June 8, 2022 • 43 mins
These bean pods are widely eaten as a vegetable before their beans develop – but how they’re cooked differs just as widely. Anney and Lauren dig into the science and history of green beans.
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Speaker 1 (00:08):
Hello, and welcome to Savor production of I Heart Radio.
I'm any reason I'm more in folk bum and today
we have an episode for you about green beans. M
hm any any particular reason why? Oh I don't know.
Why do any of us do anything anymore? Annie? Who
needs a reason to talk about? Great? Right? I think
(00:31):
I was. I was thinking about a vegetable and uh
and they're they're They're a nice seasonal summer vegetable. And
I really thought that we had done them already, and
we have not. So there you go, there you go.
I do I love I love green beans. Um. And
(00:54):
the research for this was fun because I grew up
eating kind of a really strong Southern style of green Yeah. Yeah,
same like cooks and it's got to ham hawking is
just like very very salty and mushi, which I actually
enjoy and yeah, but yeah, the very very good. However,
when I got to college, I remember very vividly a
(01:18):
friend of mine. She was actually like my mentor in
this program, but anyway, I'll say we were friends. She
cooked me green beans and they were so like crisp
and freshener, being like whoa wow, right, yeah, very vibrant.
(01:39):
I also I loved that too. Um. I do have
a lot of memories, as your listeners know, of stringing
them and preparing them and blanching them with my mom.
Not fun, the blanching, the bch I still remembered it.
It halts me every day. However, I were really good,
(02:02):
like you know, you're still the kind of like I
remember the pain you caused me. But then I would
bite into it and be like wow, okay it ghos um,
and then I remembered. I have a lot of good
memories of eating them in China. But when I was
doing this research, maybe I'm talking about long beans and
I had an existential being crisis. Oh no, um yeah,
(02:28):
long long beans are one of the names for um
for I mean, it's it's still look green being vegetal product.
It's just a different a different genus. It's a variety
of cow pea um, which are African in origin rather
than American in origin. Uh. It's it's also where we
(02:49):
get like black eyed peas from cow peas. Yeah. Um,
but but right, but quite similar in concept. You're you're
dealing with a green being, so yeah, yeah, oh yeah,
well I spiral, Lauren. Actually there was quite a few
points in this episode where I had to be like, Okay,
(03:10):
but which being are we talking about? Oh yeah, serious,
it is serious. It is something else I realized is
very serious. Um So in my family this is sort
of a newer development, but we make green beans every Thanksgiving,
which is kind of Yeah, it's a newer thing. I
was doing it because I just wanted something that was
(03:32):
light and not like just carbs and salt um. And
it's it's very simple the recipe I do. But through
those research I have learned this is an extremely controversial
thing and I can't wait to talk about it. Oh yeah, no.
The green bean cast role um in particular is uh
quite a quite a thing. I and something that I
(03:54):
think I've talked about on here before, like something that
I get like actual cratings for dramatically of season um,
out of the Thanksgiving season, out of the green bean
growing season. Just like I'm like, what I want right
now is cream of mushroom soup smothering a bunch of
green beans. And I couldn't really tell you why other
than the fact that it's delicious like that, It's one
(04:15):
of those nostalgia foods where I'm like, oh, man, like
everything must be okay, if I'm eating this, yeah, I've
definitely got It's a minor craving, but it's a craving
for it. After doing this research. It's been a minute
since I've had it. Oh yeah, yeah, m m m.
I believe I've said this before, but beans is one
(04:36):
of my most search terms. It pops up on my homepage,
so you know, like Google has those icons, and it's
like for me, it's like fan fiction, star Wars news.
All right, it's it sounds weirder than it is. Okay,
(04:57):
I'll take your word for that. I yeah, I've debated
like explaining it or leaving the mystery. I don't know.
I the mystery is kind of fun. Do you just
like cooking beans but you're not sure how to cook them?
Every time you cook them? Is that basically it? It's
a little weirder than that, but not too much weirder.
I'm all right, yeah, okay, I'll tell you. I'll tell you. Um. So,
(05:25):
when I'm doing like the listeners, when I send Lauren
title puns, I think there's usually like fifteen too, sometimes thirty. Yeah,
it's quite a few. Um. Most of them are very
specific at cultural references no one but me would get,
but I send them anyway because I find it important
and I hope that it gives you a laugh. Um.
(05:47):
But at the end, when I get to the end
of sort of my own thoughts, in my own pun
just like trying to find anything that corn ideas. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
I search this Idiom website to make sure I'm not
missing like an easy one. Good. Yeah, And I just
(06:09):
favorited the page and beans is the page. So I
just type in beans in the search brings me to
the Idiom page. So that's it. That is that is
very that is very specific. That is very specific to
our strange, wonderful jobs. It just cracks me up because
(06:37):
every time I like go to search something that's like beans. No,
not today, Google, Sorry, Google, I don't need the beans
today tomorrow definitely. Well, Well, now that that mystery is
solves a little peak behind the curtain. Okay, I guess
that brings us to your question. I suppose it brings
(06:59):
us somewhere. It does, Yes, it does. Green beans what
are they? Well, green beans are the fresh green fruit
of the common bean plant. Uh. Fruit fruit is the
botanical term. They're kind of like savory or vegetable, so
(07:20):
we eat them as a vegetable anyway. Um, if you
let green beans develop, their seeds might grow into what
we know as kidney beans or pinto beans, or black
beans or white beans, among a few others, depending on
the varietal that you're dealing with. But we are not
letting those seeds develop today. No, no, we are plucking
(07:42):
that seed pod when it is like lay under, ripe green,
probably in color um. The flesh of the pod still
tender and juicy. The seeds inside just barely. They're like
sort of soft, little little pips like the side the
size of sesame seeds at this stage of growth. The
seeds of the common bean ain't nothing, but the pods
(08:05):
that protect and nourish them are long, skinny and plump
with nutrients um good raw or just heated through and
still snappy or cooked down into that nice mushy softness.
They're like they're like if the wrapping paper is better
than the present, but you don't even care because the
wrapping paper is like so good. Um, But we're not.
(08:26):
We're not. We're not eating wrapping paper. Um. They're there.
The abundance and promise of summer yeah, yeah, yeah, great bean.
That's fun. No, right, Like, this was not one that
I expected to get like intense cravings during the reading for.
(08:48):
But every time I saw a photo of any of
those different kinds of green beans, I was like, Yes,
I want that right now. Yes. Botanical name Fasilis vulgaris,
which just means common bean um. They are a member
of the Lagume or fabossier family um. And this is
(09:09):
a pretty wide species with lots of different cultivars used
for different purposes. But if you're going to grow them
for green beans, you're usually looking at a plant that
you plant annually every year from seeds or seedlings. They're
a viny, climbing plant with a broad green leaves and
little tendrils that help them attached to stuff. Uh. They'll
(09:30):
flower in warm weather with pretty little white to gold
to red flowers and if pollinated, fruit with these pods
that are sort of like like long canoe shaped, maybe
maybe three to six inches in length, that's like seven
to fifteen centimeters and up to about half an inch
wide as about a centimeter or so. And now when
(09:52):
those pods are mature, uh, they dry out into sort
of husks, often white to yellow to purple in color
and with like big meaty seeds inside. But for for
green beans, right, you pick the pods when they're still
immature and green or usually green. Some varietals will start
to show those colors when they're still like green, like immature.
(10:16):
But yeah, yeah, uh, So in order to consume them,
you snap or cut off the tough stem um. One
of their nicknames is snap beans. Another nickname is string beans,
as older varietals in the past often had like a
tough string running down the seam of the bean that
you'd want to pull away along with the stem. But anyway,
(10:38):
you do not have to snap off the other end,
but a lot of people do. Yeah, I can't tell
you one way or another. You do you uh? And
then you might do just about anything with them, um,
chop them fresh into salads, pickle them, saute or stir
fry them alone as a side or incorporated into a dish.
