For other foods, the cooking temperature seems to make a difference to which macronutrients are extracted, and subsequently, to the taste of the final product. For instance, the temperature is strictly controlled in home beer brews to maximise the extraction of sugars, and low-temperature processes are used to extract protein from peas commercially.
If I vary the cooking temperature when boiling soaked beans, how might it affect the macronutrient profile of the beans? For example, will a long, milder cooking process with lower temperature water extract a different amount of starches or proteins from the beans compared to a rapid boil?
Or, alternatively, what would happen if, instead of simply soaking the beans for a couple of days beforehand I kept them in warm (say, 60c) water for a while before cooking (instead of soaking at room temperature)
Best Answer
This is going to be a bit of a Zen answer (as usual for me).
I would venture that it doesn't matter. Normally, when you're making a bean stew or a chili bean casserole, you won't be discarding the liquid anyway. When you're eating the final dish, it doesn't matter to you if the protein is in the bean or the liquid, as you're eating them both.
It has, however, been my experience with white beans and chickpeas, that if you cook them more slowly, the water gets gloopier (higher viscosity), which means that proteins have moved from bean to water.