What are French beans?

[Fionn]

I sometimes follow a recipe from a standard UK cookbook which requires French beans which you simmer with pork chops in a caper sauce. My Tesco has runner beans, green beans and string beans along with sugar snap peas and mange tout etc. I never know which to buy - do French beans have an alternative name?

You've made me think now! I think, they're green beans! I think. That's what I would use if a recipe asked for them, I think!!

I've seen them as dwarf beans and green beans. They're about 15cm long, thin and round. You just have to top and tail them. HTH.

you can get haricot verts in a tin so I assume they're french beans?! Not that I like tinned veg if I can help it. I usually use green beans ... string beans are a bit .. um ... stringy

Fresh are called dwarf beans, in Sainsbos anyway, but they tend to be flown in from Kenya or Egypt or somewhere (those food miles again...)

Sainsbos also have the frozen version, as green beans - organic or otherwise, they cost the same and I think they only come from Belgium, they are nice simmered for 5 mins as a veg but I'm not sure what they'd be like in a recipe (a bit soggy possibly).

Thanks everyone!