(11:00):
You can slice them up into a creamy or a
spicy casserole. You can steam or roast them, boil them
down until they've lost their snap and springy to, preferably
with some kind of cured pork product um. Their taste
is mild and write vegetable, a little earthy and sweet
and green or kind of herbal. Uh. They're a good
platform for other like strong, straightforward flavors sesame, garlic, chilies, bacon. Um.
(11:29):
I know it sounds so good, right. And although you
can grow or buy them fresh, they're also often chopped
into bite sized pieces and then frozen or canned for distribution.
They can also be fried or dried and sold as
a snack or incorporated into any number of processed foods.
(11:51):
The leaves are technically edible I think, but like not
really interesting, so it's more often used as like animal
fodder than in human cuisine. Ah and uh. Speaking of farming,
as we discussed recently in our butterfly pea flower episode,
bean plants are really good to grow as a rotational
crop or in your garden because they fix nitrogen in
(12:14):
the soil with help from these symbiotic bacteria. The bacteria
set up shop in the plants fruits and get nutrients
from the plant, and as they grow and die, they
take up nitrogen from the environment. Um, which is difficult
for a lot of living things to do, even though
we generally need to do it in some way shape
or form um and then that nitrogen winds up in
the soil when they die for that plant or other
(12:37):
plants to take up. M m mm hmmm mm hm.
Well what about the nutrition. It depends on how you
cook them. Uh. But but by themselves, green beans are
pretty good for you. Lots of fiber, decent spread of
micro nutrients, we tiny bit of protein um, not a
(13:00):
lot of sugar, practically no fat. So they will help
fill you up. But to keep you going, I'd say
pair with some more protein and some fat. Yeah mm hmm. Well,
we do have a couple of numbers for you, we do,
um okay. So so this first set of numbers is
for both green beans and long beans, okay, because we
(13:26):
are not the only people who have difficulty teasing out
the differences here, um so okay. World production of these
two types of fresh served beans UM as of was
over twenty eight million metric tons One report that I
saw said that UM that is worth thirty one billion
(13:48):
dollars a year UM and that both production and value
of production are growing. China produces some seventy cent of
that right, but until they didn't really export much UM.
(14:08):
Morocco is another major producer because it's warm climate allows
for year round production, and they export a lot to Europe.
Spain in particular, France is both a major exporter and importer. However,
despite being a commonly produced vegetable, only a little over
half a million metric tons of that like twenty eight
(14:29):
million um, we're being traded around the world as so
most green beans are consumed domestically wherever they're grown. Oh
that's interesting. Yeah, from something I read about. Green beans
produced in the United States are eaten fresh, but the
rest are canned and or frozen. Yeah, or frozen. I
(14:50):
guess you could can and freeze. I'm likely if you
wanted to that would be odd, but sure. Part of
the reason for this is the um. If green beans
are to be eaten fresh, they pretty much have to
be harvested by hand. Uh. They don't all ripen all
at once, like, they'll keep flowering and producing throughout the
warm season, so like mechanical harvest is too damaging to
(15:14):
the plants to let that continue to happen. Also, Uh,
the dehydrated green bean market alone was worth some three
billion dollars a Yeah, so apparently it's being incorporated in
a lot of different things anyway, I don't know. Uh. Well, uh,
(15:35):
something else I read claimed that green beans are one
of the most grown vegetables in home gardens in the
United States and that it might be in the top
three most Yeah yeah uh. The Guinness record for the
longest green bean was recorded in in the United States.
(15:56):
It was for a green bean grown in North Carolina
to forty eight point seven five, which is a hundred
twenty one point nine centimeters. That is a four ft
long green bean. People. Whoa. My older brother he had
a grossbert when he was I don't know around the
(16:16):
time gross ferts happened. He was a real like thin
and tall, and my dad used to call him either
green bean or string bean string so he might have
been around this size. Yeah, right, child. Another Guinness record
for you in the processed vegetable producer Green Giant broke
(16:42):
its own record for the largest green bean casserole um.
The previous record from was a six hundred thirty seven
pound cast role that's two eight nine kilos. The new
record was for a one thousand and nine pound uh
(17:05):
casserole that's four hundred and fifty eight kilos um. Whoa uh.
It used an estimated a hundred and twenty five thousand
green beans um from one thousand and sixty nine cans
of the brand's cut green beans nice um, along with
(17:25):
four hundred and eighty five cans of mushroom soup, sixty
five quarts of milk, and nine pounds of French fried
on you. That's right, those things are light right heck
ah um. At any rate, it got a portioned out
(17:48):
and sent to seniors and senior centers around New York
City through City Meals on wheels UM with the idea
of feeding some three thousand people for the Thanksgiving holiday
that year. Wow. That is massive gas role. Wow. All right, well,
(18:09):
I'm going to apologize in advance, but I have to
include this terrible joke. Okay, I want you to Okay,
I have to include it in part because it was
part of an official government document about green bean This
was an official documentary. Okay, all right, all right, Lauren,
will you help me out? Of course? Sure? Sure, sure,
(18:29):
here we go. Knock knock, who's there being being? Who
being to any good movies lately? I don't know what
that voice was, but yeah, yeah, that's I love that.
(18:50):
I love that. This This is from like the genre
of knock knock joke that like you're just like it's
you know, when you're having a conversation with like a
four year old and and you're not positive that they
understand the concept of the joke yet, but they're willing
to do it forever. Yes, And you're like, well, that
(19:15):
was funny, but yeah, I think i've I've said before
I wrote a knock knock joke when I was eight.
I performed it with great pride at my family dinner table,
and it was who's there the garbage truck, garbage truck?
Who the garbage truck stinks? Yeah? Yeah, yeah, hilarious. I
(19:38):
mean it is funny, but in like a data is
kind of like my older brother tear tore me apart
for that joke, and my mom was like, let her
be her tell her jokes. Wow, at remember you haven't
(20:00):
thought about in a while going places? Yeah. Also quick
culture note, it was going to take up way too
much time to dig into this, but Jack and the
bean Stock is believed to be one of the oldest
fairy tales ever told, and it is in the public domain,
so perhaps food fairy tale. Oh man, that's a you
(20:25):
know some of these are tricksye, because like although although
like the tale itself is in the public domain, like
if you like, specific tellings of it are very much copyrighted.
So I don't know. So maybe, yeah, well we'll have
to have to work something out. I have faith in
us we can do those. Yes, we can make this
(20:48):
green bean vaguely related fairy tale. Yeah, I believe it. Well,
we do have quite a bit of green bean history
for you. We do, and we will get into that
as soon as we get back from a quick break.
For a word from our sponsors. We're back. Thank you sponsor, Yes,
(21:15):
thank you. And beans. Why are you so complicated? Why?
Just they knew podcasters were coming and they were like, hey,
I know what will be funny. Yeah, darn you bean,
so delicious, but so complicated. M Yes, I got a
(21:39):
little confused in the research with this one, because separating
out the type of bean that we were specifically talking
about versus those other beans, it was pretty tricky. Um,
but here we go. The wild ancestor of the modern
day green bean has been chased back to Mesoamerica in
(22:02):
South America, where it was domesticated, probably in separate events
around eight thousand BC. Seeds of cultivated green beans were
found in Peru going back to seven thousand six d
b c E, and seeds going back to seven thousand
b C have been found in Mexico, although I saw
some conflicting numbers, like really conflicting on her that perhaps
(22:23):
it was more recent like two thousand to six d
b C. Which is a huge difference. Still old, I
guess we can agree, old. Yeah, yeah. Uh. Indigenous peoples
from this region spread these beans across the continent and
much later up to North America, where Native Americans grew
them alongside corn. Yeah. Beans are part of the three
(22:45):
sisters crops that we talked about sometimes, Um, you'd plant
a corn and squash and beans together. The corn stalks
grow tall and sturdy, providing a surface for the beans
to climb. The squash provides groundcover, and the beans fixed
nitrogen in the soil U plus when you harvest, you're
getting a grain of vegetable and a protein. So just
(23:07):
really smart, really smart. Yeah, m hm. Green Beans were
introduced to Europe from the America's in the late fourteen hundreds.
