Really, really stupid question about French beans

OK, so first off I was in 3 different shops trying to find climbing beans not dwarf ones, and eventually managed to find 3 varieties.. however only 1 is "mangetout" i.e. eat a s a normal green bean, so with the others, do I have to wait and shell the beans, or do I cook the bean in the pods?

btw I've only ever eaten normal green beans in the past so this is going to be a really culinary adventure (if they grow/flower/pod etc lol)

Ah ha... varieties coming up once I get home

As I understood it, mange tout are a pea variety designed to let you eat the whole pod before the actual peas/beans mature.

French beans, or haricot vert, are a different species to mange tout, but are also grown to eat the whole pod before the beans mature - but if you let them mature then you can't eat the pots - but the beans can be cooked. Baked beans (think Heinz) I think are haricot vert which have matured.

hi ben, in this case "mangetout" literally means "eat all" (i.e. the pod as well as the immature beans).

The "mangetout" variety is Monte Cristo

The other two varieties I hve are "blauhilde" and "neckargold"  both are "haricot à rames - sans fil" i.e. climbing beans - stringless.

If they get too mature French beans can be shelled and used as 'flageolets' - mature but fresh bean seeds which are lightly cooked.

I thought that baked beans were a variety of soya bean.

Cheers,

Gillie

You are correct.  From Wikipedia:

'Most commercial canned baked beans are made from haricot beans, also known as navy beans - a variety of Phaseolus vulgaris'

Cheers,

Gillie