Bean Nation: The American Experience
The beans that Columbus discovered in the New World have traveled the globe now, but they remain part of America's national identity. Long before European settlers arrived at Jamestown, Native Americans were cooking dry beans. In fact, beans, squash and corn provided such good sustenance that the natives were generally healthier than the early immigrants.
The Indians introduced the settlers to the combination of dry beans and corn that today we call succotash. Some historians even speculate that succotash appeared at the Pilgrims' first Thanksgiving. Although recipes abound, many New Englanders would argue that an authentic succotash requires cranberry beans. The Yankee method calls for cooking the cranberry beans with bacon and onion until tender, then stirring in fresh corn kernels and thick heavy cream.
The growing locavore movement reminds us to celebrate these regional traditions, some of them centuries old. You can update them with a more contemporary presentation, or leave them looking more homespun. A quick refresher course on some dry-bean classics from coast to coast: