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Is it a pea? Is it a bean? What is it?

vivelafrance

By vivelafrance
in Food Traditions & Culture

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vivelafrance

vivelafrance

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So we are having our New Year's Day brunch, eating black eyed peas, which is a Southern Tradition I am told, even though being from France, Foie Gras is much more in my culinary tradition for New Year's (Don't worry, we'll have that tonight with our French Onion Soup), when all of a sudden I question myself....Is a black eye pea really a pea or is is a bean...and what is the difference anyway. So I google it, I find a site that informs me that peas grow on vines and beans grow on bushes. That peas like cooler climates and have a shorter maturation period....So what's the scoop here? Is a crowder a pea or a bean? How about lady peas? Can anyone enlighten me?????

Getting smarter and more informed about peas is one of my new year's resolution...So, help me out.

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Pan

Pan

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I won't try to answer your question, but I will throw in another wrinkle: What's called "Rice and Beans" in the South and Latin America is called "Rice and Peas" in Jamaica.

Michael aka "Pan"

 

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vivelafrance

vivelafrance

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So we are having our New Year's Day brunch, eating black eyed peas, which is a Southern Tradition I am told, even though being from France, Foie Gras is much more in my culinary tradition for New Year's (Don't worry, we'll have that tonight with our French Onion Soup), when all of a sudden I question myself....Is a black eye pea really a pea or is is a bean...and what is the difference anyway.  So I google it, I find a site that informs me that peas grow on vines and beans grow on bushes. That peas like cooler climates and have a shorter maturation period....So what's the scoop here? Is a crowder a pea or a bean? How about lady peas? Can anyone enlighten me?????

Getting smarter and more informed about peas is one of my new year's resolution...So, help me out.

That is an interesting point...What is the answer to that?

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azurite

azurite

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According to Harold McGee, in the 2004 version of, "On Food and Cooking, the Science and Lore of The Kitchen", The black-eyed pea or cowpea ". . . is not really a pea, but an African relative of the mung bean that was known to Greece and Rome and brought to the southern United States with the slave trade." (pg. 492). The quote is from a section titled, "Characteristics of Some Common Legumes," and both peas and beans are discussed in this section. But while he draws a distinction between beans and peas I'm not sure what the considers the distinction to be. He does say that peas are "unusual among legumes in retaining some green chlorophyll in their dry cotyledons; their characteristic flavor comes from a compound related to an aroma compound in green peppers. . .." So perhaps that is the distinction or perhaps it's mostly based on what people in different regions decided to call plants or foods even if the common names don't correlate exactly with botanical classifications.

Hope that helps a little, maybe someone else (like El Gordo?) can offer more information.

Happy New Year to everyone.

SH

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annecros

annecros

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Oh it is very interesting. And I am breathlessly awaiting someone who has the wisdom to explain a "peanut" which is really a legume.

:biggrin:

Peas are normally shelled, and served outside of the little pods. Beans, as in butterbeans, are shelled as well though.

I am listening, just as you are vivelafrance.

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rooftop1000

rooftop1000

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Most nuts aren't nuts...not that we were discussing nuts

but cashews are droops

tracey

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C. sapidus

C. sapidus

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A drupe, also known as a stone fruit, is a "fleshy fruit with a central hard core containing one or more seeds." Typical examples include cherries, peaches, and plums; atypical examples include coconuts and almonds.

Information about drupes at answers.com

Bruce, a.k.a C. sapidus

eG Foodblog: Crabs, borscht, and fish sauce

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srhcb

srhcb

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Accordind to Wikipedia a pea is a bean:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peas

Well, let's just say they're both members of the Fabaceae family.

Botanical classification is logical but complicated. It often doesn't have much in common with general usage.

SB (Not a Botanist)(and didn't even stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night)

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johnnyd

johnnyd

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...and to further confuse things, there is always the Cashew...

Within the true fruit is a single seed, the cashew nut. Although a nut in the culinary sense, in the botanical sense the fruit of the cashew is a seed. However, the true fruit is classified as a nut by some botanists

"I took the habit of asking Pierre to bring me whatever looks good today and he would bring out the most wonderful things," - bleudauvergne

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annecros

annecros

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I am now deeply confused....Nuts aren't beans. Are they???

A "Peanut" is, evidently, I think.

:wink:

I know peas when I see them and they are shelled except for the "snaps" that are immature peas cooked and served in the pod to accompany the shelled mature peas, and beans are almost always served in the pods, except for that butterbean/limabean thing which is the only colloquially referred to thing as bean that isn't served in the pod fresh - I am pretty sure.

