The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1918-08-08
BEANS. AND BEANS.
There's Difference. Especially in the
Cooking Of EN-.

hitS me on che bean does that which
not enriches him ana makes me poor
indeed.
Beans not the best OF food! Pishi
Also Tush! Go plum to-!
Pestiferous pessimists belittls the
choicest gifts Of the gods. It's little
good they get by carping. May be
there is a melancholy satisfaction COM
ii& to them when they succeed In de-
uroying the confidence Of mankind In
the benefcence Of Providence, but can
this be done In the case Of beans? No.
sir. Never!
Dietists have told us that beef 10 At
food for cannibals only. They have
laboriously proved again and again that
wheat Is robbed OF its most precious
elements in the making Of pure white
flour. They have declared tho flesh OF
swine deleterious and that Of the lob
ster indigestible. Extremely. And they
have held UP their hands in holy horror
at hot biscuit.
We who know have kept on RECALLING
ourselves. regardless. and have reaped
the rich reward OF intelligence in the
measureless content that comes after
real repast.
Ard now comes one into the columns
Of THE SuN who seeks to shatter our
faith in the bean. And even THE Sun,
presumably all wise, instead Of casti-
eating the iconoclast. speaks disparag-
ingly OF the hopeless addict" who eats
beans In tho summer.
have been revled in many languages
and have found no small enjoyment in
1t. but never have had greater salts
faction than in reading those words
about myself, for !, sir. am hopeless
addict who eats beans and gives thanks.
summer and winter. So did my fore
bears. who the most OF them lived we'll
up toward the century mark. When
was born I had seven grandparents liv-
ing. and my great-grandmother kept on
living and eating beans till Just before
my daughter was born.
admit that there are beans and
beans q have been trying lately to
buy some of the marrowfat kind. for I
want only the best II I can get them
There are none in the market. for Uncle
Sam has bought them all for his boys
In the army and navy. So I perforce
which are almost the same when prop
erly cooked.
Properly cooked" Aye, there's the
rub. II the hypercritic who penned that
diatribe had cooked his beans Alright he
would have saved his ink
The notable housewives of New Eng
land who were the best cooks on earth
in their generation, went n Ions way
toward perfection when they produced
the so-called Boston Baked Beans"
but they fell into one error of which
New England Is not yet convinced.
After all the rum which Medford re-
quired had been distilled there was still
little molasses left. and rather than
waste It these estmable ladies poured
| 1t into their bean pots.
| Doubtless thrift is laudable. but this
was bad for the beans You can't make
! a Boston man see 1t to this day, but
| the bean calls for no sweetenng what
| ever. There be those who put sugar
on lettuce and tomatoes and in their
| claret but the less said about such peo-
| pie the better. II they like their beans
| and their wine that way this is n free
| the bakers to sprinkle sugar on pie.
l suppose II cotton were food he
| would forbid seamstresses to bite of
| the end OF thead when they wanted
! to put 1t through the eye OF a needle.
Cuban Tourist" recommends cooking
| a laurel leaf with beans, but that will
also have to wait till after the war
| Uncle Sam has Communicated all the
| laurel for the boys in uniform.
Garlic and spices are also added &c
beans in Spain, 1t seems. and perhaps
the Spaniards like 'em that way. There's
no accounting for poor taste
| Say what you like. the bean reache,
apotheosis when It is cooked togethe4
| with salt pork only The fatter the
pork the better. Add your salt ant
| pepper afterward. and ketchup II yol
| like. but be spar!ng with that.
| Oliver Hitchcock was the man who
taught New Workers. what the bean is.
| Luscious" by the way. is not ex'
actly the word to use with beans. Il
Is rot quite adequate, but let that pass
My thesaurus contains no word that Il
entirely adequate.
Hitchcock's restaurant was In tn
basement OF French's Hotel.
French's was torn down. The It'll,
restaurant was moved and Oliver wen
to Valhalla, where, doubt not, he still
sports that enormous black mustache
drives fast horses and cooks beans To-
the Vikings who demand something bet
ter than ambrosia.
Here, now, Is a problem for casuists
What connection is there between
beans and fast horses? Johnny Meeha,
seemed to have found It, as Hitchcocl
did, but 1t seems obscure.
But let that pass too. The questio
is as to the cooking OF beans.
Billy Drysdale used to tell OF tn
skipper of sloop that sailed the Ca
ribbean seas who had an inkling OF tn
secret. but he applied 1t to coffee through
some strange alteration. He woul,
take a cupful of coffee in a cupful o
water and boil the devil out OF It.
The main thing to keep in mind |
to cook your beans sufficiently and the
keep on cooking them.
Up In the great pine forests OF Main
and Minnesota, and doubtless elsewher
in pine forests ! have not visited, the
ducing viands on which the giant lum
bermen mainly subsist. building u
thews Of steel and india rubber in thei
mighty frames, with never a revulsio
or Ill effect.
Beans detrimental? Tell that to IN
tmarines DAVID A CURTIS