---
title: 'Maybe just eat the bean goo'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=R26Y6W-Lm00'
video_id: 'R26Y6W-Lm00'
date: 2026-06-28
duration_sec: 596
---

# Maybe just eat the bean goo

> Source: [Maybe just eat the bean goo](https://youtube.com/watch?v=R26Y6W-Lm00)

## Summary

The video challenges the common advice to rinse and drain canned beans, arguing that the canning liquid (bean goo) is often beneficial. It explains the composition of the liquid—starches, pectins, salt, and sometimes additives like EDTA—and demonstrates how using it improves texture and flavor in dishes like a creamy mustard bean stew.

### Key Points

- **The bean goo is useful** [0:00] — The canning liquid contains natural thickeners (starches, pectins) that can enhance sauces and stews, reducing the need to overcook beans.
- **Salt is the main additive** [1:58] — Salt strengthens beans and adds flavor; the 'excess sodium' argument is weak because you'll likely add more salt anyway.
- **EDTA and sodium balance** [2:55] — EDTA (a chelating agent) is added to prevent discoloration but may affect electrolyte balance if consumed excessively; draining could help if you rely on cheap beans daily.
- **When to drain for texture** [4:17] — Drain and rinse if you want separate, clean beans for salads; otherwise, the liquid helps thicken sauces.
- **Demonstration: drained vs. undrained** [5:06] — Using drained beans requires overcooking to thicken the sauce, leading to broken beans and possible curdling; using the liquid gives a silky, smooth sauce without overcooking.
- **Digestive considerations** [7:07] — The goo adds oligosaccharides that may cause gas, but eating more beans regularly helps the gut microbiome adapt.
- **Save the liquid as aquafaba** [8:19] — Bean goo can be used as a vegan egg substitute in baking or whipped into a foam (aquafaba).

### Conclusion

The canning liquid from beans is a valuable ingredient that can improve texture, flavor, and even serve as a vegan binder. Unless you need pristine beans for a salad or have specific health concerns, there's no need to rinse and drain—just account for the salt and enjoy the benefits.

## Transcript

This video is sponsored by Squarespace.
It's weird how nearly every recipe that  
I see involving canned or cartoned beans 
tells you to rinse and drain them to remove  
the canning liquid. That makes sense for 
a lot of recipes but not for all of them.
 
For example, here's a stew that 
I made with the canning liquid,  
and here's the same stew made without the 
canning liquid. Gross. Now, I've chosen a  
deliberately extreme example to help me make 
my point as clearly as possible. Your results  
will vary depending on what exactly you're 
cooking, and we're going to get into that.
 
But first, what exactly is the bean 
goo? For plain unflavored beans,  
that goo starts off as just plain old water. The 
thickener that you're seeing at work is just the  
natural starches and pectins that come out of 
the beans themselves. The packer soaks the beans,  
they blanche the beans to cook them most of the 
way through, and then they put them into the can,  
they fill it up with water and then they finish 
cooking it the rest of the way in the can or the  
carton that's part of the sterilizing process.
Now the water that they put in the beans usually  
does have some additives in it. If the packer is 
working with soft water, they may need to add some  
minerals like calcium back into the water. That'll 
have the effect of strengthening the bean skins,  
make them less likely to pop open. The canner 
might also add a chelating agent, specifically  
ethylene diamine tetra acetic acid, EDTA, EDTA, 
to bond with metal ions that are inside the can,  
either coming from the can itself or more likely 
from the beans themselves. Beans are full of  
valuable metal nutrients like iron and copper. 
That's part of what makes them so healthy. But  
over time, in the can or the carton, some of those 
loose ions can react with other stuff in there and  
cause discoloration. The chelating agent bonds 
with the metals to effectively neutralize them.
 
But the number one additive in bean goo is usually 
just salt. Salt makes the beans taste better. It  
also strengthens them chemically, and it extends 
their shelf life. One of the most common arguments  
in favor of draining the beans is to get 
rid of what they call the excess sodium,  
and that makes little sense to me. Unless 
you're on a special diet for your blood  
pressure or something, you're probably going to 
season your food to taste, and that's probably  
going to require even more salt than what 
is already in here. If I were to just dump  
the beans in the pan with all of their liquid, 
that salt is not only seasoning the beans, but  
all of the other stuff that's in the pan, which 
also needs salt. I ended up needing additional  
salt on top of what was already in the bean goo.
So for most things, the excess sodium is fine as  
long as you account for it in your recipe. Though 
I do have one minor health related footnote,  
chemical food additives like the EDTA that we 
were just talking about are often unstable,  
reactive. That's why we're putting them in 
the food, to react with stuff. And so to  
stabilize the chemical for storage and for 
shipping and such, they will often bond it  
to a sodium ion to make a stable salt.
MSG is an example of that. A glutamate  
anion bonded to a sodium cation. It's nice and 
stable now, but those ions will dissolve apart  
in water once we add it to the food and we'll 
get the reactions or the taste sensations that  
we're looking for. The hitch is that there's no 
chloride. Table salt is sodium plus chloride,  
right, and you need both in rough balance in 
order to be healthy. If you're getting all of your  
sodium in the form of food additives, that could 
potentially throw off your electrolyte balance.
 
