Do you rinse them? I do. But I know some people that don't. Am I rinsing all the nutrients away? Or not? I keep thinking that there might be preservatives in the bean 'juice'.

That's a good question. I wonder if one can rinse the sugar and/or salt from them prior to using in a recipe.

I don't think you would rinse any nutrients away. They are within the peas or beans by nature.

I wonder if the brine is soaked into the pea or bean during the canning process though.

I just made a simple pasta dish (using wheel pasta) where I added a drained can of peas and canned ham. Then added pizza sauce and topped with grated cheese. It was more salty than I wanted. Not bad for others; just for me. Of course, any canned tomato sauce is salty as well as the canned ham. I wonder if rinsing the peas would have helped.

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- Jim

I think that some of the brine must be soaked through. I think I'll keep rinsing anyhow.

I never rinse any of my canned beans; that way I don't have to Add any salt
to whatever I'm cooking.
Hopefully I've made my Last Batch of Chile for this Winter. Put 2 containers of
it in the freezer just in case of a March snowfall, heaven forbid!
Local temps rising to 40's this week. Praise the Lord and store the snow shovels!

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May you always have..Love to Share, Health to Spare, and Friends that Care!

What determines if I rinse beans or not is based on the desired resulting texture of the dish I am making. I have recently gone to canning my own beans, black, white, red.. I think there are lots of nutrients in the liquid surrounding them.

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"The nurse should be cheerful, orderly, punctual, patient, full of faith, - receptive to Truth and Love" Mary Baker Eddy
Visit www.HealthSalon.org

Are there not perservatives in there?

Who knows for sure what you get in store bought canned beans, you have to trust the label. But in home canned beans, no, no preservatives.

__________________
"The nurse should be cheerful, orderly, punctual, patient, full of faith, - receptive to Truth and Love" Mary Baker Eddy
Visit www.HealthSalon.org

Honestly, what it boils down to (sorry bad pun) for me is that I wouldn't eat something that was soaking in an unwanted fluid, so if I can eat the beans the juice is fine.

When I cook chili I toss the whole can in and as others have mentioned, it does reduce the amount of salt needed.