There is a joke amongst seamen, that soy is made from beetles or cockroaches. This probably originates in the seeds of the plant from which the sauce is manufactured having some fancied resemblance, in shape and colour, to a beetle. These seeds are used in China and Japan as food. They are made into a kind of jelly or curd, which is esteemed very nutritious, and which is rendered palatable by seasoning of different kinds.
The liquid which we know by the name of soy is thus prepared:—After the seeds have been boiled until they become soft, they are mixed with an equal weight of wheat or barley meal, coarsely ground. This mixture is fermented; and a certain proportion of salt and water being added, the whole is allowed to stand for two or three months, care being taken to stir it every day; and, by the end of that time, it is ready for use.
Soy is chiefly prepared in China and Japan; but that imported from Japan is considered preferable to any other. The quantity annually vended at the East India Company's sales is from eight hundred to two thousand gallons, at an average price of sixteen or eighteen shillings per gallon.
198. BEANS (Vicia faba) are well-known seeds, originally introduced from Persia, of which there are several kinds or varieties; some of these are cultivated in fields, and others in gardens.
Field, or horse-beans, as they are frequently called, are small and somewhat round. The cultivation of them is pursued to a considerable extent. They are esteemed, in many respects, an advantageous crop to the farmer, and will thrive on any land where the soil is sufficiently stiff. They are usually sown in the month of February; sometimes in the autumn; but, in case of severe frost, all the plants that are not well and deeply covered with snow will perish. There is also much uncertainty in the crop, owing to the state of the weather in the spring and summer; and particularly to the ravages of small black insects, myriads of which are frequently seen to crowd the tender tops of the plants.
The bean-harvest is seldom completed till nearly the end of September, owing to the bulk and succulence of the plants; and the produce is from two and a half to five quarters per acre.
There are several varieties of field-beans; but the fine and very small ones usually bear the highest price. Bean flour is not only thought more nutritive, but is found to be more abundant than that of oats. Beans are chiefly applied to the feeding of horses, hogs, and other domestic animals; and it is supposed that meal-men often grind them amongst wheat, the flour of which is to be made into bread. By some persons they are roasted, and adopted as a substitute for coffee. With the Roman ladies bean-flour was in much repute as a cosmetic.
Garden-beans are almost wholly confined to culinary uses. What are called French-beans, and Kidney-beans, belong to a different tribe from the present.
Bean stalks, if subjected to a certain process, are capable of being converted into paper.
199. VETCHES are a small species of beans (Vicia sativa) which grow wild in dry meadows, pastures, and cornfields, and are also cultivated in most parts of England.