Now I am speaking of fresh peas and beans in the above paragraph. Dried peanuts are still beans, but referred to as nuts, just as dried beans are beans. I kind of use English peas, normally shelled fresh or otherwise, as a sort of dividing line.

Coconuts make my head hurt if I try to think it all out, and they grow in my yard.

Now did you see why I sat back awaiting answers with you breathing heavily and looking to the EGullet Gods for enlightenment?

Great, fun topic.

Edit to add: OMG - I overlooked "Snowpeas" - which are definitely cooked fresh in the pod and are beans, though they are called peas.

Edited by annecros (log)
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Smithy

Smithy

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... I find a site that informs me that peas grow on vines and beans grow on bushes. ...

Except that runner beans grow on vines and bush beans grow on bushes...

Oh it is very interesting. And I am breathlessly awaiting someone who has the wisdom to explain a "peanut" which is really a legume.

:biggrin:

Peas are normally shelled, and served outside of the little pods. Beans, as in butterbeans, are shelled as well though.

I am listening, just as you are vivelafrance.

Maybe the difference matters more from the horticulural point of view?

How are "peas" and "beans" defined in other languages?

SB (mono-lingual) :wink: (at best)

Well, an Arabic term for "peanuts" is "fool sudani", which works out to Sudanese beans. :cool:

I am now deeply confused....Nuts aren't beans. Are they???

A "Peanut" is, evidently, I think.

:wink:

Now did you see why I sat back awaiting answers with you breathing heavily and looking to the EGullet Gods for enlightenment?

Great, fun topic.

Edit to add: OMG - I overlooked "Snowpeas" - which are definitely cooked fresh in the pod and are beans, though they are called peas.

I too am sitting back to attain real enlightenment here. Last year my big insight involved legumes: they're a huge plant family, they're everywhere, the flowers are distinctive, and it may be simplest just to call them "legumes" rather than worrying about whether they're peas or beans or peanuts. Of course, the first time someone tried to put alfalfa or clover into my bean soup I might change my tune. :laugh:

Nancy Smith, aka "Smithy"
Host, eG Forums - nsmith@egstaff.org

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eje

eje

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Horticulturally speaking,  peas have tendrils, beans don't.

Culinarally speaking, it depends.

SB (and how about coffee "beans"?)

I believe srhcb is correct here. Pea plants have tendrils. Bean plants do not.

But, cultural usage tends to follow function rather than phylogeny, so many things which are called peas in one language or another might be beans and vice versa.

Some things called beans or peas might not be related to either botanically.

Coffee beans, for example, aren't even remotely related. They are in the same family with Gardenias. The Cacao tree isn't a legume, either, even though its fruit is commonly called a bean.

Also, the pea and bean family (Fabaceae) is much larger than the few new world plants normally classed as peas or beans. Along with many other examples, Acacia and Mesquite Trees are members of that family. While Fava beans are legumes, they aren't technically peas or beans, they're vetches. Chick peas are another old-world legume that is not really a pea or bean.

But, yeah, rancho_gordo would be the definitive source for information on New World peas and beans.

---

Erik Ellestad

If the ocean was whiskey and I was a duck...

Bernal Heights, SF, CA

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LarsTheo

LarsTheo

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Peanuts are Pea Nuts, or at least that's the way I've always understood it. In culinary terms, peanuts are nuts, in horticultural terms, peanuts are legumes. In Jamaica all beans are called peas, or in some Caribbean country.

Vanilla beans are not legumes either and are no more beans than coffee beans are.

One person suggested that only peas are eaten green with their hulls, but green beans are eaten just the same. Are chickpeas peas or are they garbanzo beans? I guess the tendril definition is the most accurate one, at least horticulturally, but that makes little difference in culinary terms, which are less scientific.

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vivelafrance

vivelafrance

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Peanuts are Pea Nuts, or at least that's the way I've always understood it.  In culinary terms, peanuts are nuts, in horticultural terms, peanuts are legumes.  In Jamaica all beans are called peas, or in some Caribbean country.

Vanilla beans are not legumes either and are no more beans than coffee beans are.

One person suggested that only peas are eaten green with their hulls, but green beans are eaten just the same.  Are chickpeas peas or are they garbanzo beans?  I guess the tendril definition is the most accurate one, at least horticulturally, but that makes little difference in culinary terms, which are less scientific.

All in all I think Lars had one of the most thorough, yet simple version of us all...

Truth is it seems that there is just not one answer and different countries have their own idea of what a pea and what a bean is. I am happy about everyones take on it. Thanks, Ya'll, as Paula Deen would say.

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