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Ok, y'all...this'un needs to be hashed out and if not settled, at least kicked around a bit.
Question is, what do y'all call certain type beans and peas? (I'll get to the particulars in a minute...) Sounds like a stupid question, but dammed if I have not had more misunderstandings with yankees...and even fellow Southerners (even if in a much narrower realm) as I have this one: Ok, here goes.
To start, red beans and pinto beans. As a quick aside here: Hey Cathy and TexasHorseLady? Y'all might like this 'un...and I was in it with a Mississippi friend the other day, and apparently we disagreed! OK..here goes (sorry, I know I already said that!):
I always referred to pinto beans as red beans. As in, "red beans and cornbread" (pinto beans and cornbread just dont sound right! LOL). RED beans, to me, are what yankees call "kidney beans" But my dear Mississippi friend insists there is an "in-between" and that red and pinto are NOT the same...to which I in turn say that Texas was the only state of the Old Confederacy whose capital never fell to the yankees.
Of course, this has nothing to do with the pinto/red bean issue...but it serves to distract for a moment and gets in a good left jab...
Anyway, a couple of other observations of mine on the idiom of the issue...and would love to hear y'alls:
Texas/South = navy beans Northern = white beans
Texas/South=English peas Northern= peas
Texas/South= Lima or butter beans Northern=green beans
Texas/South=Green or snap beans Northern = green beans...?
Texas/South=black-eyed peas Northern=what...?
Sorry, TexasReb, ol' buddy, ol' pal, but I have to agree with your Mississippi friend - pinto beans are NOT red beans. Having said that, the hubby does the same thing, he calls pintos red beans. I was just discussing this on another thread (don't remember which one now). In fact, I just saw - and bought - a package of "red" beans from the supermarket. That's what the package said and they are dark colored like small kidney beans only they're not shaped like kidneys.
Isn't another name for black-eyed peas "cow peas"? Or something? Northerners call it that maybe. I thought I read once that they aren't thought of as being fit to eat up there.
Sorry, TexasReb, ol' buddy, ol' pal, but I have to agree with your Mississippi friend - pinto beans are NOT red beans. Having said that, the hubby does the same thing, he calls pintos red beans. I was just discussing this on another thread (don't remember which one now). In fact, I just saw - and bought - a package of "red" beans from the supermarket. That's what the package said and they are dark colored like small kidney beans only they're not shaped like kidneys.
Isn't another name for black-eyed peas "cow peas"? Or something? Northerners call it that maybe. I thought I read once that they aren't thought of as being fit to eat up there.
LOL. Welllll, my dear friend Miss BlueSkies...law of averages says we would end up disagreeing sooner or later about 'sum'um! And your husband is right, ya know BUT...far as THAT goes, hell, I am not even sure myself over the red/pinto issue...what with you and the Miss'ippi cuz tellin' me with confidence that I am wrong. Oh well... hells bells...least ways, we might agree that red beans aint kidney beans like the yankees call 'em!
But yep, I think yankees call black-eyed peas (to the extent they think of them at all) cowpeas And not fit to eat. That's ok with me. They also think of catfish as a trash fish. Whereas WE have some of our best eatin and memories around that good stuff....
pinto beans are called that because when dried there are small flecks of white on their skins--they are not really as large as the red, kidney, beans--
pole beans if left to go mature on the vine will have large seeds (beans) inside them--their skins are to woody to use for green beans but you can open the pods and shell out the beans inside--flat and kind of brown--my mom and dad let the last of their pole beans go that way sometimes--I don't really care for the taste--kind of muddy and flat...
crowder peas are brown and more round than black-eyes or purple hulls
purple hulls obviously have a purple outside hull--too coarse to cook -- have to shell them for the peas--they also have that purple membrane on them sometimes and make your fingers all purple from shelling them--they are the best peas--love them better than black-eyed but you don't see them sold as dried peas--some places carry them fresh at farmers market and they are in frozen produce in some stores
black-eyes obviously because of their center dark spot
lima beans are green--cook up green
butter beans are brown and larger from what I usually see
think they are two different kinds of seeds to start with--not just more mature, dried version of lima beans
my friend from shreveport who married someone whose dad was career air force and who was raised in different parts of the country called ALL peas cow food
but think that crowder peas are more likely called cow peas...
From what I gather, the only peas the Northerners eat is the English pea. Blackeyes, Purple Hulls, etc. are called cow feed. Well, it's their loss. I'm with LovestoRead on choosing Purple Hulls over Blackeyes, although they're both good.
I've always cooked the small white bean (or so it is labeled on the bag) for what I call Navy beans, but there is a bean that is small, white and a tad bit larger than the small white bean which is labeled Navy bean. Used to be, these were not always available in the stores, but the small white bean was. What I call the Butter bean is the large lima bean. There are other types of limas, but I've never eaten them except in a can of Campbells vegetable soup as a kid.
I'm not a big fan of green beans, but I do like a mess of fresh Kentucky Wonders at times. My parents like to snap the pinto beans when they were young and tender. They also like snaps in with their Blackeyes and Purple Hulls.
