Don’t know beans? Now you can

“Who knew?” is the phrase that pops up in blurbs about “Beans: A History” by Ken Albala. Who knew beans could be so interesting? Who knew that history could be illumined through beans? Who knew beans were so significant?

Well, nobody. Most of us know beans about beans, at least in America, where we have always looked down our noses at the beans on the table while we reach greedily for the meat. That’s why readers of Albala’s book are so surprised. In the first place the reader is staggered by the sheer amount of information compiled into one source, and in the second place by the happy discovery that the subject is so darn compelling.

This is a popular book with an academic bibliography, compiled by a history professor with a penchant for food and unusual facts. It will serve many a university student well. But it’s also just a fun read for anyone who cares to understand more about the food we eat.

The book is divided into a sort of bean geneaology, with chapters devoted to the various branches of the bean family and their geographic origins. Included are lots of recipes, historical as well as Albala originals. Those of us on the Palouse could have hoped for a mention in the chapter on lentils but alas, next to the 10,000 years of lentil history since they were first domesticated, our century of lentil cultivation fades into oblivion.

There have been a few successful books in the same single-subject vein in recent years, such as “Cod,” and “Salt.” “Beans” succeeds as well – winning the International Association of Culinary Professionals Jane Grigson award in 2008 – because Albala is passionate about his subject, and yet not afraid to be funny, or irreverent.

You’d have to be, to undertake what Albala did. As he writes in the preface, “To truly understand beans, to become one with my subject, I resolved to eat beans every single day, ideally a new species or variety with every meal.” He made it through an entire year like this before giving up, but he still eats beans once a week or so despite beans’ one main shortcoming.

“No matter what anyone says,” Albala writes, “Tolerance for the bean and its gaseous effects does not develop over time. You just get used to bloat. At least I can say I am full of beans.”