Dried beans - measuring and logging

mtaratoot

I used to cook dried beans a LOT. I got out of the habit, but have started up again in the last year. Cooking from dried is more affordable, can have less salt if I want, and has no risk of picking up BPA from the lining of cans. Before I started cooking dried beans again, it seems I was going through cans pretty regularly. I still keep a stock of cans for emergencies/disasters and/or for when I need some on shorter notice.

Lately I started thinking about how I log beans. I'm curious what YOU do and maybe even why.

Sometimes I cook beans with a lot of water. In those cases, it's easy to use a slotted spoon and fill a bowl and weigh it on the scale. Lately I've been experimenting with cooking in just with less water, then serving with a ladle so the cooking liquid goes into the bowl with the beans.

I don't make a huge amount of beans each batch. I usually sprout them for two or three days just until the acrospire starts to emerge from the seed. This limits the amount I can do at one time because I don't like to overfill the sprouting jar. I make enough for three or four meals depending how many I eat at once.

Here's the conundrum: When I serve a bowl of beans, I weigh what I serve. That contains beans plus water (plus any other ingredients like hot chiles, garlic, or whatever I added to the pot). I don't bother that some of the mass is garlic or chiles, but I wonder about the cooking liquid. I presume there's some nutrients there, and thus some calories, but not much fiber. Surely the beans themselves have far more calories than the cooking liquid. My scale doesn't know the difference.

I have found a few entries in the database for cooked beans of various types by mass, but I never know if those entries include cooking water or not.

I guess I could weigh my dry beans to figure out what's in the batch, but to be of any use I'd then have to weigh the pot of beans when it's done. It's too hot for the scale even if I could get a tare for the empty pot.

I like beans. They're healthy. The calories do add up if I eat a lot of them. What would (or what DO) you do?

I've found that sprouting beans means they cook quicker. Of course the process takes a couple days instead of just an overnight soak. I used to soak for a couple days changing the water a couple times. This did allow some fermentation to reduce some of the indigestible sugars. Sprouting is just a fun new hobby that also seems to reduce non digestible sugars. I have read it makes some nutrients more bioavailable, but also reduces some nutrients. I'll probably keep doing it, but figuring out how much to count in my journal has had me scratching my head the last few weeks.

Share your insights please!

janejellyroll

My situation is simple because when I cook beans I am only cooking for myself (my husband doesn't eat them). It may not apply to you.

I weigh the dry beans, divide them into servings after cooking, and then log the dry weight of the bean. I just divide them visually since I know I will be the one eating all the servings and it won't really matter if one is a bit larger than another.

I do log things like chili peppers, garlic, and onion used when cooking beans. I ignore how much bean water I am or am not eating with them.

If I didn't do it this way (if, for example, I was cooking big batches of beans and sharing them with someone else), would probably just log the cooked weight of the bean and choose the cooked entry. I would personally NOT count the weight of the water. I think I would just use a slotted spoon to serve my beans and then add back some liquid after weighing if I wanted it.

I personally think when it comes to things like this, consistently in method is probably more important than finding the absolute best way to do it. If I'm eating a food all the time and accidentally underestimating the calories, it is going to show up on the scale if it's relevant enough. At that point, I would make the decision to cut back on my OVERALL calories. I wouldn't even necessarily have to know what specific food was causing the problem, right? I'd just know that overall, over time, I was eating more than I wanted to and could reduce my calorie goal slightly to account for this.

We're all just estimating. The important thing is to have a pool of data from which we can make meaningful changes when necessary. Yes, we want to try to be accurate, but the POINT of the accuracy is so that we have the ability to adjust when we need to. So if you choose a method of bean counting (haha) that consistently underestimates enough to be relevant, you have the option to either switch your method of counting (if you have a good sense it's the beans) or just reduce your overall calorie goal slightly. Either way, you've addressed the problem.

lynn_glenmont

If I were making a soup or stew or chili -- any dish where I was going to ladle out liquid, rather than just the beans -- I would use the recipe tool.

Weigh your pots empty and keep a list somewhere handy in your kitchen (mine is stuck under a magnet on the refrigerator door). That way you don't have to worry about taring the pot. Also, put a pot holder on the scale (and tare) before you move the hot pot of beans there; then you don't have to worry about the scale.

AnnPT77

I cook dried beans in huge batches and freeze them. Last batch was somthing like a dozen 2-cup bowls.

The most precise method would be to weigh the dry beans and note; weigh the cooked beans in total; and when you use beans from the batch, use ((serving grams / cooked grams) X raw grams) to create the calorie estimate. That assumes similar amounts of liquid with each serving, of course.