The Pinto bean which has got to be an all time favorite can cook up as a brownish color or red, either one, depends on the bean. When I raised them in the garden and canned them, they were always bright red, of course, I shelled them before they were dried (they were of a white color with red and purple looking streaks running through them) and after they were processed, they were bright red. I have seen bags labeled Red Beans in the stores, but I've never bought them. I've noticed the Pinto beans grown in Colorado cook up redder than some and to me have a better flavor. Maybe the difference in soil, like a tomato raised in or around a certain area in East Texas will taste different than one raised in another section of Texas. I know when I go to the Farmer's Market, I always go to the same stand for tomatoes, folks out of Canton.
Ok, y'all...this'un needs to be hashed out and if not settled, at least kicked around a bit.
Question is, what do y'all call certain type beans and peas? (I'll get to the particulars in a minute...) Sounds like a stupid question, but dammed if I have not had more misunderstandings with yankees...and even fellow Southerners (even if in a much narrower realm) as I have this one: Ok, here goes.
To start, red beans and pinto beans. As a quick aside here: Hey Cathy and TexasHorseLady? Y'all might like this 'un...and I was in it with a Mississippi friend the other day, and apparently we disagreed! OK..here goes (sorry, I know I already said that!):
I always referred to pinto beans as red beans. As in, "red beans and cornbread" (pinto beans and cornbread just dont sound right! LOL). RED beans, to me, are what yankees call "kidney beans" But my dear Mississippi friend insists there is an "in-between" and that red and pinto are NOT the same...to which I in turn say that Texas was the only state of the Old Confederacy whose capital never fell to the yankees.
Of course, this has nothing to do with the pinto/red bean issue...but it serves to distract for a moment and gets in a good left jab...
Anyway, a couple of other observations of mine on the idiom of the issue...and would love to hear y'alls:
Texas/South = navy beans Northern = white beans
Texas/South=English peas Northern= peas
Texas/South= Lima or butter beans Northern=green beans
Texas/South=Green or snap beans Northern = green beans...?
Texas/South=black-eyed peas Northern=what...?
You and your cans of worms....or beans, in this case.
Ok. Some people do call pinto beans red beans. In our West Texas family, the only bean (as in legume) eaten was pinto...so they're just called beans, period.
Pinto beans and red beans are not the same. Red beans are darker (not mottled as pintos are) and smaller...and a different bean. Ditto kidney (yuuuck)! The terms, to me, are NOT interchangeable! Kidney beans are yet another variety of legume--and they have an entirely different texture, taste and shape from either pinto or red beans.
Now we move on to white/navy beans. Here again, you have two different ones!! White beans (cannellini, sp???) are small beans with a firmer texture, and are NOT the same as navy beans. Navy beans are larger and chalkier in texture. But....like pinto/red, I guess white/navy are used interchangeably. We never had navy or white beans at home, either.
Peas? Don't have a clue there, as all we ever had were green (English) peas. Black-eyed peas were also eaten, but were never called just peas...always the full name. I see the name cowpeas/crowder peas popping up, but I don't know what those are.
Never heard any other term used for green beans...unless they were fresh out of the garden..and had to be cleaned and "snapped." Hence, then they were called "snap" beans...LOL!!
Lima and butter beans, while related, are also not the same....in MS, the flat green ones were called "lima"...and the white speckled (I think they were speckled...hard to remember 25 years later) were called "butter." Ditto for Texas. Even though we never ate either one, some did, and the names were not interchangeable, as I remember. I found out later that my neighbor's family always ate butterbeans.....native Texans, too.
Ok, y'all...this'un needs to be hashed out and if not settled, at least kicked around a bit.
Question is, what do y'all call certain type beans and peas? (I'll get to the particulars in a minute...) Sounds like a stupid question, but dammed if I have not had more misunderstandings with yankees...and even fellow Southerners (even if in a much narrower realm) as I have this one: Ok, here goes.
To start, red beans and pinto beans. As a quick aside here: Hey Cathy and TexasHorseLady? Y'all might like this 'un...and I was in it with a Mississippi friend the other day, and apparently we disagreed! OK..here goes (sorry, I know I already said that!):
I always referred to pinto beans as red beans. As in, "red beans and cornbread" (pinto beans and cornbread just dont sound right! LOL). RED beans, to me, are what yankees call "kidney beans" But my dear Mississippi friend insists there is an "in-between" and that red and pinto are NOT the same...to which I in turn say that Texas was the only state of the Old Confederacy whose capital never fell to the yankees.
Of course, this has nothing to do with the pinto/red bean issue...but it serves to distract for a moment and gets in a good left jab...
Anyway, a couple of other observations of mine on the idiom of the issue...and would love to hear y'alls:
Texas/South = navy beans Northern = white beans
Texas/South=English peas Northern= peas
Texas/South= Lima or butter beans Northern=green beans
Texas/South=Green or snap beans Northern = green beans...?
Texas/South=black-eyed peas Northern=what...?
Up here red beans and pinto beans are not the same, at least not in my family.
White beans might be more of a northeastern thing, up here in the Pacific Northwest I've always heard them called navy beans.
English peas are definitely a Texas/Southern thing. I’ve never heard it used except by people with a Southern background up here.
I don't ever hear butter beans used up here except in my family. Most people here call them "lima beans", but never "green beans".
Black-eyed peas, unless one has a Southern background people here just don't eat them.
i can't imagine people up north don't eat black eyed peas. what do they eat on new years? i grew up calling green beans "string beans". love the purple hulls and crowder peas. also field peas and shelly beans.
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