In fifteen forty three, Leonard Fuchs published an herbal featuring
what is believed to be the earliest known depiction of
this new world being in Europe. Um By the seventeenth century,
green beans were being grown in Turkey, Italy, and Greece,
(23:31):
and then in the eighteen hundreds, growers really started experimenting
with breeding green beans, especially in regards to that stringiness.
And you were talking about Lauren, which my dad, by
the way, hated like it was one of the equivalent
of finding a hair in your food. That's how much
he hated that's green bean. Yeah, so we really had
(23:51):
to my mom and I would just be like, he sure,
there's no strings. And we have this guy, Calvin Keeney,
who is frequently credited with being the father of the
stringless green being due to his contributions in this area.
At the time, Americans of all classes ate a variety
(24:12):
of beans, some dried, some pickles, and more rarely fresh.
A few Southern cookbooks published around this time recommended cooking
green beans for hours until they were soft and tender.
And I think that's my big I think that's my
big craving of the episode, because I haven't had this
Southern style in a long time. Yeah. Same, Okay, Now
(24:34):
for a controversial order, of business as promised the green
bean castle role Um. Okay, so yeah, this is a
dish typically composed of canned green beans, canned cream of
mushroom soup, possibly topped with prepackaged fried onions, and sometimes
a few other things get in there, like like milk
(24:56):
or some kind of dairy. Um. We talked about it
a bit in our Can bowls Soup episode, but here's
a quick refresher. Story goes it was invented by one
Dorcas Riley, a woman who worked for the Campbell's Soup
company in She was looking for an easy recipe that
utilized campbell soup and other ingredients Americans were likely to
(25:18):
have on hand, like canned green beans. According to the company,
about of Campbell's soup sold in went to this soup. Okay,
I find that hard to believe, but I don't know.
People do love a good casule um. And in two
thousand two, Riley presented the recipe to the National Inventors
(25:40):
Hall of Fame, which I kind of enjoy. Yeah, yeah, yep.
While it was never exactly intended to be a Thanksgiving
or holiday dish due to the time, the timing of
the article when it came out it very much did
become one. Yes, and there are such strong opinions about
(26:03):
this dish and about serving green beans at all on Thanksgiving. Um,
and some articles, very strongly opinionated articles even made historical
arguments about it, like, you know, they haven't traditionally been
on Thanksgiving menus their summer weather crop here in America.
Why are you bringing out the green beans now? Right? Yeah? Um,
(26:28):
most likely a dependence or preference for canned goods helps
them show up the few times that they did on
menus from like the eighteen hundreds when these canned green
beans were becoming more accessible. So it's like not unheard of,
but it's definitely not traditionally one of the iss in
(26:50):
in what is now the United States. You're I mean,
unless you're dealing with like a hothouse situation, you're not
going to get a fresh green bean in November. Yes. Yes.
I didn't enjoy reading those articles though, because they were like,
if you need a lighter vegetable, and they would listen
like if you just have all these other options. Up.
I didn't know this was such a controversy and now
(27:11):
I do. Um, Well, we love a strong opinion, hey,
we do. I did enjoy reading about it, That is
the honest truth. And this is also something I found interesting.
The idea around the proper way to cook green beans
began to evolve in the nineteen seventies um empress, particularly
here in the United States, largely thanks to nouvelle cuisine
(27:34):
that placed major emphasis on fresh ingredients and cooking vegetables
like green beans as little as possible. You want that crisp. Yeah,
And through all of this it sort of became a
marker of Southern culture, like if you didn't cook it
that way, these like mushy green beans meant you were
like a backwards Southerner. Yeah, if you liked them, solve Yeah,
(28:01):
how how backwoods hell uneducated of you for cooking food
the way that you're family has for generations. That's a
terrible thing. Yeah, that's my sarcasm voice, by the way,
super checking, just super super putting that out there because
I know that my sarcasm voice is very close to
(28:22):
my regular voice. Always good to have that note. Yeah,
And there were some Southerners who fought back, including Lewis
Grizzard at the Atlanta Journal Constitution, who wrote in the
nineteen eighties about new fancy Atlanta restaurants. And I love
this quote. I had to include it. They serve their
(28:42):
green beans raw and then they cook their tomatoes. This
is an unholy aberration. I cannot abide. That's beautiful. That
is beautiful. Um. Yeah, And you know, and it's you know,
like like like why not both right? Like exactly, I
(29:04):
like both both versions. It's it's a separate dish. Like
when you cook something with a hamhock for two three
two to three hours, like that is clearly a different
dish than if you blanche something m hm uh, if
you like boil it and then give it an ice
bath for a total prep time of like three minutes, yes, yes,
(29:29):
and then yeah, like that's that's total two separate things. Yeah,
And I think, like I when people tell me they
don't like kind of the mushy preparation, I think I
know they're talking about, and I think it's actually I
could be totally wrong, but I think in a lot
of cases it just wasn't seasoned very well. Yeah, because
(29:51):
I've had gross machine green beans too, but I've also
had the amazing like salty bomb yeah, yeah, like many
other stewed to that point, vegetables. What you're kind of
what you're looking to consume is not even the vegetables
so much at that point, as much as like the
(30:12):
pot liquor um, like the like the kind of broth
that you wind up making from a combination of salt
and again some kind of usually cured pork product and
and that vegetable. So yeah, yeah, yeah, it's um. Yeah,
it's so good. It's it's it's lovely, it is it is.
(30:34):
I definitely went through a period where I was like, oh,
I should be ashamed of eating that um, because it
just seemed like that was the right, that was like
the appropriate, like societally. Yeah, and I do get the
like I've heard people say, well, if I want to
eat a vegetable, I want to be healthy. I think
that's sort of a separate argument. But yeah, I like your,
(30:57):
I like your They're two different things, and I think
you go in knowing that both both can be Oh
my gosh, well now yeah, the craving is strong now.
It was minor at the beginning, and now it's like, yeah,
now I'm like I'm like thinking through my canned goods
(31:17):
and my cabinet right now, and I'm like oh, maybe
maybe there's some green beans, and I definitely don't. Okay, okay,
I just need hamhocks. I need like a lot of hamhocks. Yeah, agreed, Lauren.
I love this. I love I feel like every episode
I go in thinking I'll be fine, I don't need
(31:39):
to get this one in. At the end I'm like, oh,
I need to cook this. Yep, find some hamhoks. You
can make it happen. Well, all right, I think that's
what we have to say about green beans for now,
although I would love if listeners wrote in, if you've
got some good recipes, yeah, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, if
you have recipes, if you have memory, is I know,
(32:00):
like like like you said, like right, the kind of
like horrors, but but but fond horror memories of of blanching. Um.
I also like my my grandma Lou grew green beans
in her garden and so like I've got fond childhood
memories of snapping them before dinner and oh goodness, yeah
yeah yeah yeah. But we do have uh some listener
(32:22):
mail already prepared for you right now, simmered for two
or three hours. That's correct, and we will get into it,
but first we have one more quickick for word from
our sponsor, and we're back. Thank you sponsor, Yes, thank you,
(32:46):
We're back with mail. Snap. Yeah did You're right? They
are like summer. I just I do love when you
those fond memor reason like yeah, picking them right before,
and it's just from the ground. They're so good. All right, Okay,
(33:08):
all right, okay, okay, I love this. So many of
you have written in about soda and regional sodas and
local sodas and it's awesome. It's so good. Okay, So
I hope this is from Jennifer. The message wasn't signed,
but that was the uh yeah okay, yeah, yeah, okay,
(33:32):
So I hope that is correct. Wrote. I was listening
to your episode about espresso, and the listener Mail mentioned
wanting to have a tasting of lesser known or local sodas.
