Piekny Jas
Piekny Jas is a Polish heirloom runner bean with large white seeds.
Days to Maturity:
Resources
According to the article ‘Handsome Johnny from the Dunajec Valley: A Versatile Polish Bean’ by Magdalena Kasprzyk-Chevriaux there is a special technique to cook the Piekny Jas bean.
“[…] The secret lies in cooking Jaś beans properly. According to local specialists from the Dunajec Valley, such as Ms. Janina Molek, Jaś beans, even when dried out, must be cooked without pre-soaking! A large quantity of cold water should be poured onto the beans, a bit of salt added; when the water boils, it should be allowed to simmer for 20 minutes, then more cold water should be added and it should be boiled another 20 minutes. This procedure should be carried out a few times. The whole process ought to take about two hours and it produces a sweet, fragrant bean. One should also avoid buying pre-soaked beans because, according to the Jaś specialists, such beans not only smell bad after cooking, but they can also cause gastric distress.” (‘Handsome Johnny from the Dunajec Valley: A Versatile Polish Bean’, Magdalena Kasprzyk-Chevriaux, Translated by Yale Reisner, 2020) 1