Jump to content
  • Welcome to the eG Forums, a service of the eGullet Society for Culinary Arts & Letters. The Society is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of the culinary arts. These advertising-free forums are provided free of charge through donations from Society members. Anyone may read the forums, but to post you must create a free account.

Bean cooking liquid


isomer

Recommended Posts

I just finished the last of a batch of Flageolet beans, which I cooked with a carrot, some celery, an onion and a bunch of thyme, salt and pepper. I was about to pour the bean cooking liquid down the sink, when I decided to taste it. OMG! it's delicious!

Is there anything wrong with adding this to soup or in cooking? Does it, uh, cause gastric distress? :blink: I feel really dumb pouring this great tasting broth down the drain.

What do you do with it?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Bean-related distress is largely caused by the indigestible sugars present in beans (oligosaccharides, primarily inulin). These are not digestible by humans but are digestible by the bacteria in our guts!

Bean cooking water will contain some oligosaccharides, of course, but not as much as would be present in the cooked beans themselves.

Meanwhile, bean cooking water has plenty of cooking applications. Using it to cook rice is a good idea. And it could be used as a base for any number of soups.

--

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I just finished the last of a batch of Flageolet beans, which I cooked with a carrot, some celery, an onion and a bunch of thyme, salt and pepper.  I was about to pour the bean cooking liquid down the sink, when I decided to taste it. OMG! it's delicious!

Is there anything wrong with adding this to soup or in cooking? Does it, uh, cause gastric distress?  :blink:  I feel really dumb pouring this great tasting broth down the drain.

What do you do with it?

I usually use it as a stock for something, soups come to mind. I also save the leftover "liquor" from roasting chiles or bells and put it in the chile, soup or whatever has the veggie (or a similar one) in it.

John S.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Meanwhile, bean cooking water has plenty of cooking applications.  Using it to cook rice is a good idea.  And it could be used as a base for any number of soups.

How about the bean "water" from a can of beans?

Peter Gamble aka "Peter the eater"

I just made a cornish game hen with chestnut stuffing. . .

Would you believe a pigeon stuffed with spam? . . .

Would you believe a rat filled with cough drops?

Moe Sizlack

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Try cooking some black beans and then using the liquid to cook white rice. The resulting black rice is great for grossing out your teen-agers, or to mix with some braised carrots for Halloween. It's also good for more serious uses. It works like squid ink, but doesn't stain your teeth.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We usually serve soupy beans in a bowl with a spoon. That way the broth gets eaten along with the beans.

I don't understand why rappers have to hunch over while they stomp around the stage hollering.  It hurts my back to watch them. On the other hand, I've been thinking that perhaps I should start a rap group here at the Old Folks' Home.  Most of us already walk like that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

cool your beans (if you're not eating immediately) in the liquid first. I just posted a bean revelation on the thread about best tip of this year or something like that.

Agreed to cook rice in it. I know this is the way Jamaicans make rice and beans, actually half bean liquid and half coconut milk, but I could be wrong.

Norm Van Aken simply reduces it and adds it back into his beans to serve reheated, giving a creamy texture while still leaving solid, not mushy beans. He's actually got a whole little disertation about his "black bean kit" - his aray of about a dozen aromatics he uses in his black beans. They are pretty awsome.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...