Heirloom Thursday: 5 Beans to Try

You can use all sorts of beans to make baked beans, with the obvious point that they need to at least be dried beans. Dark colored beans such as black beans or kidney beans just don't seem like they'd be right, although I can't exactly tell you why. The first two below, you can find anywhere. The last three are all available through Rancho Gordo.

Navy Beans: These have been around at least since the time of the Pilgrims, and are also sometimes called pea beans or Boston beans.  They are the quintessential plain white bean.  They have also been the official state bean of Massachusetts since 1993.  One of the easiest dried beans to find.

Fasolia Gigandes: These are unusually gigantic white beans which were cultivated in Greece.  They are also called yiyandes.  If you use these, you're going to need to go for the longer side of the initial soak (30 minutes) and test them for doneness; they might need to go more than three hours, but maybe not.  One place to look for these would be a Turkish store, which are more common around here, at least, than Greek stores.

Mayacoba Beans: Mayacoba, or maicoba beans are fairly common further south, another name for them being Peruano. They are also just called yellow beans, sometimes. The modern variety has been around since 1978, although yellowish beans have been discovered at sites more than 4,000 years old. These beans were at one point the victims of a bizarre patent dispute, but now have made their way back to the United States as an heirloom.

Cranberry Beans: Cranberry beans, which are unusual but not uncommon, are one and the same as an heirloom variety cargamanto, from Colombia.  They belong to the bean "race" Peru, but the exact time or origin I couldn't find.  These beans are actually mostly tan, but with a splash of cranberry color in random and interesting patterns.  The eyes are white.  They have got a velvety texture and pleasing mild taste and are one of the most versatile dried beans.

Vaquero: These neat beans look like a head on collision between navy and black, as envisioned by Jackson Pollock.  There are other splotched beans called orca beans, perhaps reminiscent of killer whales.  These are more like splotchy cows or horses, and are close relatives of Anasazi beans, so named after the cliff-dwellers that probably first cultivated them.

References:
1. Wikipedia
2. Images from Rancho Gordo, Wikipedia, and Flickr Creative Commons