Miracle Beans! (Leguminosae)
March 23rd, 2010
We cook them, we fry them, we grind them, we do all kind of processing and enjoy a good bean product. Today I'm taking a closer look at these miracle beans and their uses, it's quite incredible what you can make of it. Word wide nearly 250 Billion kg a year. That's about 35 kg for every human on earth. The bean is high in cholesterol free protein, rich in fiber, low in fat, complex carbohydrates and full of vitamins and minerals and other good things your body needs.
There are many different Beans or Leguminos as they are called, for instance:
- Soybean
- Drybean
- Azuki (Wagashi, Anko, Ice cream)
- Baby Lima
- Black
- Blackeye
- Cranberry
- Dark Red Kidney
- Garbanzo
- Great Northern
- Large Lima
- Light Red Kidney
- Pink
- Pinto
- Navy
- Small Red
- Chickpeas
- More here
Uses
There are so many uses, it is difficult to really capture all their uses, but some are:- Foods
- Tofu
- Vegetarian Hamburger, Chicken or other meat products based on tofu
- Vegetarian Milk based on Soymilk
- Soysauce
- Soypuddings
- Instant coffee
- Hummus (chickpea)
- Eatable Oils
- Salad dressings and fine oils
- Margarine (Hydroginated soybean oil and Soybean salad oil)
- Used in:
- Cookies
- Coffee creamers
- Plastics
- Car doors and other plastic parts e.g. for cars
- Even more uses:
- Insulation
- Foams
- Lubricans
- Creyons
- Biofuel
Workflow of Soybean Oil Processing
- Filtering out large particles (field materials)
- Heating up to 76-80 Degrees Celsius
- Separating outer covering from the inner of bean
- Extracted hulls (outer shells) go into animal feeding
- Flaking mills flatten the flakes into large surface pieces (40% protein, 20% oil)
- Multiple Hexane (C6H14) baths are used to extract the oil components to chemically extract the oil
- Hexane-oil compound is heated to evaporate hexane away from the oil
- The rest of the soy flakes are grind up into "soy bean meal" again used for animal feeding (approx. 80%)
Other by-products which are extracted are Lecitin (bydegumming) . Lecithin is widely used for applications in human food (fully digestable, emulsifiers, candy bars, etc.), animal feed, pharmaceutical (cosmetics), paint, and other industrial applications. Yet another extract which has great value and use.
De-fatted Soy flower another product can be found virtually everywhere acts as a natural preservative and protein source. E.g. in bread, pancake mixes, pasta, doughnuts, pet food and many other foods. Particularly to replace meat this soy flower is processed into textured soy protein. This is the basis for all vegan products you can find.
George Washington Carver pioneered alot of the soy bean uses in the chemical industry beside the peanut research he conducted.
Soymilk Processing Workflow
- Mix and grind wholesoy beans with hot water and stirr into a consistent slurr. This is called Soybase.
- Filter out the fiber (ocara) from the slurr by a centrifuge.
- Use high temperature steam to kill all unwanted bacterias and to ensure shelf-life
- Flash-cool the hot slurr to get rid of unwanted bean flavors
- After this processing the soybase is used together with other ingredients to give it taste and look of cow milk
- The soymilk is then pasteurised.
- Furthermore other flavors are added, e.g. chocolate, cocos, etc. to give it a different taste
- Hydrogen peroxide and ultraviolet light is used for packaging sterilisation. Afterwards 285 Degrees Celsius of heat is used to evaporate the hydrogen peroxide. This packaging method can ensure shelf-life of up to 100 days.
Benefits
Soybeans can lower the risk of:
- heat disease
- certain cancers
- osteoporosis
Dangers
Problems occur like with all things, if you eat too much of it. It can include irregularities in men and women because of Isoflavones. Some research indicates that Isoflavones, a Estrogen like substance found in plants causes problems. This can reduce the natuarally produced estrogen in the human body.
- Menstrual irregularities
- Lower sperm count
Todo
- Chickpeas
- Hummus
- Industry production methods
- Computer Vision in bean selection
- Least known beans
- Bean republic BR
- Wagashi, Anko, Azuki Beans (Japanese pastries), Koshi and Tsubushi An
- Botamotschi "Inside out"
- Motchi Ice cream
- Religious aspects in cultures (e.g. japan)
- Gas preventer, Bino - Aspergillous niger, enzymatic action
- Flatulence tales (Pythagoras, Roman emperor claudius & constantin, Benjamin Franklin)