The Bottom Line
Just when you think single ingredient cookbooks have run their course, Heirloom Beans: Great Recipes for Dips and Spreads, Soups and Stews, Salads and Salsas, and Much More from Rancho Gordo by Steven Sando and Vanessa Barrington shows you there is room on your cookbook shelf for one more. The world of heirloom variety shelling or dried beans is explored with taste, humor, and information.
Pros
- Tempting, easy, healthful recipes
- Excellent general cooking tips & techniques
- Picture guide of dozens of heirloom beans
Cons
- From a bean seller, so very connected to the Rancho Gordo brand
Description
- Guide to heirloom bean varieties complete with mouth-watering descriptions and pictures
- Delicious, easy recipes using heirloom beans
- Commonly available beans given as substitutes in most recipes
- Clear explanation of several methods for cooking beans, including pros and cons for each
Guide Review - Heirloom Beans Cookbook
Steven Sando of Rancho Gordo (a specialty food company selling heirloom produce, seeds, beans, and products made from them) and Vanessa Barrington wrote a clear case for cooking with beans. Various methods, their pros and cons, are explained, as are the taste and texture differences between 33 heirloom varieties, from Anasazi Beans to Yellow Indian Woman Beans. But best of all are the great recipes, for everything from classics like Baked Beans and Drunken Beans to fresh takes on White Chile With Turkey & Green Chile and Swedish Brown Bean Soup and combinations like Italian Marrow Beans With Tuna and Wren's Egg Beans & Green Beans.
One of the authors owns a bean-selling company, the book focuses on varieties Rancho Gordo sells, and the book design even mimics that of the company's product labels. It is a clear case and very up-front case of co-branding and lends an unfortunate air of vanity press or custom publishing to the book. But such a fault in these days of product placement is easy to overlook when a cookbook delivers clear and tasty recipes, solid cooking tips, and even lets the reader know, if they're so inclined, how to render their own lard.