Here in southern California, there is a shop called Galcos
near the Echo Park Glendale area that is basically a
small grocery store of only soda. It's lots of fun,
(33:53):
even if they sadly no longer carry my favorite brand
of Birch beer, which I can now only get when
I visit family in Pennsylvan. Yeah. They also ship, but
being local, I have no idea how expensive it is. However,
it might be cheaper than shipping internationally. Their website is
Soda pop Stop dot com. Nice. Nice. I listened to
(34:13):
enough podcast in you guys podcast family that I don't
remember if you enjoyed cat pictures as much as the
stuff you missed in history class, ladies. But on the
off chance you do, I've included a couple of pictures
of my Genie and Pumpkin both enjoying a cross country
r V road trip from a couple of years ago.
Oh yeah, yes, we always pet pictures, always, always, always
(34:36):
pet pictures. I can't I cannot compare our love of
them to uh, the stuff you minst in history class, ladies,
because Holly and Tracy are a little bit intense about cats,
and I wouldn't want I wouldn't want to step on
any tails um here, but yeah, never. But we're big fans. Also,
(35:00):
Oh yeah, oh my goodness, Oh what what lovely human people?
What what a good family to be a part of. Yeah, yeah,
and we do. When when you all send pet pictures,
it's like a it's like a bright spot in the day.
So absolutely, yeah, And I I looked at this. I
went to this website, um, and I had so much
(35:22):
fun just perusing, Like I had no intention of buying anything,
but I was just like looking through and so shocked
and happy at the variety options available. Cool. Yeah, mmmm,
oh that's beautiful. I recently, since very since we are
(35:42):
moving offices, I recently brought home the bizarre contents of
my desk, among which I did have a bottle of
um like novelty ranch flavored soda. So my roommates got
to appreciate the fact that that exists, so that it
haunted me. I see it on your desk and I'd
(36:03):
be like, nobody's yeah, yeah, wondering about the shelf life
on that one. I mean, it's soda, it's hypothetically forever.
But Annie's Annie's face right now is perhaps the most
dubious face I've ever seen Annie make, which like, we
(36:24):
get ourselves into some vaguely dubious food related situations. I
just I don't know about that, Lauren, Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Usually you're like gung how about it? But like that
was an extremely dubious face. Um at any rate, Uh,
(36:48):
let's move into safer territory. Claire wrote, I just listened
to your Hunger Games fictional food episode fantastic as always
and had to drop everything to right in when I
heard your pie crust woe discussion in the listener mail segment.
Let me help you love making homemade pie crust. This
recipe was passed down from my French grandmother to my
(37:09):
foodie father to me. It's a patte brisset. I always
make my crusts from scratch because this method is virtually
painless and super duper delicious. The trick is that you
mix it in a food processor. A blender would probably
work too, so you'll need two cups of all purpose flour,
pinch of salt, a couple of tablespoons of sugar if
you're making a sweet pie rather than like keish or
(37:31):
something like that, one stick of butter. I like it frozen,
but you can use refrigerated butter too, and one third
two half a cup of cold water so directions. Put
the flour, salt, and sugar, if using, into the bowl
of a food processor and store around a little with
a spoon or pulse a couple of times to distribute.
(37:51):
Slice up your butter. Use a sharp knife if the
butter is frozen. I cut it into about a quarter
inch slices. Dump all the slices into the flour, and
make sure and blend until you get like a gravelly
textured mixture. If the butter is frozen, you'll still have
some little butter pebbles that didn't get completely broken down.
That's totally fine. It will give your crust a laminated
(38:12):
flake equality when it bakes. Next, add in the cold
water and blend. Be careful not to overmix at this stage.
My food processor isn't the best, so I often finished
this part off by mixing it by hand. It makes
it a bit easier to judge how much water you need.
That way to uh, start with the one third cup
and see if you need a little more. This will
(38:32):
depend on the humidity of your environment. You're going for
a dough that's malleable but not too sticky, something along
the lines of fresh plato. Again doesn't have to be perfect.
Mind comes out a tiny bit different every time, but
it's always delicious. Use it immediately or let it rest
wrapped in plastic wrap or waxed paper for a few
hours or twenty four hours in the fridge. Roll out
(38:53):
on a flowered surface and place in your pie pan.
Your dough should be moist enough that even cold from
the fridge rolling it out won't make you want to swear.
Optional pre bake. I'm usually making keish when I use
this crust, and it was always too wet in the middle.
So I've started pre baking the crust for about ten
minutes before filling, stabbed a few times with a fork
(39:14):
so it doesn't bubble up. Okay, So so uh, you
are completely correct, clear this is uh In my opinion,
the best way to make a crust um like the
only way to do one at home. Like, using a
food processor is so much better than cutting butter into
(39:35):
anything by hand. Um, just so infinitely better. And every
time I go to cut something cut cut butter into
something by hand, I'm like, oh, it's gonna be so fun.
I'm gonna feel like a like an old timy lady,
and I'm going to have it. I hate it, I
despise it, and I forget every time. Um. Using a
(39:57):
food processor is a serious game. JA. Owning a decent
food processor is a thing of love and beauty. Um.
I inherited one that I'm nearly positive still works. Um
like a like a good queens in art from my dad,
and uh oh, it's the only way to go. I
haven't tried in like a blender blender. Um, but you know,
(40:19):
I don't know, y'all, if if any if anyone has
right in and let us know. Um, but you know
that is like that that is a really good recipe.
You're right, yeah, And it's not that hard to roll out. Okay.
So this is interesting to me because I think I've
shared my recipe before, but I essentially do the same thing,
(40:41):
but I don't. I don't have a food processor, so
I freeze the butter and then I use a grinder
graded But the problem with that is, like the recipe
I use, it is like everything has to be cold.
This tool has to be cold blow water rescipe coold.
So my hands get so cold when I and that's
the miserable part for me. Yeah, yeah, I can see
(41:03):
how this is my game. Yeah yeah, Annie, I feel
like I feel like we need to get you a
pair of like temperature proof kitchen gloves because I feel
like all of your food wees could be solved by
like a decent pair of silicon gloves. Like it's true,
you you have you have these issues, and I just
(41:26):
I want I want your hands too. I know that
you're like a little bit temperature sensitive to begin with,
and like I want I want you to have a
better time. Thank you. That's very kind of you. It
is true. It's one of those things like now that
you pointed out, I'm like, yeah, there are things I
could do. However, I'm also somebody like speaking of dubious.
(41:47):
I have these gloves that are supposed to be like
anti you can never get cut while wearing them. I
don't trust that. I don't trust that. So yeah, I
think that's also part of it where I'm like, oh yeah, yeah,
little suspicious. You're like, you're like, don't tell me what
I can't do. I can still cut myself with those
gloves on. If there's a way I will find it. Yeah. Yeah,
(42:13):
So it's kind of similar. There are certain things where
I'm like, I'm afraid I'd get so used to the
gloves that I'd forget about. Yeah. So it's a balancing act,
but perhaps I will experiment with it. I do this
recipe sounds great. I'm also like, I won't swear when
(42:36):
making pride crust. Then what am I even doing? Dubiousness
in this in this one, but yeah, I'm excited about
the possibility high crust. Oh yeah, well, we always appreciate recipes,
pet pictures, all of the all of this is excellent.
(42:58):
Thank you so much both of these listeners for writing in.
If you would like to write to us that you
can our emails hello at saver pod dot com, and
we're also on social media. You can find us on Twitter, Facebook,
and Instagram at saver pod and we do hope to
hear from you. Safer is a production of I Heart Radio.
For more podcasts my Heart Radio, you can visit the
I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
(43:19):
to your favorite shows. Thanks as always to our superproducers
Dylan Fagan and Andrew Howard. Thanks to you for listening,
and we hope that lots more good things are coming
your way.
