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I am looking for a way to process beans, or a variety of bean that is as flavourless as possible, to get a "clean slate" for making vegetarian cutlets

SourDoh
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INT
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3 Answers3

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In most beans, heat around ~104°C to ~110°C will destroy many of the flavour compounds (a slightly different but precise heat is used for different bean varieties)

Commercially beans are steamed in that temperature range to neutralise them before being processed (e.g. making bean derivatives, or milks)

For domestic processing you could try steaming them in a home pressure cooker to achieve the same effect

Also, many beans are soaked at ~60°C for some hours prior to processing to reduce the "fart" sugars

TFD
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  • Wouldn't this apply to essentially all cooked beans then? – SourDoh May 05 '14 at 21:00
  • @sourd'oh Yes, it should do. Starting with the most flavourless would help, but what one that is might be a poll – TFD May 05 '14 at 21:02
  • But... we're talking about beans that you don't eat without cooking. Are you saying that they just all taste the same already? – Cascabel May 05 '14 at 21:50
  • @Jefromi ? I don't understand what you are asking? – TFD May 05 '14 at 22:09
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    Commercial canning is generally pressure canning, and people tend to use canned beans to avoid the long cooking times, so everyone's already eating beans that have been cooked above 100C. I'm asking if you think that all of those beans taste the same. (Along with that, I'm a bit skeptical of the implication here that 100C coincidentally is both the boiling point of water *and* the temperature at which the flavor compounds in beans break down - presumably boiling them at 100C would also destroy flavor.) – Cascabel May 05 '14 at 22:24
  • @Jefromi factory canning if fast, but either way, yes canned beans do mostly taste the same. They are usually heavily salted and/or flavoured to fix this issue. I don't know what the "magic" temperature is, but I assume it must be above 100°C as the factory I have seen went to great trouble to do it. Even home cooks do it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0pyTS8rvG0 – TFD May 05 '14 at 22:31
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    Ah, I see. I guess your canned beans must be different; pretty sure I can taste plenty of difference between various canned beans I've had. (And I don't just mean variations in salt, and they don't list other flavoring ingredients.) – Cascabel May 06 '14 at 01:20
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    While this answer has been modded down, it's largely correct (despite the debate about TFD's taste buds and canned beans). In commercial situations where it is desirable to remove flavor (and particular "beany" flavor) -- like soymilk production or red bean paste for sweets -- the most common processing steps are long boiling or steaming at high temperatures and/or multiple soaks followed by discarding the soaking liquid. While all canned beans don't "taste the same," their flavors are often significantly muted compared to slow-simmered beans which have retained all soaking liquids. – Athanasius Jun 21 '14 at 18:21
  • @Athanasius thanks. On SA, when a mod or pop. poster jumps in with their opinion, facts don't stand a chance. Had this a few times on SA. I just ignore it now. 100 C+ for beans is just coincidental to 100 C water boiling. AIUI each bean has a 'magic' temp of maximum flavor loss. Can't find a graph of any, but it will be in some factory manual! – TFD Jun 21 '14 at 20:33
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In my opinion, butter beans(Lima beans in the US?) are very neutral and sound suitable for what you want.

Niall
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Canellini beans seem really neutral to me. Pinto beans might also work, or black eyed peas.

meskarune
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