=Boiled Broad Beans= are best when gathered young, about two-thirds
grown; the flavour is then very delicate. Some consider this plan
wasteful, but it is not so, really, as if one waits for the crop to
attain its full size, an enormous quantity of beans are ready at once.
By beginning early one can keep pace with nature.
Shell the beans, and put them into boiling water with one tablespoonful
of salt and a very small piece of soda. Boil for ten minutes if very
young, increasing the length of time as they grow older. Drain and heap
up on a drainer, pour over parsley sauce, and serve very hot.
=Parsley Sauce.=--Pick and wash some fresh parsley, dip into boiling
water for a minute, place in the corner of a towel, and wring out. This
process eliminates some of the bitter flavour, and saves the trouble of
boiling the parsley. Chop with a Lightning Mince Cutter. Make a good
white sauce (_see_ Sauces), put in the chopped parsley, stir well, and
pour over the beans.
=Polenta Beans.=--Boil two cupfuls of haricot or butter beans, which
have soaked overnight, until soft, drain, add two tablespoonfuls of
molasses, a teaspoonful each of salt, mustard, and olive oil, pepper
to taste, and a little vinegar. Cook in a baking dish in the oven for
twenty minutes and serve very hot.
=Cream Beans.=--Soak one pint of haricot or butter beans overnight in
cold water, drain and boil until soft in salted water. Haricots will
take two or three hours, butter beans about one and a half hours. Press
through a sieve, and mix with a sufficient quantity of cream sauce to
make very soft, season with salt and pepper, add two eggs well beaten,
turn into a buttered baking dish, sprinkle with crumbs, dot with
butter, and bake brown.
=Broad Bean Pudding.=---When broad beans get too old for eating plain,
boil them and rub them through a sieve, pound smoothly with a little
pepper and salt, some cream, and the yolk of one egg, boil one hour
in a buttered basin that will just hold the mixture, and serve with
parsley sauce.
=French Bean Curry.=--Cook your beans and drain, and when cold add
other cold vegetables that may be left over, carrots, peas, &c.,
mix them with butter and onions, previously cooked together, add a
teaspoonful of curry powder and a little flour, let them simmer a long
time, adding a little stock as the moisture dries up, then serve as a
curry, with well-boiled rice separately.
=Haricot Beans.=--Soak twelve hours, boil three hours, and serve with
piquant sauce.
=Broad Beans= (_South American Dish_).--Take one pint of shelled beans,
and put them into boiling water. Boil rapidly for six or seven minutes,
then drain and skin them. Put into a stewpan one ounce of butter and
a small onion finely chopped, let them sweat for five minutes. Add
six button mushrooms finely chopped and a teaspoonful of chopped
parsley, stir in an ounce of flour and a little salt and pepper, a
teaspoonful of lemon juice and a teacupful of boiling water; add the
beans, and simmer gently for fifteen minutes; just before serving add a
wineglassful of sherry.
=Bean Soufflé= (_Haricot_).--Soak two cupfuls of dry haricot beans
overnight, and boil until soft in water to cover, about three hours,
changing the water once. Drain, press through a sieve, season with salt
and pepper, add a little butter, and four tablespoonfuls of hot milk,
and mix well. Fold in the stiffly beaten whites of two eggs, turn into
a buttered baking dish, bake for twenty minutes.
=Bean Croquettes= (_Haricot_).--Boil two cupfuls of butter or haricot
beans until soft, two or three hours, drain, press through a sieve,
season with salt and red pepper, and add one tablespoonful each of
molasses and vinegar, mix thoroughly, cool and shape into croquettes,
dip in egg and bread-crumbs, fry in butter, and serve with tomato sauce.
FRENCH BEANS (_Phaseolus vulgaris. Leguminosæ_).
French or kidney beans may be sown in April if an early sort be chosen
and a sunny bed selected. The rows should be thirty inches apart, and
the plants thinned to nine inches in the rows; as they will transplant
well, gaps can be made up where there have been failures. For later
sorts the plants should be at least a foot apart. The main sowings
should be made from about the 20th of April till the end of May in
light soils, in heavy ground they may be sown right through June; for
later sowings choose quick-growing, forcing varieties. If climbing
varieties be used the rows must be four or five feet apart, and sticks
provided for the plants to climb over. Catch crops of early lettuce may
be planted between the rows at the time of sowing (or the beans may be
set between rows of established lettuce plants). Radishes and mustard
and cress are other crops which may be grown between rows of kidney
beans with advantage.
=Flageolet and Haricot Beans= need the same treatment as kidney beans.
All these subjects are tender and will not stand frost.
=Forcing Kidney Beans.=--The dwarf forcing varieties may be sown on
hotbeds, with six inches of good soil on top, beginning in February.
They must have plenty of air on mild days, and not be over-watered; at
the same time they must not be allowed to dry out; the plants may stand
a foot apart. Gathering should begin in such a frame about the end of
April.
If there be an orchard-house available the beans may be sown in heat in
boxes in February, and transplanted to the orchard-house. Or beans sown
in this way in March may be transplanted to a warm border sheltered
from slight frosts, with the possibility of giving ample protection
from sharp frost by means of mats or litter overhead. But after all,
forcing kidney beans is a job that requires a good deal of time or of
labour, and is hardly for the single-handed gardener.
SCARLET RUNNER BEAN (_Phaseolus multiflorus. Leguminosæ_).
This noble bean gives the most reliable crop of late summer and early
autumn vegetables. It is easy to grow, and cottage and hall alike enjoy
its succulent fruit. There are many new and improved varieties, and it
is now possible to grow beans a foot long, an inch deep, and as tender
as possible.
The best runners are grown in soil trenched and manured some months in
advance, but where space is a consideration we find that they follow
spring cabbage well. By clearing the middle row of three in a bed of
cabbage, room will be found to open a trench fifteen inches wide and
two spits deep; this should be done late in April. Into the bottom of
this trench a heavy dressing of very old, buttery manure (such as comes
from the heart of an exhausted hotbed) should be dug deeply. The soil
should then be returned and trodden firm, until the trench is four
inches deep; rake the surface level and place the beans on it in two
rows, the beans nine inches apart in the row, or even a foot will be
none too far apart. Then return most of the rest of the earth, leaving
a trench one inch below the general level of the garden. This leaves a
useful depression for watering.
By the time the beans are well up and are ready for staking, the
cabbage will be mostly cleared away, and will have taken no harm from
their neighbours; indeed there need be no hurry to clear the last
of the cabbages, which may prove useful to the end of June. A long,
strong stake should be placed by each bean, and thrust a good foot
into the ground. These stakes should incline inwards from each side
of the double row, and be tied together at their intersection. These
ties should be at a uniform height, and in the V-shaped crossing of
the stakes other stakes should be laid lengthways, and also tied to
the uprights. By these means a rigid hedge is provided, which will
carry the great weight of haulm in safety. A second sowing may be made
about the end of May, but if the beans are kept rigorously picked the
plants will go on bearing right up to the early frosts. As the haulm
reaches the tops of the stakes it must be pinched, in order to make it
break from joints lower down. Weeds should be pulled up, and in dry
weather a good soaking of water every three days will be a great help
in promoting the setting of the beans.
Make a practice of gathering all the beans as fast as they come to
perfection; it is important that none should be allowed to mature seed;
one pod with ripe seed on a plant will certainly check the further
growth of fresh beans.