Hello, and welcome to Savor production of I Heart Radio.
I'm any reason I'm more in folk bum and today
we have an episode for you about green beans. M
hm any any particular reason why? Oh I don't know.
Why do any of us do anything anymore? Annie? Who
needs a reason to talk about? Great? Right? I think
(00:31):
I was. I was thinking about a vegetable and uh
and they're they're They're a nice seasonal summer vegetable. And
I really thought that we had done them already, and
we have not. So there you go, there you go.
I do I love I love green beans. Um. And
(00:54):
the research for this was fun because I grew up
eating kind of a really strong Southern style of green Yeah. Yeah,
same like cooks and it's got to ham hawking is
just like very very salty and mushi, which I actually
enjoy and yeah, but yeah, the very very good. However,
when I got to college, I remember very vividly a
(01:18):
friend of mine. She was actually like my mentor in
this program, but anyway, I'll say we were friends. She
cooked me green beans and they were so like crisp
and freshener, being like whoa wow, right, yeah, very vibrant.
(01:39):
I also I loved that too. Um. I do have
a lot of memories, as your listeners know, of stringing
them and preparing them and blanching them with my mom.
Not fun, the blanching, the bch I still remembered it.
It halts me every day. However, I were really good,
(02:02):
like you know, you're still the kind of like I
remember the pain you caused me. But then I would
bite into it and be like wow, okay it ghos um,
and then I remembered. I have a lot of good
memories of eating them in China. But when I was
doing this research, maybe I'm talking about long beans and
I had an existential being crisis. Oh no, um yeah,
(02:28):
long long beans are one of the names for um
for I mean, it's it's still look green being vegetal product.
It's just a different a different genus. It's a variety
of cow pea um, which are African in origin rather
than American in origin. Uh. It's it's also where we
(02:49):
get like black eyed peas from cow peas. Yeah. Um,
but but right, but quite similar in concept. You're you're
dealing with a green being, so yeah, yeah, oh yeah,
well I spiral, Lauren. Actually there was quite a few
points in this episode where I had to be like, Okay,
(03:10):
but which being are we talking about? Oh yeah, serious,
it is serious. It is something else I realized is
very serious. Um So in my family this is sort
of a newer development, but we make green beans every Thanksgiving,
which is kind of Yeah, it's a newer thing. I
was doing it because I just wanted something that was
(03:32):
light and not like just carbs and salt um. And
it's it's very simple the recipe I do. But through
those research I have learned this is an extremely controversial
thing and I can't wait to talk about it. Oh yeah, no.
The green bean cast role um in particular is uh
quite a quite a thing. I and something that I
(03:54):
think I've talked about on here before, like something that
I get like actual cratings for dramatically of season um,
out of the Thanksgiving season, out of the green bean
growing season. Just like I'm like, what I want right
now is cream of mushroom soup smothering a bunch of
green beans. And I couldn't really tell you why other
than the fact that it's delicious like that, It's one
(04:15):
of those nostalgia foods where I'm like, oh, man, like
everything must be okay, if I'm eating this, yeah, I've
definitely got It's a minor craving, but it's a craving
for it. After doing this research. It's been a minute
since I've had it. Oh yeah, yeah, m m m.
I believe I've said this before, but beans is one
(04:36):
of my most search terms. It pops up on my homepage,
so you know, like Google has those icons, and it's
like for me, it's like fan fiction, star Wars news.
All right, it's it sounds weirder than it is. Okay,
(04:57):
I'll take your word for that. I yeah, I've debated
like explaining it or leaving the mystery. I don't know.
I the mystery is kind of fun. Do you just
like cooking beans but you're not sure how to cook them?
Every time you cook them? Is that basically it? It's
a little weirder than that, but not too much weirder.
I'm all right, yeah, okay, I'll tell you. I'll tell you. Um. So,
(05:25):
when I'm doing like the listeners, when I send Lauren
title puns, I think there's usually like fifteen too, sometimes thirty. Yeah,
it's quite a few. Um. Most of them are very
specific at cultural references no one but me would get,
but I send them anyway because I find it important
and I hope that it gives you a laugh. Um.
(05:47):
But at the end, when I get to the end
of sort of my own thoughts, in my own pun
just like trying to find anything that corn ideas. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
I search this Idiom website to make sure I'm not
missing like an easy one. Good. Yeah, And I just
(06:09):
favorited the page and beans is the page. So I
just type in beans in the search brings me to
the Idiom page. So that's it. That is that is
very that is very specific. That is very specific to
our strange, wonderful jobs. It just cracks me up because
(06:37):
every time I like go to search something that's like beans. No,
not today, Google, Sorry, Google, I don't need the beans
today tomorrow definitely. Well, Well, now that that mystery is
solves a little peak behind the curtain. Okay, I guess
that brings us to your question. I suppose it brings
(06:59):
us somewhere. It does, Yes, it does. Green beans what
are they? Well, green beans are the fresh green fruit
of the common bean plant. Uh. Fruit fruit is the
botanical term. They're kind of like savory or vegetable, so
(07:20):
we eat them as a vegetable anyway. Um, if you
let green beans develop, their seeds might grow into what
we know as kidney beans or pinto beans, or black
beans or white beans, among a few others, depending on
the varietal that you're dealing with. But we are not
letting those seeds develop today. No, no, we are plucking
(07:42):
that seed pod when it is like lay under, ripe green,
probably in color um. The flesh of the pod still
tender and juicy. The seeds inside just barely. They're like
sort of soft, little little pips like the side the
size of sesame seeds at this stage of growth. The
seeds of the common bean ain't nothing, but the pods
(08:05):
that protect and nourish them are long, skinny and plump
with nutrients um good raw or just heated through and
still snappy or cooked down into that nice mushy softness.
They're like they're like if the wrapping paper is better
than the present, but you don't even care because the
wrapping paper is like so good. Um, But we're not.
(08:26):
We're not. We're not eating wrapping paper. Um. They're there.
The abundance and promise of summer yeah, yeah, yeah, great bean.
That's fun. No, right, Like, this was not one that
I expected to get like intense cravings during the reading for.
(08:48):
But every time I saw a photo of any of
those different kinds of green beans, I was like, Yes,
I want that right now. Yes. Botanical name Fasilis vulgaris,
which just means common bean um. They are a member
of the Lagume or fabossier family um. And this is
(09:09):
a pretty wide species with lots of different cultivars used
for different purposes. But if you're going to grow them
for green beans, you're usually looking at a plant that
you plant annually every year from seeds or seedlings. They're
a viny, climbing plant with a broad green leaves and
little tendrils that help them attached to stuff. Uh. They'll
(09:30):
flower in warm weather with pretty little white to gold
to red flowers and if pollinated, fruit with these pods
that are sort of like like long canoe shaped, maybe
maybe three to six inches in length, that's like seven
to fifteen centimeters and up to about half an inch
wide as about a centimeter or so. And now when
(09:52):
those pods are mature, uh, they dry out into sort
of husks, often white to yellow to purple in color
and with like big meaty seeds inside. But for for
green beans, right, you pick the pods when they're still
immature and green or usually green. Some varietals will start
to show those colors when they're still like green, like immature.
(10:16):
But yeah, yeah, uh, So in order to consume them,
you snap or cut off the tough stem um. One
of their nicknames is snap beans. Another nickname is string beans,
as older varietals in the past often had like a
tough string running down the seam of the bean that
you'd want to pull away along with the stem. But anyway,
(10:38):
you do not have to snap off the other end,
but a lot of people do. Yeah, I can't tell
you one way or another. You do you uh? And
then you might do just about anything with them, um,
chop them fresh into salads, pickle them, saute or stir
fry them alone as a side or incorporated into a dish.
