Lupini Beans

[Paul Bacino]

I picked up a bag of dried Lupini Beans at my Italian store.. Man are these things bitter.. I think I soaked them for about a week ( changing the liquid every morning ) and still had no luck. Whats up with these things, how do you treat them and what the heck are they used in?

Paul

[andiesenji]

They are eaten as a snack and you probably didn't use brine, which leaches the alkaloids out easier than plain water.

One week in plain works ONLY if they are in running water so the alkaloids can be carried away.

The Italian lady who told me about lupini beans many years ago, explained that in the village in which she grew up, her father owned a mill and the village women would bring netted bags of lupini to hang in the mill race for a week or so.

After that they were soaked in several changes of brine, until the brine no longer had a bitter taste.

The alkaloids are not only bitter, they are toxic.

You can buy processed lupini in jars, pickled. Safer and far easier.

While I like to full around with this type of thing, one time was enough for me and it was many years ago and I don't care to repeat the process. I think altogether I spent three weeks on it.

[rancho_gordo]

I've seen them in glass jars and you pop them out of their skin.

I didn't care for them.

[Wholemeal Crank]

I gave up on getting the bitterness out of some dried beans after a week or 10 days, and they were starting to smell spoiled by then anyway, even in the refrigerator.

Then I saw some in a jar and thought, "ready to eat!", tried one, and still didn't like them.

I had thought at first that they must have some fabulous special flavor or character to make people go through all that work to detoxify them. Now I think these are one of those mostly wild foods that people eat when the tastier domesticated varieties fail, because they need to be seasoned by hunger. Or at least, I would need to be very hungry before I'd bother again.

[janeer]

Sounds like these would take top prize on the current thread about foods not worth making ever again

[Paul Bacino]

Yeah.. the one thing I will never buy again!!

[Wholemeal Crank]

Sounds like these would take top prize on the current thread about foods not worth making ever again

They might if I'd ever actually made anything with them......I gave up long before any actual cooking or making could begin.