Product Details
Beans: A History

Beans: A History
By Ken Albala

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Product Description

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 of sin (or so said St. Jerome, who forbade nuns to eat beans because they "tickle the genitals"), Beans is a ripping tale of a truly magical fruit.

Product Details

  • Amazon Sales Rank: #76042 in Books
  • Published on: 2007-09-04
  • Released on: 2007-09-04
  • Original language: English
  • Number of items: 1
  • Binding: Hardcover
  • 256 pages

Features

Editorial Reviews

Review

2008 Winner of the Jane Grigson Food Book Award
 
"Who ever knew that beans were so complicated and interesting. Told in fascinating detail by Ken Albala, Beans, A History, is an instructional book that reads like a novel." -- Chef Charlie Palmer"[A] vividly entertaining history of the humble bean."-- Raymond Blanc, Saveur"Lucky Beans, who have at last found their Homer. Who knew that the history of the Western world and parts of Asia, could be illumined through the evolution of the lowly bean in its multiple forms from fava to soy? No one is better equipped than this skilled historian to wrap history, science, legend, folklore and fakelore in an entertaining narrative that delights while it informs. This is the most digestible bean dish I've ever encountered and all I want is more."--Betty Fussell, author of The Story of Corn and I Hear America Cooking: The Cooks and Recipes of American Regional Cuisine  
"Beans is a lyrical book. It is a tale well told filled with unusual twists and turns with surprises popping up in almost every paragraph."--Andrew F. Smith, editor of the Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America
"Here is the first biography of beans, presented by Ken Albala in vivid prose. Gut-buster or aphrodisiac, lowly legume or savior of civilization, the bean is more significant than we ever realized."--Darra Goldstein, the Editor in Chief, Gastronomica

From the Publisher
Publication cancelled

About the Author

Ken Albala is Professor of History at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California. He is the author of many books on food including Eating Right in the Renaissance and The Banquet: Dining in the Great Courts of Late Renaissance Europe.

Customer Reviews

A Fun Read4
Albala's book follows that trend of biographies of food, and while this one is not as good as Mark Kurlansky's "Cod," it was fun wallowing in one of mankind's most basic foodstuffs. This book is loaded with amusing trivia (I especially like that certain African groups play "Russian Roulette" with a toxic bean), but its real value lies in its exploration of the link between beans and poverty. Perhaps no other food -- save the pickled herring or cornmeal mush - has been so linked to hard times or the poor. Albala shows how this link is flipped by those valorizing their roots: If beans are a link to a poorer, more authentic past, then they are also the champion of that group's ethnic pride.

Be Surprised by This Book!4
One of the pleasures of reading is to come across a book with subject matter that not only takes you by surprise--but actually defies any expectations you might have based on its title. I mean, who would expect, what would you expect from, a book simply titled: Beans - A History? Well what you get in this instance is an absolutely delightful survey of the role that beans have played in human history. Yes--those beans: baked beans, navy beans, green beans, lima beans, soy beans, fava beans. And then many other familiar foods that we don't necessarily think of as belonging to the bean family--peas, peanuts, chickpeas, lentils. In his wide-ranging and graceful cruise across the millennia and continents, the author manages to combine careful botanical facts with relaxed historical narratives. Almost every page holds some fascinating fact about the role that beans have played in the cultures of the world--some familiar, many unfamiliar. And it's by no means a compendium of curiosities: there are some serious themes and subtle insights running through the book: one such is the way that beans have come to be an indicator of socio-economic classes. It's also right up-to-date on many issues of the day--geneticaly modified food, for instance. Yes, and don't worry--Albala writes with a light touch and doesn't shy away from the inevitable association of beans with flatulence. And as a bonus, you get lots of recipes. In fact, you get your money's worth just treating it as a cookbook, with recipes from many centuries and cultures. In my opinion, Beans--A History takes its place right up there with the best of the recent books that trace a single food through history.

Jane Grigson Award5
Beans is the winner of the 2008 International Association of Culinary Professionals Jane Grigson Award and was also a finalist for the food writing award.

My apologies for posting a review of my own book, but I saw no other way of getting this information onto amazon. I hope you enjoy it. Ken