No. 2698

Fresh Beans, with Cream and English Style

Feves Fraiches a la Creme et a l'Anglaise.

Take freshly picked shelled and tender beans; put them to blanch in salted water with a small bunch of savory added, then transfer them to a saucepan with hot butter; season. Fry them for two minutes on a hot fire to evaporate their moisture and thicken with a few spoonfuls of reduced bechamel (No. 409); remove from the fire and stir in a large piece of butter divided in small pats; finish with a little nutmug and serve with puff-paste croutons around.

English Style.—Blanch some fresh green beans in salted water until the skin detaches easily, then let get cold and suppress these skins; saute the beans in butter, season with salt, nutmeg and finely cut-up fresh savory. Transfer them to a vegetable dish and serve with thin slices of butter laid on top.

← No. 2697 Asparagus Tops with Cheese Beans, Peas & Lentils No. 2699 Lima or Kidney Beans, Maitre d'Hotel →

For the Modern Kitchen

Two treatments of the same vegetable from Ranhofer's The Epicurean. The key to both is knowing what the beans actually are: fèves fraîches are fresh broad beans (favas), not green string beans, and the English version's instruction to slip the skins confirms it.

The beanFresh shelled favas. The recipe gives no quantities; as a guide, about 3 lb of pods yields roughly 1 lb of shelled beans, enough for four. Frozen shelled favas work; the double-podding step below is the same either way.
Blanch means cook, not dipHere blanching means boiling in salted water until tender, not a ten-second scald: the beans get only two minutes in butter afterwards. Reckon on 3-5 minutes for young favas, longer for older ones. The English version gives the doneness cue directly: stop when the pale outer skin loosens.
SkinningThe first preparation skips the skinning, so use genuinely young beans there or the skins turn leathery. For the English style, cool the beans in cold water and pinch each skin off; it is tedious but it is what makes the dish.
SavorySarriette, summer savory, is the traditional partner to broad beans across France and Germany and is worth seeking out. The bunch goes in the blanching water and is discarded; the English version uses it chopped raw at the end. Thyme with a little chopped mint is the nearest substitute.
The reduced bechamelRanhofer's No. 409 is a standard bechamel simmered down until it coats heavily. Only a few spoonfuls are wanted here, enough to bind, not to sauce. Make it thicker than you think; the beans give off moisture.
Mounting with butterThe large piece of butter cut into small pats goes in off the heat, worked in gently as the recipe says. This is monter au beurre; if the pan is hot enough to boil, the sauce breaks.
Puff-paste croutonsEffectively fleurons: crescents or diamonds of puff pastry, baked separately in a hot oven (around 400F on a modern dial) until risen and golden, then stood around the edge of the dish. Store-bought all-butter puff is fine.
NutmegThe original's "nutmug" is an obvious slip for nutmeg. Grate it fresh and use a restrained hand; in both versions it is a background note against the butter.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer ran the kitchens at Delmonico's in New York and published The Epicurean in 1894 as a record of that repertoire, running to some three thousand-odd numbered recipes cross-referenced to one another - hence the bare pointer to "No. 409" for the bechamel, which assumes a cook working with the whole book at the range. Broad beans are among the oldest cultivated legumes in Europe and were the everyday "bean" of the continent long before New World species arrived; the pairing with savory is old enough that the herb is called Bohnenkraut, bean herb, in German. The two treatments here set a French preparation beside a plainer one: the first is bound, enriched and garnished with pastry, while the "English style" is boiled, skinned, tossed in butter and sent out with more butter melting on top.