Great Northern Bean

The Great Northern is a variety of the common bean, grown as a bush plant with white flowers and slender pods. The dry seeds are oval to kidney-shaped, off-white to white, about 1 to 1.5 cm long, smaller than lima beans or butter beans but larger than navy beans. They have a thin skin and a delicate, mild, slightly nutty taste, and a soft yet slightly grainy texture when cooked. They are sold dried in bags and bulk bins, and canned or precooked. They keep their shape well in long-simmered dishes.

All common beans descend from wild ancestors that were domesticated independently in Mesoamerica and the Andes thousands of years ago, and the beans spread across the Americas long before European contact. Great Northern itself is a modern American cultivar group, developed and named in the early twentieth century in the northern plains states, such as Nebraska, Wyoming and Idaho. The name refers to the northern location of its cultivation rather than any ancient origin. Phaseolus derives from a Greek word for a bean pod.

After Columbus, the common bean spread through Europe, Africa and Asia and became a global food. In the United States, Native American peoples grew many kinds of beans, often with corn and squash, and European settlers adopted them in dishes such as baked beans.

The Great Northern bean emerged as a distinct market class in the early twentieth century, selected for white seed colour, adaptation to the cool, dry northern Great Plains and intermountain West, and reliable yields. Seed is often traced back to bean selections from Native American growers in the Dakotas or Nebraska, and the name appears in seed catalogues by the early 1900s.

Today, Great Northerns are grown mainly in Nebraska, Wyoming, Idaho, Montana and Michigan, and in Canada, with breeding programmes producing improved cultivars with better disease resistance. They are one of the standard market classes of dry bean in North America, along with navy, pinto, kidney and black beans, and have long been a pantry staple in American homes.

Great Northerns are cooked into soups, such as ham and bean soup, chili, cassoulet-style casseroles and stews. They are baked in sweet-savoury sauces, mashed into dips, added to salads and pureed into spreads in place of chickpeas. Because their flavour is mild, they work well with strong seasonings such as garlic, herbs, smoked meats and tomatoes. Dried beans are soaked overnight or quick-soaked, then simmered for 1 to 2 hours until tender. Canned beans can be used directly and are often substituted for cannellini or navy beans in recipes.

Like other dry beans, Great Northerns provide plant protein, fibre, folate, iron, potassium and magnesium, with little fat. Regular legume consumption is associated with healthier cholesterol and blood sugar patterns and may help with satiety, as part of an overall dietary pattern. Soaking and cooking also reduce compounds that interfere with mineral absorption. Beans can cause gas in some people, which usually eases with gradual increases in intake.