(11:00):
You can slice them up into a creamy or a
spicy casserole. You can steam or roast them, boil them
down until they've lost their snap and springy to, preferably
with some kind of cured pork product um. Their taste
is mild and write vegetable, a little earthy and sweet
and green or kind of herbal. Uh. They're a good
platform for other like strong, straightforward flavors sesame, garlic, chilies, bacon. Um.
(11:29):
I know it sounds so good, right. And although you
can grow or buy them fresh, they're also often chopped
into bite sized pieces and then frozen or canned for distribution.
They can also be fried or dried and sold as
a snack or incorporated into any number of processed foods.
(11:51):
The leaves are technically edible I think, but like not
really interesting, so it's more often used as like animal
fodder than in human cuisine. Ah and uh. Speaking of farming,
as we discussed recently in our butterfly pea flower episode,
bean plants are really good to grow as a rotational
crop or in your garden because they fix nitrogen in
(12:14):
the soil with help from these symbiotic bacteria. The bacteria
set up shop in the plants fruits and get nutrients
from the plant, and as they grow and die, they
take up nitrogen from the environment. Um, which is difficult
for a lot of living things to do, even though
we generally need to do it in some way shape
or form um and then that nitrogen winds up in
the soil when they die for that plant or other
(12:37):
plants to take up. M m mm hmmm mm hm.
Well what about the nutrition. It depends on how you
cook them. Uh. But but by themselves, green beans are
pretty good for you. Lots of fiber, decent spread of
micro nutrients, we tiny bit of protein um, not a
(13:00):
lot of sugar, practically no fat. So they will help
fill you up. But to keep you going, I'd say
pair with some more protein and some fat. Yeah mm hmm. Well,
we do have a couple of numbers for you, we do,
um okay. So so this first set of numbers is
for both green beans and long beans, okay, because we
(13:26):
are not the only people who have difficulty teasing out
the differences here, um so okay. World production of these
two types of fresh served beans UM as of was
over twenty eight million metric tons One report that I
saw said that UM that is worth thirty one billion
(13:48):
dollars a year UM and that both production and value
of production are growing. China produces some seventy cent of
that right, but until they didn't really export much UM.
(14:08):
Morocco is another major producer because it's warm climate allows
for year round production, and they export a lot to Europe.
Spain in particular, France is both a major exporter and importer. However,
despite being a commonly produced vegetable, only a little over
half a million metric tons of that like twenty eight
(14:29):
million um, we're being traded around the world as so
most green beans are consumed domestically wherever they're grown. Oh
that's interesting. Yeah, from something I read about. Green beans
produced in the United States are eaten fresh, but the
rest are canned and or frozen. Yeah, or frozen. I
(14:50):
guess you could can and freeze. I'm likely if you
wanted to that would be odd, but sure. Part of
the reason for this is the um. If green beans
are to be eaten fresh, they pretty much have to
be harvested by hand. Uh. They don't all ripen all
at once, like, they'll keep flowering and producing throughout the
warm season, so like mechanical harvest is too damaging to
(15:14):
the plants to let that continue to happen. Also, Uh,
the dehydrated green bean market alone was worth some three
billion dollars a Yeah, so apparently it's being incorporated in
a lot of different things anyway, I don't know. Uh. Well, uh,
(15:35):
something else I read claimed that green beans are one
of the most grown vegetables in home gardens in the
United States and that it might be in the top
three most Yeah yeah uh. The Guinness record for the
longest green bean was recorded in in the United States.
(15:56):
It was for a green bean grown in North Carolina
to forty eight point seven five, which is a hundred
twenty one point nine centimeters. That is a four ft
long green bean. People. Whoa. My older brother he had
a grossbert when he was I don't know around the
(16:16):
time gross ferts happened. He was a real like thin
and tall, and my dad used to call him either
green bean or string bean string so he might have
been around this size. Yeah, right, child. Another Guinness record
for you in the processed vegetable producer Green Giant broke
(16:42):
its own record for the largest green bean casserole um.
The previous record from was a six hundred thirty seven
pound cast role that's two eight nine kilos. The new
record was for a one thousand and nine pound uh
(17:05):
casserole that's four hundred and fifty eight kilos um. Whoa uh.
It used an estimated a hundred and twenty five thousand
green beans um from one thousand and sixty nine cans
of the brand's cut green beans nice um, along with
(17:25):
four hundred and eighty five cans of mushroom soup, sixty
five quarts of milk, and nine pounds of French fried
on you. That's right, those things are light right heck
ah um. At any rate, it got a portioned out
(17:48):
and sent to seniors and senior centers around New York
City through City Meals on wheels UM with the idea
of feeding some three thousand people for the Thanksgiving holiday
that year. Wow. That is massive gas role. Wow. All right, well,
(18:09):
I'm going to apologize in advance, but I have to
include this terrible joke. Okay, I want you to Okay,
I have to include it in part because it was
part of an official government document about green bean This
was an official documentary. Okay, all right, all right, Lauren,
will you help me out? Of course? Sure? Sure, sure,
(18:29):
here we go. Knock knock, who's there being being? Who
being to any good movies lately? I don't know what
that voice was, but yeah, yeah, that's I love that.
(18:50):
I love that. This This is from like the genre
of knock knock joke that like you're just like it's
you know, when you're having a conversation with like a
four year old and and you're not positive that they
understand the concept of the joke yet, but they're willing
to do it forever. Yes, And you're like, well, that
(19:15):
was funny, but yeah, I think i've I've said before
I wrote a knock knock joke when I was eight.
I performed it with great pride at my family dinner table,
and it was who's there the garbage truck, garbage truck?
Who the garbage truck stinks? Yeah? Yeah, yeah, hilarious. I
(19:38):
mean it is funny, but in like a data is
kind of like my older brother tear tore me apart
for that joke, and my mom was like, let her
be her tell her jokes. Wow, at remember you haven't
(20:00):
thought about in a while going places? Yeah. Also quick
culture note, it was going to take up way too
much time to dig into this, but Jack and the
bean Stock is believed to be one of the oldest
fairy tales ever told, and it is in the public domain,
so perhaps food fairy tale. Oh man, that's a you
(20:25):
know some of these are tricksye, because like although although
like the tale itself is in the public domain, like
if you like, specific tellings of it are very much copyrighted.
So I don't know. So maybe, yeah, well we'll have
to have to work something out. I have faith in
us we can do those. Yes, we can make this
(20:48):
green bean vaguely related fairy tale. Yeah, I believe it. Well,
we do have quite a bit of green bean history
for you. We do, and we will get into that
as soon as we get back from a quick break.
For a word from our sponsors. We're back. Thank you sponsor, Yes,
(21:15):
thank you. And beans. Why are you so complicated? Why?
Just they knew podcasters were coming and they were like, hey,
I know what will be funny. Yeah, darn you bean,
so delicious, but so complicated. M Yes, I got a
(21:39):
little confused in the research with this one, because separating
out the type of bean that we were specifically talking
about versus those other beans, it was pretty tricky. Um,
but here we go. The wild ancestor of the modern
day green bean has been chased back to Mesoamerica in
(22:02):
South America, where it was domesticated, probably in separate events
around eight thousand BC. Seeds of cultivated green beans were
found in Peru going back to seven thousand six d
b c E, and seeds going back to seven thousand
b C have been found in Mexico, although I saw
some conflicting numbers, like really conflicting on her that perhaps
(22:23):
it was more recent like two thousand to six d
b C. Which is a huge difference. Still old, I
guess we can agree, old. Yeah, yeah. Uh. Indigenous peoples
from this region spread these beans across the continent and
much later up to North America, where Native Americans grew
them alongside corn. Yeah. Beans are part of the three
(22:45):
sisters crops that we talked about sometimes, Um, you'd plant
a corn and squash and beans together. The corn stalks
grow tall and sturdy, providing a surface for the beans
to climb. The squash provides groundcover, and the beans fixed
nitrogen in the soil U plus when you harvest, you're
getting a grain of vegetable and a protein. So just
(23:07):
really smart, really smart. Yeah, m hm. Green Beans were
introduced to Europe from the America's in the late fourteen hundreds.
