Old Time Recipes for Half Runner Beans

donna

Brev. Brig. Gen'l
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Now Florida but always a Kentuckian
It is the beginning of planting season for many. An old favorite is half runner beans.

Here are some old recipes for cooking them.

Greg Marshall's Beans

2 to 3 lbs half runner
1/4 to 1/3 chunk of salt pork
13 - 1/2 stick of unsalted butter
about 2 tablespoons bacon grease
black pepper to taste
enough water to cover about 2 inches

Break ends of beans and remove strings from both sides of beans and break into desired size pieces. Rinse and put into large pot. Add salt pork, butter, grease and pepper. Add water to cover about 2 inches. Cover pot with lid askew and bring to boil on med/high heat. Lower heat to med. low and cook until tender, about 1 1/2 hours, occasionally checking to add water if necessary. Remove lid and cook on med. high just a bit to evaporate some liquid. Check seasoning for enough salt and pepper.

Margaret Fella's Beans
String beans and break into 1 1/2 to 2 inch pieces. Rinse thoroughly and put in pan and cover them with water. Add ham hock or piece of ham and an onion. Bring to boil and simmer until very tender. Add small new potatoes. Cook till potatoes are tender. Add salt and pepper. Take ham and pick a part and add back into beans. The beans will take a couple of hours to get to the very tender stage. just keep checking.

Jean Newman's Beans (80 year old and cooking beans for 45 years) This recipe for beans were from an aunt over 60 years ago.

3-4 pounds green beans
1 piece jowl bacon

Snap beans into small pieces and place in large pot with jowl bacon. Discard bacon at end of cooking time. Add salt and cover with cool water. Bring to bubbling boil. Then reduce to low and cover and cook 5 hours. Check often to see how they are cooking down and if need more salt.

Jan Bowling's Beans from Eastern Kentucky. This recipe goes back several generations.

a small piece of jowl bacon scored
approx. 3 lbs of half runner beans, strung and broken into pieces
small amount of chopped onion
Place all in a large pot and cover with water.

Bring to a boil and simmer for 5 to 6 hours. The jowl bacon is not usually eaten. Salt when served if necessary. Small new potatoes may be added for the last 20 minutes or so.

These recipes were printed in "Beans: Many recipes , many stories". "Boone County Recorder", April 14, 2016.
 
I remember my mother and grandmother going on about how wonderful half runner beans were, but I'm having trouble relating them to beans in the Civil War. Here's Fearing Burr, 1865:

https://books.google.com/books?id=W8REAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA644

One can see all the dwarf beans (what we'd call bush beans), the running or pole beans which includes the Scarlet Runner as well as lots of others, the English bean, the French bean. Some of these are called half-dwarf in the description, but no half runner.

I've not run across the phrase "half -runner bean" pre-1865. Was it around then? Is it a newer name for a type of bean that was around then or something new developed postwar? The name sounds like it's just describing runner beans bred to grow with a somewhat bush habit, but surely the way people like my family praised them postwar it was more than that, but more importantly, is it something that people during the war or before would have even heard of?
 
1/2 runner beans were and still are popular in Appalachia. There are several places that sell the seeds.

A good book on Appalachian cooking is "Appalachian Home Cooking : History, Culture and Recipes" by Mark F. Sohn.

There is mention of 1/2 runner beans and they were popular with mountain folks. There are also several recipes.

I could not find exact date for 1/2 runners. Need to check out other Appalachian sites. Also Foxfire book might have some information.
 
1/2 runner beans were and still are popular in Appalachia. There are several places that sell the seeds.

A good book on Appalachian cooking is "Appalachian Home Cooking : History, Culture and Recipes" by Mark F. Sohn.

There is mention of 1/2 runner beans and they were popular with mountain folks. There are also several recipes.

I could not find exact date for 1/2 runners. Need to check out other Appalachian sites. Also Foxfire book might have some information.
Congrats on your promotion donna,now we have to call you General.
 
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