bean salad question

I came across this recipe for bean salad but am wondering what the difference is between runner beans and green beans? Are runner beans long and flat? Or am I thinking of broad beans. It's been 3 years since I was in the UK and I'm blanking on this and also trying to guess the US equivalent.

OK, that's weird. It won't let me copy a link to here.

It's in The Guardian today - Angela Hartnett's bean salad with goat cheese. I'll try to post a link again later.

Runner are the same as green beans or string beans.

Green beans (American English), also known as French beans and runner beans (British English), are the unripe fruit of any kind of bean, including the yardlong bean, the hyacinth bean, the winged bean, and especially the common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris), whose pods are also usually called string beans in the northeastern United States, but can also be called snap beans.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_bean

Broad beans=field beans=fava beans

Runner beans are bigger and flatter than ordinary green beans. They look like this:

Chances are, she won't be able to find British style green beans (runner beans) in the States.  Any sort of green beans are usually used in bean salad with the ones generally available in the States being typical.


Broad beans might be used in a salad, but not as a green bean.

ETA: looking at the recipe, if I couldn't find runner beans, I'd use two other varieties of fresh green beans and  the fresh podded broad beans.  If I couldn't find the fresh broad, I'd use canned rinsed fava and skip the cooking step for the canned   beans.

I think this is where the British dialect has created an error in how people think about things.  Like how Brits sometimes think of fractures as minor breaks or cracks when medically all broken bones from minor to the very worst are fractures.  Saying "use runner and green beans" is a bit like saying "use cheddar and cheese".

Saying "use runner and green beans" is a bit like saying "use cheddar and cheese".

But we all know what the recipe means by saying "runner beans and green beans." What is the alternative? "Use green beans and those other green beans that are slightly longer and flatter than the usual variety"? A bit wordy. 

There's nothing wrong with using the term "runner beans".   British people might know what it means, but there are a lot of green beans which are different in structure and how you cook and prepare (see article).  All runner beans are green beans, but, not all green beans are runners.  And not green beans are what some British people mean when they say "green beans", obviously. 

I do have to say this is the first time I've argued about beans on my phone. :p

I do have to say this is the first time I've argued about beans on my phone. :p

 

I think this is where the British dialect has created an error in how people think about things. Saying "use runner and green beans" is a bit like saying "use cheddar and cheese".

I'm not so sure about it being an error, more a difference in usage. I know what Wikipedia says. Are you saying that the US usage is that "green bean" is the name of a genre? Because I think that in ordinary UK usage "green beans" are a distinct type of bean, what my American friends call string or snap beans, and what some people call haricots verts. Before cooking I would snap the ends off French, green and runner beans, but in addition I would cut the strings off runner beans. French beans are like tubes.

In the US you can buy haricots verts in jars and the French name is explained in brackets as "green beans"...



I just conducted a straw poll of 3 UK people who said "You don't have to cut the strings off green beans", "they are not the same as French beans" and "I call them string beans" respectively so I think I'll just call them haricots verts and be done with it.

And not green beans are what some British people mean when they say "green beans", obviously. 

Honestly, I don't know what British people mean when they say 'green beans' - lol!  In British dialect, I know what runner beans are & I know what French beans are, but no idea - what are green beans to a Brit?

In the US, I grew up with that green beans = string beans, and that's what my family grew in the garden.  (We did snap the ends off.)  I don't recall hearing them called French beans until I moved here & I never heard of runner beans until I moved here.

If I were making that salad in the US, I'd probably use a combination of green beans (hee hee - string beans) & those yellow beans that look like green beans but are yellow instead, plus the fava beans like what Legs suggested.

The reason I'd call it an error over a difference in usage is I guess the same reason I'd call American use of soup/stew wrong.  I don't think all differences an error.  Hard to articulate on phone other than to say it makes things more imprecise and leads to assumptions that aren't helpful.




ETA Sugar pea pods might be a good sub for one of the green beans.

I think I've worked it out... to UK cooks, French beans, green beans, and haricots verts are all the same thing.

Green beans with bacon and garlic

http://allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/1611/green-beans-with-bacon-and-garlic.aspx

Honestly, I don't know what British people mean when they say 'green beans' - lol!  In British dialect, I know what runner beans are & I know what French beans are, but no idea - what are green beans to a Brit?

Green beans are just ... green beans! I'm sure that's very hepful.  

ETA Sugar pea pods might be a good sub for one of the green beans.

Good idea!  But is that sugar pea pods, snow peas, or mangetout? 

 

Just learned from DH yet another term for 'green beans' (French beans) - bobby beans.  I asked him who calls them that (wondering if it was a Norfolk term) but he said 'the people who sell beans' call them that.  

Then I found this from here:

The bean of many names, green beans are also known as bobby beans, round beans, snap beans and dwarf beans. In France, conversely, they are haricots verts and in Italy they are called fagiolini.

And:

Green beans are distinctly different to French beans which only grow successfully in hotter climates, the green bean is the true British green bean.

So now we have the true British green bean - lolololol!!!!