So look at the ingredients on the label. If 
you see salt, that means you're getting both  
sodium and chloride. But if all you see is stuff 
like disodium EDTA, then you'd be getting less  
chloride. And I can't imagine it would matter very 
much, but if you ate the same brand of cheap beans  
every single day your entire life, maybe that 
could make a difference. I don't know. But that  
would be a reason to drain those beans, so that 
you can replace the perhaps less healthy sodium  
compounds with plain old salt. But this brand only 
uses normal salt anyway, so we're good there.
 
You might want to drain and then rinse for 
textural reasons if you want nice, clean,  
separate beans to drop onto a salad or something 
like that. But if you're making beans in sauce  
as we so often are, that liquid might actually be 
beneficial to your sauce. And here is my example.
 
This is beans ala moutarde, French style creamy 
beans flavored with mustard. It's dynamite.  
I'll chop up a shallot, and then this part isn't 
traditional, but I'm going to add a big handful  
of green beans just to make this a more complete 
meal. Broccoli would be awesome too. Olive oil  
in the pan, give the shallots a little head 
start, and then I'll put in the green beans,  
give them a couple minute head start. Maybe add 
some butter if the pan is looking dry or just add  
it because it tastes good and then deglaze with 
some white wine. Reduce that down a little bit.
 
For demonstration purposes, I will put 
in my drained and rinsed butter beans.  
Enough milk to almost submerge everything, bring 
to a boil, reduce to a spirited simmer. That  
liquid is very thin as you can see. The way we 
thicken it into a sauce is that we just cook the  
beans until more of their starches and pectins and 
such leak out. That's how beans thicken a stew.
 
The problem is these beans already gave up a lot 
of their natural thickeners to the canning liquid.  
We now have to overcook them to get more 
thickeners out of them. I can see the beans  
starting to break apart more than I would 
like. This is probably thick enough though.  
It'll thicken a lot as it cools and our remaining 
ingredients are also thickeners. A huge spoonful  
of whole grain mustard. I love how those 
little seeds pop between your teeth. And  
then I'll finish with just a little cream. You 
could certainly skip that. Taste for seasoning,  
give it pepper and a lot of salt. Remember 
that we drained away all that salty liquid.
 
Here is our final texture. It doesn't look very 
nice, because we had to overcook and bust up the  
beans to thicken the sauce. Plus the acid in 
the wine may have curdled the milk a little  
bit. It tastes fine, but the texture could 
be better, if we start all over again and  
this time we add the beans with their liquid, or 
some of their liquid. Normally when I make this,  
I drain one carton of beans and then I don't drain 
the other ones. But you could drain everything  
into a separate container and then you can just 
add that back into the dish by eye, depending  
on how much thickening it seems like it needs.
But, this time I'm going to go full bean goo. I  
only need a little milk to bring that liquid 
all the way up. Time to simmer until it's  
thick and that happens much faster because we 
already have natural thickeners in our sauce.  
We don't have to overcook the beans. That 
goo may seem unappetizing on its own, but  
in a sauce it is silky, smooth, and delicious.
And yes, the bean goo is going to add to your  
total load of oligosaccharides and other things 
that are found in beans that can be kind of hard  
to digest. So that could be a reason to drain 
away the liquid if you're having trouble with  
your beans. But my advice for that is just 
to eat more beans. The more beans you eat,  
the more your microbiome in your gut adjusts, 
and you just stop having problems. I eat lots  
of beans these days. I have no digestive 
problems with beans anymore at all.
 
That'll be thick enough once it cools 
and we add our mustard and cream,  
which also function as thickeners. The starch in 
the bean goo also gets between the milk proteins  
and the acids from the wine, thus preventing 
curdling, which is a nice added bonus. Season,  
but remember that we're going to need less 
salt because the bean goo was already salty.
 
Maybe finish with some fresh parsley, and there we 
are. Vastly superior texture. The taste is maybe  
slightly less milky because we use less milk, but 
it does taste more beanie. It's all about getting  
the balance that you want for the particular dish 
that you're cooking, which is why I normally drain  
one package and I don't drain the other one.
And even if you do drain all of your liquid off,  
consider saving it. You can use it to thicken 
something else. You can also use it as a vegan  
substitute for eggs in baked goods. It serves as 
a binder. You can even whip it up into a foam to  
replace meringue in something. In that context, 
it's usually known as aquafaba, although that term  
can sometimes refer exclusively to the bean goo 
from chickpeas, but all bean goo can function as  
aquafaba. The point is the bean goo is good.
As is the sponsor of this video, Squarespace.  
A can of beans has protein and carbs and 
fiber and vitamins all wrapped up in their  
own thickener. Squarespace is a similar all in 
one bundle, offering everything you need to build  
and run a website. Everything from a simple 
personal portfolio to a whole online store.
 
Squarespace does the payment processing, 
all of that. They can register your custom  
domain name for you. They can start you 
off with a beautiful human design template,  
or you can just tell the computer what you 
want and let it start something for you. Drag  
and drop to customize for your own needs, and 
note that you can separately edit for mobile  
display, which is obviously very important.
And in this new era of AI search, Squarespace  
has tools that can help the new chatbots find 
your site and surface it for your audience.
 
My audience can save 10% off a Squarespace 
site or a custom domain using my code,  
Ragusea. Save 10% with my code, Ragusea. 
Thank you, Squarespace. And thank you  
canned beans. All things considered, you 
may be the perfect semi-prepared food.