Beans: A History

Front Cover
Berg, Sep 1, 2007 - Cooking - 256 pages
Winner of The 2008 Jane Grigson Award, issued by the International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP). Winner of the 2008 Cordon d' Or Culinary Literature - History Culinary Academy Award. This is the story of the bean, the staple food cultivated by humans for over 10,000 years. From the lentil to the soybean, every civilization on the planet has cultivated its own species of bean. The humble bean has always attracted attention - from Pythagoras' notion that the bean hosted a human soul to St. Jerome's indictment against bean-eating in convents (because they "tickle the genitals"), to current research into the deadly toxins contained in the most commonly eaten beans. Over time, the bean has been both scorned as "poor man's meat" and praised as health-giving, even patriotic. Attitudes to this most basic of foodstuffs have always revealed a great deal about a society. Beans: A History takes the reader on a fascinating journey across cuisines and cultures.
 

Contents

1 Introduction
1
Fertile Crescent
9
Europe and Andes
25
Europe
33
5 Peas Chickpeas and Pigeon Peas
75
6 Oddballs and Villains
89
India
105
Africa Soul Food
117
Mexico and the World
127
Andes
191
Native Americans
203
China Japan and the World
209
Bibliography
235
Index
249
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About the author (2007)

Ken Albala is Professor of History at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California. He is the author of many books including Eating Right in the Renaissance, Food in Early Modern Europe, Cooking in Europe 1250-1650, The Banquet: Dining in the Great Courts of Late Renaissance Europe and Pancake. He was editor of three food series for Greenwood Press and has recently completed a 4-volume Food Cultures of the World Encyclopedia. Albala is also co-editor of the journal Food Culture and Society, published by Berg.

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