Dry Beans ?

[coloradoclyde]

Were dry beans (pinto, navy etc...) eaten between 1750-1850 ?
If so how, when, where and what type ?

Any information would be helpful.

 

[satx78247]

I cannot say about anywhere else but the Texas & Mexican armies during our revolution LIVED ON pinto beans & rice, with the Texicans adding cornbread.
(There numerous "complaints" in period journals of TX militiamen about how tired they were of beans with salted pork & cornbread or tortillas with beans/rice.)

yours, satx

 

[coloradoclyde]

Thanks satx... that helps....

Obviously we have Baked beans and the 3 sisters....
But what about mountain men, revolutionary soldiers and Voyagers?

 

[coloradoclyde]

Found one for the revolution.


According to Michael Lee Lanning’s The American Revolution 100: The People, Battles, and Events of the American Revolution, the American soldiers usually received most of their rations, at least in the early days of the war. These included:

1 lb. beef, or 3/4 lb. pork, or 1 lb. salt fish, per day; 1 lb. bread or flour, per day; 3 pints of peas or beans per week, or vegetable equivalent; 1 half pint of rice, one pint of Indian meal, per man, per week; 1 quart of spruce beer or cider per man per day, or nine gallons of molasses, per company of 100 men per week; 3 lbs. of candles to 100 men per week, for guards; 24 lbs. soft, or 8 lbs. hard soap, for 100 men per week.
From the Smithsonian.

 

[BillinOregon]

Whatever you do, thoroughly soak 'em first or you'll be the windiest boy in camp.

 

[coloradoclyde]

"In early days in the New England States the woodcutter who went
out for a day's work in the woods in winter almost always took with
him "bean porridge," i. e., beans that had been cooked to the consistency of a thick mush and then frozen in bowls. In each bowl had

been placed a string, which served to lift out the contents. By the
help of the camp fire the frozen cooked beans were again made into
porridge."


BEANS, PEAS, AND OTHER LEGUMES AS FOOD.

BY
MARY HINMAN ABEL.

 

[coloradoclyde]

Early voyagers to
the Western Continent speak of beans and peas as being cultivated
by the Indians in different parts of North and South America, and we
know that the Algonquins had one and perhaps two varieties of pole

beans. The Indian name for
m the bean means "to wind
about." Champlain, in 1604,
describes the planting of what
he calls the "Brazilian bean"
in the region of the Kennebec.
He says it grew 5 to 6 feet
high and wound around the
corn. It is certain that before
1600 A. D. beans were culti-
vated as far north as the St.
Lawrence, and they were rec-
ognized by travelers as ' 'proper
to the country." Bean flour is
spoken of as in use among the
Aztecs. Beans are now widely
distributed, one or more vari-
eties being grown in all tem-
perate, tropical, and subtrop-
ical countries.

 

[tenngun]

Beans were grown in the south west by the Anasazi or ancestral pueblo as the pc term is now. Through out Anasazi sights beans have been found. At most sites you can buy packs of pueblo beans. I used to grow some. Flavor was close to pinto beans.

 

[coloradoclyde]

Ever heard of a mountain man packing in some beans?

 

[coloradoclyde]

Whatever you do, thoroughly soak 'em first or you'll be the windiest boy in camp.

:haha: Keeps the skunks out of camp.....

 

[satx78247]

GAS WARFARE is prohibited under the international treaties on war.

yours, satx

 

[coloradoclyde]

I pretty much only eat them 3 ways
Baked, soup, and refried.....All get cooked long and slow...

 

[satx78247]

Me TOO.

Here in The Alamo City (the home of the best Tex-Mex food on Planet Earth) we only eat beans about 3-4 times a week, including for breakfast. Every Sanantonian will tell you which "hole in the wall" has the VERY BEST "Tex-Mex", although no 2 of us agree.
(I'd bet that Bexar County has more places for "Mexican" food than anyplace. = We have one city BLOCK with FIVE such places.)

yours, satx

 

[coloradoclyde]

we only eat beans about 3-4 times a week, including for breakfast

:shocked2: ...Is that legal?...... :haha:

 

[tenngun]

French canidians packed peas and beans and HBCtransported them west, as to AFC and the RMF I don't recall seeing beans on the transport list, they don't seem to have been selling them west. Most army forts and private trading post had gardens and peas and beans are easy to grow and harvest. Walker when prepping for trip to ca had his men put away 60 pounds of jerky per man. Other food stuff arnt mentioned. Coming out of Taos or Santa Fe I bet beans were a welcome treat, and I wouldn't be surprised if a few pounds wernt in packs as they left.
They only goods sold at voo seem to be luxury goods, chocolate coffee tea raisins sugar
My own toxic waste gasses don't seem to change no matter how I prep my beans.

 

[satx78247]

COME visit us & we'll take you to PETE'S TAKO HOUSE on Brooklin off Broadway for ENCHILADAS VERDE, "PUFFY" Tacos, CARNE GUISADA, HOT tortillas & refried beans.
(I'd bet that more fist-fights have started in SA over "the best Tex-Mex in town" than about adultery.)

yours, satx

 

[crockett]

Colorado: on the mountain man aspect, to me at least they seem notably absent as a trail food. From St. Louis out to the mountains it seems they ate boiled corn and pork. I've sort of had issues on this corn, if the corn was dried and had to be soaked prior to cooking, why not just pack beans? It is my feeling, but others disagree, that the "corn" was actually corn meal that was just boiled. You can mix the corn meal with water and then slow boil and within about 10 minutes dinner is done. Boiled corn meal is sort of like grits but what I find amazing is that grits seem to have a lot of starch left in the pot that needs scrubbing but the corn meal just rinses out clean (pretty much)
There is one of the diaries/journals of two fellows going from Taos (Maybe Santa Fe-I can't remember), but on the Santa Fe trail and they are eating boiled wheat meal. I didn't even know there was wheat meal. (Cream of wheat?) As I understand it in the "Valley" of Taos they had about half the fields in corn and half in wheat.
In the New Mexican settlements I would assume various bean dishes were common. I saw a Food911 episode with Bob Irving (sic?) in which some of the local celebrities get together once a year for a traditional New Mexican dinner and they use heirloom beans no longer grown- you might contact some New Mexican historical societies on them. In the east I've tried to find out what exactly was "succotash"- I don't think it was the corn and lima beans, it had to be some other type bean, and whether venison was usually added- BUT I haven't found much.

 

[coloradoclyde]

In some early English writings "corn" was a generic term meaning any small grain....usually wheat.. Corn as we know it today was referred to as Indian corn.
I also have seen references to "cream of wheat" in the colonies.

 

[coloradoclyde]

In this thread http://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/fusionbb/showtopic.php?tid/297735/

In the book I post the author tells some interesting factoids..... She talks about how at one time it was illegal to feed hogs corn.....and how before the revolutionary war the price of corn would Be 10 shillings one year and 2 the next and back to 10 the following....... :hmm:

 

[Nativearizonan]

What a southerner would call peas, meaning blackeyes, crowders, and cowpeas, were native to the Old World, as were English peas, chick peas (garbanzos) and fava beans.

Common beans, lima beans, tepary beans and runner beans are native to the New World. Every tribe I ever heard that did any amount of farming, including Plains NDNs, Apaches, and etc. raised beans (and corn and squash) of some kind that did well in their area. The MM undoubtedly ate beans at times.

This company has seeds for 77 kinds of just common beans, plus they have the other species of beans as well:
http://shop.nativeseeds.org/collections/common-beans