Sharon Thompson: Readers know beans about making leather britches

A traditional recipe can vary greatly from one part of the South to another. In a recent article about green beans, a recipe for leather britches was inaccurate, according to several readers.

The way Tammy Algood, author of The Complete Southern Cookbook, explained how to cook them didn't sit well with Jean Anne Webb of Frankfort.

"I frequently prepared, dried and cooked leather britches myself, having learned from my grandmother and mother," she said. "True leather britches (a West Virginia term) or shucky beans (as most in Kentucky call them) are made using white half runner beans, not just any green beans.

"I have never heard of blanching the beans and then placing them in a freezer before drying them. The recipe given may be a try at modernizing a very old method but most certainly these steps were never even considered by the early settlers."

Glenn Westbrook of London said leather britches "have a wonderful flavor if they are soaked and prepared properly. Otherwise, they taste like straw."

Westbrook passed along this description from Bill Best, director of the Sustainable Mountain Agriculture Center in Berea. Best said shuck beans, also known as shucky beans, leather britches and sometimes fodder beans, have a long history in Kentucky and the South.

"Once a staple in the diet of almost every family, they are now eaten mostly on special occasions such as weddings, holidays, family reunions, church dinners-on-the-ground and other special family and community occasions," he said. "For many people, cooking shuck beans is almost a lost art. The most important part of cooking shuck beans is to prepare them to be cooked by properly soaking them."

This is how to cook them, according to Best.

Soak the beans overnight from about 8 p.m. until 8 a.m. Then pour the water off. Soak again from 8 a.m. to noon and pour the water off. Finally, soak through the noon hour and pour the water off. Then cook as you would fresh green beans, whatever your style of cooking might be.

The soakings tend to rid the beans of any strawlike flavor, and they become a very delicious dish.

"I also think it is important to make shuck beans out of heirloom varieties of beans that have not been toughened by modern plant breeding," Best said. "By using heirloom beans, the pods can become much fuller. My preference is also string beans, which seem to have a much better flavor than stringless beans.

"I know of no commercial bean that makes a good shuck bean, primarily because most are too tough."

Westbrook is author of A Collection of Kentucky and Southern Recipes. Best's Web site is Heirlooms.org.

Schoolgirl a winner

Myka Smith-Jackson, 8, of Lexington is the Kentucky winner of the national Healthy Lunchtime Challenge.

Epicurious magazine, first lady Michelle Obama, the Department of Education and the Department of Agriculture sponsored the recipe challenge as part of the Obama's Let's Move! initiative.

Myka attends Breckinridge Elementary School and has a "natural passion to cook and loves to try new recipes," her mother, Nakia Jackson, said.

Jackson told her daughter about the contest because Myka loves to cook and "admires first lady Michelle Obama, so the opportunity to meet her was exciting enough."

"It took her a couple of weeks to decide what she wanted to cook. The recipe was to first be healthy, and it had to include the four food groups and be affordable. Myka said that everything is great in a wrap, and she loves curry chicken salad, so she decided to create a curry chicken salad wrap with a fruit smoothie and strawberries on the side," Jackson said.

Myka and 53 other youngsters ages 8 to 12 will attend a Kids' State Dinner at the White House, hosted by the first lady, on Aug. 20. To learn more, go to Recipechallenge.epicurious.com.

Wining and signings

Faye Collins' wine book, A Wine Lover's Odyssey Across Kentucky is now available at Chrisman Mill Winery, Joseph-Beth Booksellers and Barnes & Noble. Collins will sign copies from 5 to 8 p.m. Aug. 17 at the Chrisman Mill store in Hamburg, 2308 Sir Barton Way. Call (859) 264-9463. Books also are available at Collin's blog, Kentuckywinelover.com.

Innkeeper on board

Todd Allen, co-owner/innkeeper of 1851 Historic Maple Hill Manor Bed & Breakfast in Springfield, has been named an advisory council and board member of the Professional Association of Innkeepers International.

Allen said it was the first time a Kentucky innkeeper had been appointed to the board of the association, which represents more than 25,000 members of the bed and breakfast industry in the United States.

Maple Hill is at 2941 Perryville Road. Call (859) 336-3075 or go to Maplehillmanor.com.

A cookbook for tablets

Gooseberry Patch cookbook publishers and Oxmoor House have created an e-cookbook that's formatted for color tablets.

The e-book 5-Ingredient Family Favorites has 220 recipes and photographs and requires no pinching and zooming for readable text. The fixed format allows a user's digital experience to more closely mirror having an actual book in hand.

The e-books are less than $15 and are formatted for all of Apple's portable devices, Amazon's Kindle Fire and Barnes & Noble's Nook Color and Nook Tablet. Go to Gooseberrypatch.com.

This story was originally published August 1, 2012 at 2:48 PM with the headline "Sharon Thompson: Readers know beans about making leather britches."