans have represented many different things over the centuries: daily staple for the whole society, particularly in India; reliable food for the poor; gassy embarrassment for the upwardly-mobile; symbol of primordial hardihood for the ancient Romans. In this book, Albala does a fine job investigating the social and botanical history of the bean family, including many of its lesser-known members. I recommend this book to all foodies, and to anyone who might be amused to know that Fabio, the Ital...more
One of the perks of volunteering in the high school library, you come across odd books like this one, written by a food historian. He realized that there had not been a thorough history of the bean and so he wrote one. (Yes, I could almost say that with a straight face.)
If you are foodie, it may interest you. It would actually make a good magazine article, as some of the old recipies and writings on beans were a little dry and could be cut out, but overall the info was interesting.
If you are foodie, it may interest you. It would actually make a good magazine article, as some of the old recipies and writings on beans were a little dry and could be cut out, but overall the info was interesting.
I am a foodie & I have done heirloom vegetable research & recovery & reintroduced several crops to Jefferson's Monticello garden that the "experts" could not find.
The author had several errors in his book & when I contacted him .. His remarks were ... This was a long time ago & I am working now on so & so ...
Gotta get your facts straight !!
The author had several errors in his book & when I contacted him .. His remarks were ... This was a long time ago & I am working now on so & so ...
Gotta get your facts straight !!
I think this may be the first non-Reaktion food history I've read this year. Very enjoyable. It made me hungry for chili, which is good in a book about beans. And I did make chili, and it was good. (Let's not get into whether or not beans belong in chili, strictly speaking. They go in my chili, and that's all that counts to me.) At any rate, it's divided into chapters based on type of bean, which means that some chapters were way longer than others. Probably the best way to do it, though. There...more
I eat so many beans that I felt I had to read this book. I did learn some interesting facts and got really hungry for fresh broad beans, split pea soup and hummus. The writing was a bit to informal and repetitive for my tastes so I gave it a 3.
It's a history of beans! But long story short: beans are considered food of the poor, which is uncool until people get heavy into either populism or nationalism.
Gets carried away in a few places, but those were skimmable; never got really "dry" as such. If you think the book might be interesting, you'd probably like it.
Feb 22, 2009
Katherine Ellington
added it
Splendid Table recommendation
This is the finest book I've ever read about the history of beans.
It has ancient philosophers, class divisions, and recipes.
It has ancient philosophers, class divisions, and recipes.
A surprisingly detailed survey of the legume; Lentils, Peas, Chickpeas, and both New World and Old World beans.
I've always been quite fond of beans and it has piqued my interest in obtaining some of the more unusual varieties.
I've always been quite fond of beans and it has piqued my interest in obtaining some of the more unusual varieties.
For the food class, a social history of beans--early domestication as a farmer protein source (and one of the three sisters of American native foods with corn and squash), fava beans and malaria, Pythagoras and beans as the seat of the soul, St. Jerome worried about flatulent nuns to the industrialization of soy.
Casual at times, more like a textbook at others, but interesting nonetheless.
May 17, 2013
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Ken Albala, Professor of History at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, CA is the author of 14 food books and the forthcoming textbook Three World Cuisines. The sequel to THE LOST ART OF REAL COOKING will be out soon: THE LOST ARTS OF HEARTH AND HOME. He is also editor of Food Cultures of the World Encyclopedia and co-editor of the journal Food, Culture and Society. His Beans: A History was...more
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