Cool beans!
Camellia red beans turn 100 this year, and New Orleans celebrates them every Monday
NEW ORLEANS — In this storied Louisiana city, where shrimp étouffée, gumbo and po’boys loom large, red beans and rice stands above.
“I don’t think New Orleans would be the city that it is if we didn’t have not only rich traditions and history but also red beans and rice,” said Freddie King III, a city councilman.
The dish’s popularity is well documented: Jazz musician and New Orleans native Louis Armstrong was such a fan that he was known to sign his letters “Red Beans and Ricely Yours, Louis Armstrong.” And at Dooky Chase’s in the city’s Tremé neighborhood, where culinary matriarch Leah Chase cooked for local politicians, civil rights leaders and former presidents, red beans and rice has been an integral part of the menu since the restaurant’s inception in 1941. Martin Luther King Jr. was known to meet with organizers there over the meal.
“If the red beans and rice were not ready, we would be in trouble,” said Stella Chase Reese, Chase’s daughter, adding, “We could not open our doors without having red beans and rice.”
While the dish’s origins are murky, a common theory has emerged among scholars. After the Haitian Revolution ended in 1804, thousands of white and free people of color from Haiti sought refuge in New Orleans and Cuba, bringing with them enslaved Africans, as well as Caribbean staples, like red beans and rice.
Food scholar and historian Lolis Eric Elie said the dish’s Haitian influences are too obvious to ignore.
“Red beans are the staple beans of Haiti and in New Orleans and in the part of Cuba where the Haitians
settled,” Elie said.
In New Orleans, the dish — traditionally enjoyed on Mondays, when families would simmer a pot as they did laundry — became part of Louisianian Creole cuisine as home cooks and chefs infused the dish with cayenne, smoked andouille sausage and the culinary holy trinity of onions, celery and bell pepper.
Innumerable iterations exist. Some cooks add ham, while others opt for a vegan preparation. Jalapenos are a regular occurrence in Texas. Ketchup and mustard are even found in variations across the South.
But central to a perfect pot of red beans and rice, however, is the bean itself. For years, chefs and home cooks have soaked the beans overnight — “My mother said you can’t rush good food!” Reese said — and cooked them until warm red in color and soft, yet slightly firm, in texture for a deeply comforting bite. A good pot should be creamy, not soupy.
In fact, Reese said, it’s the right kidney bean paired with the right chef that makes a bowl of red beans and rice one to remember.
“Now, the flavoring?” she said. “That’s the chef’s secret.”
For many New Orleanians like Vance Vaucresson, a sausage manufacturer who co-owns Vaucresson’s Creole Cafe & Deli, there are no red beans without Camellia. The company celebrates 100 years in business this year, and though it now sells 19 varieties of beans, peas and lentils, red kidney beans remain its pride and joy.
“They are not the only game in town; it’s just that they’re our game,” Vaucresson said. “We are very much loyalists here in this state.”
Camellia’s earliest iteration, L.H. Hayward and Co., opened in 1923, on Poydras Street and South Front Street, just along the Mississippi River. It was established by Lucius Hamilton Hayward Jr., the grandson of an Englishman from the West Indies who worked in agriculture and mercantile. In the 1940s, a son, William Gordon Hayward, began packing red beans and branded the company for his wife’s favorite flower: the camellia.
For years, Camellia was the main packager of the dried red kidney beans that became the foundation of red beans and rice cooked across the city. (Although Louisiana competitors like Blue Runner Foods also sell red kidney beans, most locals remain loyal to Camellia.) At the factory, employees, many of whom have worked for the company for decades, manage an elaborate process that sorts, cleans and packages nearly 100,000 pounds of beans a day.
Although the beans are grown and harvested elsewhere — Colorado, Nebraska and Minnesota, where the climates are conducive to growth — the company retains strong ties to New Orleans. In 1974, the Haywards moved the business to its current location, in Harahan, a suburb. And they’ve maintained enduring relationships with noted city businesses, such as Brennan’s, Rouses (grocery), Napoleon House and Dooky Chase’s.
Today, the love for the beans extends well beyond the plate. The Krewe of Red Beans, a community group and Carvinal marching krewe, has held a parade on Lundi Gras — the Monday before Mardi Gras — for 14 years. The krewe members wear meticulous costumes emblazoned with hundreds of beans.
Hoping to spur interest in the dish among a younger generation, King, the council member, is working with several schools to show a documentary on the dish’s history. And Camellia is providing red beans and rice at some schools on Mondays, in the same district Hayward started his business a century ago.
“We all know it strongly, but does the next generation understand the importance of it, of that ritual?” King said. “We want our kids to understand and take pride in a dish that is ours.”
In New Orleans, red beans and rice speaks to the soul of the spirited and storied city. Many native New Orleanians have expounded their own recipes, with some calling for ingredients ranging from jalapenos to mustard.
In this recipe, adapted from the Southern Food and Beverage Museum booklet “Red Beans and Rice-ly Yours” by Christopher Blake, Armstrong makes a promising case for his essential red beans and rice ingredient: ketchup, which adds a hint of sweetness and tang. Although it’s not in the original recipe, oil helps brown the pickled ham hock and onion, for maximum depth and body, and keeps the pork from sticking. “As they say in New Orleans, red beans need no thickening because they got it in themselves,” Armstrong recounted in his recipe. However, if you crave more creaminess, smash a few beans against the side of your pot, just like many cooks do in the Crescent City.
Louis Armstrong’s Red Beans and Rice
4 cups dried red kidney beans (about 1 pound, 10 ounces), preferably Camellia brand 2 tablespoons vegetable oil ½ pound pickled pork or
pickled ham hocks, diced 1 medium onion, chopped,
plus more for serving
1 cup ketchup
1 tablespoon vinegar (such as apple cider vinegar), plus more for serving
1 thyme sprig or pinch of fresh
thyme leaves
1 teaspoon hot sauce, plus more for serving
Salt and pepper
2 cups diced lean ham (about
10 ounces), or 1 ham bone Cooked rice, fried ham slices or country sausage, and warm French bread, for serving
Pick over beans and rinse well. Soak the beans overnight in enough water to cover. When ready to cook, drain off all water.
In a heavy pot such as a Dutch oven, heat the oil over medium. Brown the diced pickled pork, about 5 minutes, then add the chopped onion. Cook, stirring occasionally and scraping the bottom of the pan, for 8 to 10 minutes until softened.
Stir in the beans, ketchup, vinegar, thyme and hot sauce; season to taste with salt and pepper. Cover with fresh cold water, making sure there is enough water for the beans to cook thoroughly (at least 2 inches of water above the beans).
Once the water has come to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until beans are semicooked, 45 to 60 minutes. Mash about 1 cup full of beans and return to the pot. Add the diced ham or ham bone and cook slowly, stirring occasionally, until the beans are thoroughly cooked and the sauce is rich and creamy, 2 to 3 hours. (If at any point the beans seem dry, add water, 1 cup at a time, until creamy.)
Serve with fluffy white rice and garnish with fried ham slices or fried country sausage. Also serve chopped onions, vinegar and hot sauce on the side and lots of hot French bread.
Makes 6 to 8 servings.