Should I eat these beans?

January 10, 2019 1:57 PM

It's finally my turn to ask a silly food question. I soaked black beans overnight, cooked them in the morning, drained and transferred them to another bowl, and promptly forget the bowl on the counter (in my chilly kitchen) for 12 hours.

I was going to make cold bean salad with them. Do I need to turn them into chili or something instead? Do I need to chuck them entirely? Am I overthinking this bowl-o-beans? Also.... I'm currently preggers.

posted by thegreatfleecircus to Food & Drink (15 answers total)

I feel that I would eat the beans. But I would probably cook these particular beans in some kind of bean-requiring recipe, and do a separate batch of beans for the cold bean salad. Beans are like...five cents a kilogram.
posted by turbid dahlia at 2:07 PM on January 10, 2019 [3 favorites]

If they smell okay, I'd eat them.
posted by bile and syntax at 2:43 PM on January 10, 2019

If you want to feel a bit safer, you could bring them to a boil for a couple minutes. I might do that on a hot humid day, but probably wouldn't bother, since I'm not pregnant. A little extra caution might make you feel better about eating them.
posted by theora55 at 3:11 PM on January 10, 2019 [1 favorite]

I would eat them, but I'd probably rinse them thoroughly first.
posted by brianogilvie at 3:20 PM on January 10, 2019

You are in an elevated risk group, the pathogens that cause foodborne illness love to grow in high-protein foods, and the beans have been sitting out for hours, so the safe answer is throw them out.

If it was me, I would eat them. But your risk probably depend on the likelihood of any cross contamination that could have occurred after the beans were cooked, which in turn depends on how clean your kitchen is, your food prep procedures, and your personal hygiene.
posted by peeedro at 3:38 PM on January 10, 2019 [3 favorites]

I would eat a lot of things. I would not suggest you eat these beans.
posted by Night_owl at 3:42 PM on January 10, 2019 [1 favorite]

I would probably eat these, unless I was pregnant. Then I would definitely not eat them.
posted by peanut_mcgillicuty at 4:39 PM on January 10, 2019 [1 favorite]

I wouldn't eat them if you're pregnant. It's not worth the stress alone!
posted by noxperpetua at 5:15 PM on January 10, 2019 [3 favorites]

Yeah just rinse 'em off. If you're at all worried just blanche them before putting them in the salad.
posted by aspersioncast at 6:46 PM on January 10, 2019

god no, not if you're pregnant. that bean cooking water is a high protein environment for growing stuff.
posted by fingersandtoes at 7:26 PM on January 10, 2019

No. I eat a lot of questionable food and would most likely eat this myself, but ensuring your unborn baby's health is worth 49 cents.
posted by gatorae at 7:35 PM on January 10, 2019

Huh. I'm somewhat complacent about food risk, yet I would throw these out without question. I'm surprised there isn't more of a consensus!
posted by aws17576 at 9:56 PM on January 10, 2019 [5 favorites]

Don’t overthink it; my advice is to pitch them and cook up another batch, just to be sure.
posted by GrammarMoses at 3:34 AM on January 11, 2019

I thought at first you were saying that you had soaked them and left them out for an extra twelve hours before cooking, and then I was thinking it's probably fine.

But they were sitting out for 12 hours *after* being cooked? Nah. Toss them. And if the issue is the lost time, the next batch you can skip the soaking on and save yourself some trouble.
posted by Lady Li at 11:06 AM on January 12, 2019

if it were just for me, depending on how cold the kitchen was I might cook them into a chili or something like that. But so many of the pregnancy food restrictions are about reducing your chance of getting various types of food poisoning that I would just not mess with it.
posted by Lady Li at 11:07 AM on January 12, 2019