In fifteen forty three, Leonard Fuchs published an herbal featuring
what is believed to be the earliest known depiction of
this new world being in Europe. Um By the seventeenth century,
green beans were being grown in Turkey, Italy, and Greece,
(23:31):
and then in the eighteen hundreds, growers really started experimenting
with breeding green beans, especially in regards to that stringiness.
And you were talking about Lauren, which my dad, by
the way, hated like it was one of the equivalent
of finding a hair in your food. That's how much
he hated that's green bean. Yeah, so we really had
(23:51):
to my mom and I would just be like, he sure,
there's no strings. And we have this guy, Calvin Keeney,
who is frequently credited with being the father of the
stringless green being due to his contributions in this area.
At the time, Americans of all classes ate a variety
(24:12):
of beans, some dried, some pickles, and more rarely fresh.
A few Southern cookbooks published around this time recommended cooking
green beans for hours until they were soft and tender.
And I think that's my big I think that's my
big craving of the episode, because I haven't had this
Southern style in a long time. Yeah. Same, Okay, Now
(24:34):
for a controversial order, of business as promised the green
bean castle role Um. Okay, so yeah, this is a
dish typically composed of canned green beans, canned cream of
mushroom soup, possibly topped with prepackaged fried onions, and sometimes
a few other things get in there, like like milk
(24:56):
or some kind of dairy. Um. We talked about it
a bit in our Can bowls Soup episode, but here's
a quick refresher. Story goes it was invented by one
Dorcas Riley, a woman who worked for the Campbell's Soup
company in She was looking for an easy recipe that
utilized campbell soup and other ingredients Americans were likely to
(25:18):
have on hand, like canned green beans. According to the company,
about of Campbell's soup sold in went to this soup. Okay,
I find that hard to believe, but I don't know.
People do love a good casule um. And in two
thousand two, Riley presented the recipe to the National Inventors
(25:40):
Hall of Fame, which I kind of enjoy. Yeah, yeah, yep.
While it was never exactly intended to be a Thanksgiving
or holiday dish due to the time, the timing of
the article when it came out it very much did
become one. Yes, and there are such strong opinions about
(26:03):
this dish and about serving green beans at all on Thanksgiving. Um,
and some articles, very strongly opinionated articles even made historical
arguments about it, like, you know, they haven't traditionally been
on Thanksgiving menus their summer weather crop here in America.
Why are you bringing out the green beans now? Right? Yeah? Um,
(26:28):
most likely a dependence or preference for canned goods helps
them show up the few times that they did on
menus from like the eighteen hundreds when these canned green
beans were becoming more accessible. So it's like not unheard of,
but it's definitely not traditionally one of the iss in
(26:50):
in what is now the United States. You're I mean,
unless you're dealing with like a hothouse situation, you're not
going to get a fresh green bean in November. Yes. Yes.
I didn't enjoy reading those articles though, because they were like,
if you need a lighter vegetable, and they would listen
like if you just have all these other options. Up.
I didn't know this was such a controversy and now
(27:11):
I do. Um, Well, we love a strong opinion, hey,
we do. I did enjoy reading about it, That is
the honest truth. And this is also something I found interesting.
The idea around the proper way to cook green beans
began to evolve in the nineteen seventies um empress, particularly
here in the United States, largely thanks to nouvelle cuisine
(27:34):
that placed major emphasis on fresh ingredients and cooking vegetables
like green beans as little as possible. You want that crisp. Yeah,
And through all of this it sort of became a
marker of Southern culture, like if you didn't cook it
that way, these like mushy green beans meant you were
like a backwards Southerner. Yeah, if you liked them, solve Yeah,
(28:01):
how how backwoods hell uneducated of you for cooking food
the way that you're family has for generations. That's a
terrible thing. Yeah, that's my sarcasm voice, by the way,
super checking, just super super putting that out there because
I know that my sarcasm voice is very close to
(28:22):
my regular voice. Always good to have that note. Yeah,
And there were some Southerners who fought back, including Lewis
Grizzard at the Atlanta Journal Constitution, who wrote in the
nineteen eighties about new fancy Atlanta restaurants. And I love
this quote. I had to include it. They serve their
(28:42):
green beans raw and then they cook their tomatoes. This
is an unholy aberration. I cannot abide. That's beautiful. That
is beautiful. Um. Yeah, And you know, and it's you know,
like like like why not both right? Like exactly, I
(29:04):
like both both versions. It's it's a separate dish. Like
when you cook something with a hamhock for two three
two to three hours, like that is clearly a different
dish than if you blanche something m hm uh, if
you like boil it and then give it an ice
bath for a total prep time of like three minutes, yes, yes,
(29:29):
and then yeah, like that's that's total two separate things. Yeah,
And I think, like I when people tell me they
don't like kind of the mushy preparation, I think I
know they're talking about, and I think it's actually I
could be totally wrong, but I think in a lot
of cases it just wasn't seasoned very well. Yeah, because
(29:51):
I've had gross machine green beans too, but I've also
had the amazing like salty bomb yeah, yeah, like many
other stewed to that point, vegetables. What you're kind of
what you're looking to consume is not even the vegetables
so much at that point, as much as like the
(30:12):
pot liquor um, like the like the kind of broth
that you wind up making from a combination of salt
and again some kind of usually cured pork product and
and that vegetable. So yeah, yeah, yeah, it's um. Yeah,
it's so good. It's it's it's lovely, it is it is.
(30:34):
I definitely went through a period where I was like, oh,
I should be ashamed of eating that um, because it
just seemed like that was the right, that was like
the appropriate, like societally. Yeah, and I do get the
like I've heard people say, well, if I want to
eat a vegetable, I want to be healthy. I think
that's sort of a separate argument. But yeah, I like your,
(30:57):
I like your They're two different things, and I think
you go in knowing that both both can be Oh
my gosh, well now yeah, the craving is strong now.
It was minor at the beginning, and now it's like, yeah,
now I'm like I'm like thinking through my canned goods
(31:17):
and my cabinet right now, and I'm like oh, maybe
maybe there's some green beans, and I definitely don't. Okay, okay,
I just need hamhocks. I need like a lot of hamhocks. Yeah, agreed, Lauren.
I love this. I love I feel like every episode
I go in thinking I'll be fine, I don't need
(31:39):
to get this one in. At the end I'm like, oh,
I need to cook this. Yep, find some hamhoks. You
can make it happen. Well, all right, I think that's
what we have to say about green beans for now,
although I would love if listeners wrote in, if you've
got some good recipes, yeah, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, if
you have recipes, if you have memory, is I know,
(32:00):
like like like you said, like right, the kind of
like horrors, but but but fond horror memories of of blanching. Um.
I also like my my grandma Lou grew green beans
in her garden and so like I've got fond childhood
memories of snapping them before dinner and oh goodness, yeah
yeah yeah yeah. But we do have uh some listener
(32:22):
mail already prepared for you right now, simmered for two
or three hours. That's correct, and we will get into it,
but first we have one more quickick for word from
our sponsor, and we're back. Thank you sponsor, Yes, thank you,
(32:46):
We're back with mail. Snap. Yeah did You're right? They
are like summer. I just I do love when you
those fond memor reason like yeah, picking them right before,
and it's just from the ground. They're so good. All right, Okay,
(33:08):
all right, okay, okay, I love this. So many of
you have written in about soda and regional sodas and
local sodas and it's awesome. It's so good. Okay, So
I hope this is from Jennifer. The message wasn't signed,
but that was the uh yeah okay, yeah, yeah, okay,
(33:32):
So I hope that is correct. Wrote. I was listening
to your episode about espresso, and the listener Mail mentioned
wanting to have a tasting of lesser known or local sodas.
