The day I found out you're supposed to rinse canned beans - I've been making chili wrong for 10 years

My buddy Matt watched me dump a whole can of kidney beans into a pot of chili and he just stared at me. He asked if I liked eating bean sludge. I said what bean sludge. Turns out the liquid in the can is basically bean juice that makes everything taste like dirt and gives you gas. Now I have to choose: rinse them and lose flavor, or keep doing my old way and admit Matt was right. Which side are you on, rinse crew or no rinse crew?

2 comments

2 Comments

evanr791mo ago

Poured a can of black beans into a salad once without rinsing. The whole thing turned into a grey soup and my girlfriend asked if I was trying to poison her. She dumped the whole bowl in the sink and we ordered pizza. Now I rinse them but I save the liquid in a jar for some reason. My fridge has three jars of bean juice sitting next to the pickles and I have no idea what to do with them. Never admitting defeat though.

the_julia1mo ago

You said the liquid "gives you gas" but that's actually the beans themselves that cause gas, not the liquid. The liquid just has some salt and starch in it, and rinsing can actually reduce the gas because you're washing away some of the complex sugars from the bean coating. But yeah, save that liquid for thickening soups or making vegan mayo, there's way more uses than people think.