Beans: History

In America’s First Cuisines, Sophie D. Coe explores the cookery of the ancient empires of North and South America—Aztec, Maya, and Inca. Whereas the Incan repertoire was generally limited to lima beans (which ultimately lent their name to the Peruvian capital), the Aztecs and Mayans developed customs and created dishes involving beans that are recognizable as part of U.S. culinary heritage, such as Tex-Mex and southwestern cuisine. The Mesoamerican Mayans were partial to the black bean or buul. They boiled the beans with chilies and then paired the mixture with squash seeds or greens, such as epazote. An especially important companion to buul was corn. Stone-ground, stone-griddled tortillas were filled with the beans, whole or in a paste, and cornmeal was used as a thickener for bean stew. The Aztecs did likewise with myriad P. vulgarius specimens, for instance, adding them to the potable pulp of corn boiled in water and lime they called atolli. And the Aztec predilection for mashed beans foretold of frijoles refritos.