What is a waxed bean?

I recently was asked by a reader and good friend "So, what is a waxed bean?"

Well, when I was thinking about a food blog, I started to think about some of my favorite foods as a kid, and it reminded me of how excited I would be to eat with my grandmother. It could have been that she ate red meat, or tons of butter, and bacon fat, or both- but her food always tasted unlike anything I had anywhere else (and I still feel that way!).  There are jokes about me eating at my grandmother's house, and I would say things like "Grandmom, this sure is good chicken!" ...because it was pork.  And I always loved her spaghetti sauce, as previously blogged, and also enjoyed her wax beans. Probably because they were COVERED in butter.

I love green-beans and haricot verts, but I have always been drawn to Ws... so wax beans were it!  So, why waxed bean? I think I always just thought they were waxed and not wax... bring on the pork!

I thought this description of a wax bean was very entertaining:

Wax bean is a species that belongs to the phaseolus family and it is related with the dragon tongue beans and green beans and it is similar in taste to the yard long green bean. Wax bean is also called "butter bean", due to the fact that it presents yellow pods. Usually, the wax bean is colored in yellow, gold or purple and sometimes it is considered a more colored version of the immature green bean. Other given names are yellow bean and purple bean. Wax bean is also eaten during its early stage of immaturity, when its flesh is tender and has a sweet taste and a crispy texture. 

Wax beans are easy to prepare and consume, as they are eaten and prepared in various ways: from canned, frozen and fresh to boiled, fried and steamed, with various spices and meats or with other veggies and greens. Like the green beans, the wax bean meals are high in vitamins A and C and they are considered a healthy dish.


I think half the reason people read this blog is because they can't believe it's called "waxed bean." I didn't realize it, honestly, until about 7 months into this project, when speaking to a college classmate at an alumni event, that "waxed bean" has some phallic connotation. Sorry, folks, not what I was going for...

To learn more about why I decided to start The Waxed Bean, visit the first post: What-started-all-this-anyway? -July 2010

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