I don't have much opinion about the cooking water, because I normally cook them carefully until there's quite minimal liquid - less by far than in canned beans - and use them that way as is, without draining/rinsing.

I wouldn't worry about small amounts of low-calorie veggie stuff (onions, garlic, peppers, etc.) included in the cooking, but if it gets to be large amounts, then I'd use the recipe builder.

In practice, because I'm lazy, I don't weigh the dry beans or the total batch of cooked beans. When I use the beans, I weigh the cooked ones in grams, and use the USDA entry in the database (such as "beans, black, mature seeds, cooked, boiled, with salt") to log them.

I think you'd have to eat really, really a lot of beans for doing that to seriously misrepresent your overall calorie intake . . . though the water/liquid levels could change that conclusion. (They don't, for me, because there's little liquid. And I do eat a lot of beans - a cup multiple times a week, typically - and have been logging them this way for around 5 years now, during loss and maintenance, with no obvious problems from doing so.)

BarbaraHelen2013

In my Recipe Builder are ‘Recipes’ for all the dried bean varieties I like to eat (red kidney, black, pinto, soya, black eyed, mung, aduki, cannellini, haricot, butter - probably missed some too).

I weigh out 200g of dried beans, sometimes soak them, sometimes not... cook, cool in the liquid to stop the skins splitting (allegedly) drain, reserving remaining liquid and weigh the finished weight of beans. Then change the serving size on my recipe to reflect the gram weight. Then I portion them out to 80g portions and freeze in small tubs with some of the reserved cooking liquid.

I’ve recently been wondering about the calories in the cooking liquid too. But figure that it’s accounted for by using the calorie count from the dry beans so if I don’t use any of the liquid on occasion I’m still winning! Black beans, especially, seem to shed particles into the water! Those particles have to have some calorie value I suppose but I’ll settle for dry weight calories or my brain will implode thinking about any greater accuracy! 😂

mtaratoot

Well, yeah... I guess this makes me a bean counter. Ugh.

What I have been doing, and probably will do because like Ann, I'm a little lazy, is just weigh cooked beans as I serve them and use the cooked bean entry. I will probably be overestimating calories because I like to ladle in some of the liquid whether or not there's much in there. The estimate will be farther off when there's a lot of liquid. I am not planning to weigh a hot pot full of beans; I might weigh the dry beans for grins, but then it will be estimating portion size by volume not mass.

I guess if I make a pot with a lot of liquid I could save it and use it for broth. Then I'll really be scratching my head at how to log it.

My favorites lately are black beans, adzuki beans, and blackeyed peas. I alternate among them. I'm only cooking smaller batches because of my silly sprouting habit. I could stop that any time I want. No really I've always been a big fan of black beans.

I wasn't losing any sleep about this. I just try to get as good of an estimate or measurement as I can since I'm in maintenance and want to be close to my weekly goal as possible without going over or under too much. Since I've been eating a lot of beans weekly. A serving is a half cup cooked. I eat a lot more than that when I cook them. They're so tasty. Thanks for your feedback. This has, so far BEAN a nice dialogue.

Eat well, stay healthy, and enjoy!

mtaratoot

For the batch I cooked today, this is all moot. I got the amount of cooking water just right so there really wasn't much liquid to worry about. I did add a couple carrots, some garlic, and a big jalapeno from the garden, but I didn't even include them; just called it beans.

It helps to cook the beans with the lid off the pot. That lets more steam escape; I had to add a little water late in the cooking. It also keeps the beans more whole, which I like. I just put my bowl on the scale, got a tare, and served up a couple hundred grams of deliciousness.

Sorry if I've been overthinking this. I'm a recovering scientist, so I get kind of geeky sometimes.

snowflake954

mtaratoot wrote: »

For the batch I cooked today, this is all moot. I got the amount of cooking water just right so there really wasn't much liquid to worry about. I did add a couple carrots, some garlic, and a big jalapeno from the garden, but I didn't even include them; just called it beans.

It helps to cook the beans with the lid off the pot. That lets more steam escape; I had to add a little water late in the cooking. It also keeps the beans more whole, which I like. I just put my bowl on the scale, got a tare, and served up a couple hundred grams of deliciousness.

Sorry if I've been overthinking this. I'm a recovering scientist, so I get kind of geeky sometimes.

As for cooking them with the lid off the pot--I cook mine on low with the lid just a little off (tilted a bit) so steam escapes, but there's still a little pressure in the pot. I do this for all legumes.

cmriverside

recovering scientist