Here in southern California, there is a shop called Galcos
near the Echo Park Glendale area that is basically a
small grocery store of only soda. It's lots of fun,
(33:53):
even if they sadly no longer carry my favorite brand
of Birch beer, which I can now only get when
I visit family in Pennsylvan. Yeah. They also ship, but
being local, I have no idea how expensive it is. However,
it might be cheaper than shipping internationally. Their website is
Soda pop Stop dot com. Nice. Nice. I listened to
(34:13):
enough podcast in you guys podcast family that I don't
remember if you enjoyed cat pictures as much as the
stuff you missed in history class, ladies. But on the
off chance you do, I've included a couple of pictures
of my Genie and Pumpkin both enjoying a cross country
r V road trip from a couple of years ago.
Oh yeah, yes, we always pet pictures, always, always, always
(34:36):
pet pictures. I can't I cannot compare our love of
them to uh, the stuff you minst in history class, ladies,
because Holly and Tracy are a little bit intense about cats,
and I wouldn't want I wouldn't want to step on
any tails um here, but yeah, never. But we're big fans. Also,
(35:00):
Oh yeah, oh my goodness, Oh what what lovely human people?
What what a good family to be a part of. Yeah, yeah,
and we do. When when you all send pet pictures,
it's like a it's like a bright spot in the day.
So absolutely, yeah, And I I looked at this. I
went to this website, um, and I had so much
(35:22):
fun just perusing, Like I had no intention of buying anything,
but I was just like looking through and so shocked
and happy at the variety options available. Cool. Yeah, mmmm,
oh that's beautiful. I recently, since very since we are
(35:42):
moving offices, I recently brought home the bizarre contents of
my desk, among which I did have a bottle of
um like novelty ranch flavored soda. So my roommates got
to appreciate the fact that that exists, so that it
haunted me. I see it on your desk and I'd
(36:03):
be like, nobody's yeah, yeah, wondering about the shelf life
on that one. I mean, it's soda, it's hypothetically forever.
But Annie's Annie's face right now is perhaps the most
dubious face I've ever seen Annie make, which like, we
(36:24):
get ourselves into some vaguely dubious food related situations. I
just I don't know about that, Lauren, Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Usually you're like gung how about it? But like that
was an extremely dubious face. Um at any rate, Uh,
(36:48):
let's move into safer territory. Claire wrote, I just listened
to your Hunger Games fictional food episode fantastic as always
and had to drop everything to right in when I
heard your pie crust woe discussion in the listener mail segment.
Let me help you love making homemade pie crust. This
recipe was passed down from my French grandmother to my
(37:09):
foodie father to me. It's a patte brisset. I always
make my crusts from scratch because this method is virtually
painless and super duper delicious. The trick is that you
mix it in a food processor. A blender would probably
work too, so you'll need two cups of all purpose flour,
pinch of salt, a couple of tablespoons of sugar if
you're making a sweet pie rather than like keish or
(37:31):
something like that, one stick of butter. I like it frozen,
but you can use refrigerated butter too, and one third
two half a cup of cold water so directions. Put
the flour, salt, and sugar, if using, into the bowl
of a food processor and store around a little with
a spoon or pulse a couple of times to distribute.
(37:51):
Slice up your butter. Use a sharp knife if the
butter is frozen. I cut it into about a quarter
inch slices. Dump all the slices into the flour, and
make sure and blend until you get like a gravelly
textured mixture. If the butter is frozen, you'll still have
some little butter pebbles that didn't get completely broken down.
That's totally fine. It will give your crust a laminated
(38:12):
flake equality when it bakes. Next, add in the cold
water and blend. Be careful not to overmix at this stage.
My food processor isn't the best, so I often finished
this part off by mixing it by hand. It makes
it a bit easier to judge how much water you need.
That way to uh, start with the one third cup
and see if you need a little more. This will
(38:32):
depend on the humidity of your environment. You're going for
a dough that's malleable but not too sticky, something along
the lines of fresh plato. Again doesn't have to be perfect.
Mind comes out a tiny bit different every time, but
it's always delicious. Use it immediately or let it rest
wrapped in plastic wrap or waxed paper for a few
hours or twenty four hours in the fridge. Roll out
(38:53):
on a flowered surface and place in your pie pan.
Your dough should be moist enough that even cold from
the fridge rolling it out won't make you want to swear.
Optional pre bake. I'm usually making keish when I use
this crust, and it was always too wet in the middle.
So I've started pre baking the crust for about ten
minutes before filling, stabbed a few times with a fork
(39:14):
so it doesn't bubble up. Okay, So so uh, you
are completely correct, clear this is uh In my opinion,
the best way to make a crust um like the
only way to do one at home. Like, using a
food processor is so much better than cutting butter into
(39:35):
anything by hand. Um, just so infinitely better. And every
time I go to cut something cut cut butter into
something by hand, I'm like, oh, it's gonna be so fun.
I'm gonna feel like a like an old timy lady,
and I'm going to have it. I hate it, I
despise it, and I forget every time. Um. Using a
(39:57):
food processor is a serious game. JA. Owning a decent
food processor is a thing of love and beauty. Um.
I inherited one that I'm nearly positive still works. Um
like a like a good queens in art from my dad,
and uh oh, it's the only way to go. I
haven't tried in like a blender blender. Um, but you know,
(40:19):
I don't know, y'all, if if any if anyone has
right in and let us know. Um, but you know
that is like that that is a really good recipe.
You're right, yeah, And it's not that hard to roll out. Okay.
So this is interesting to me because I think I've
shared my recipe before, but I essentially do the same thing,
(40:41):
but I don't. I don't have a food processor, so
I freeze the butter and then I use a grinder
graded But the problem with that is, like the recipe
I use, it is like everything has to be cold.
This tool has to be cold blow water rescipe coold.
So my hands get so cold when I and that's
the miserable part for me. Yeah, yeah, I can see
(41:03):
how this is my game. Yeah yeah, Annie, I feel
like I feel like we need to get you a
pair of like temperature proof kitchen gloves because I feel
like all of your food wees could be solved by
like a decent pair of silicon gloves. Like it's true,
you you have you have these issues, and I just
(41:26):
I want I want your hands too. I know that
you're like a little bit temperature sensitive to begin with,
and like I want I want you to have a
better time. Thank you. That's very kind of you. It
is true. It's one of those things like now that
you pointed out, I'm like, yeah, there are things I
could do. However, I'm also somebody like speaking of dubious.
(41:47):
I have these gloves that are supposed to be like
anti you can never get cut while wearing them. I
don't trust that. I don't trust that. So yeah, I
think that's also part of it where I'm like, oh yeah, yeah,
little suspicious. You're like, you're like, don't tell me what
I can't do. I can still cut myself with those
gloves on. If there's a way I will find it. Yeah. Yeah,
(42:13):
So it's kind of similar. There are certain things where
I'm like, I'm afraid I'd get so used to the
gloves that I'd forget about. Yeah. So it's a balancing act,
but perhaps I will experiment with it. I do this
recipe sounds great. I'm also like, I won't swear when
(42:36):
making pride crust. Then what am I even doing? Dubiousness
in this in this one, but yeah, I'm excited about
the possibility high crust. Oh yeah, well, we always appreciate recipes,
pet pictures, all of the all of this is excellent.
(42:58):
Thank you so much both of these listeners for writing in.
If you would like to write to us that you
can our emails hello at saver pod dot com, and
we're also on social media. You can find us on Twitter, Facebook,
and Instagram at saver pod and we do hope to
hear from you. Safer is a production of I Heart Radio.
For more podcasts my Heart Radio, you can visit the
I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
(43:19):
to your favorite shows. Thanks as always to our superproducers
Dylan Fagan and Andrew Howard. Thanks to you for listening,
and we hope that lots more good things are coming
your way.
Savor News
Hosts And Creators
Anney Reese
Lauren Vogelbaum
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