"notbob" > wrote in message
...
> On 2009-02-19, The Ranger > wrote:
>
>> his chumming the waters with such a provocatively simple piece of prose.
>
> [blush]
>
>> If he could tell the difference between two beans in a blind-tasting
>> after
>> cooking, I'd be surprised.
>
> If you can't tell the difference between, say, a pinto bean and a lima
> bean,
> then what the Hell is the advantage of a 15 bean mix? Does an all white
> bean mix taste the same as an all black/red bean mix. I seriously doubt
> it.
>
> If you want to use an anology, a symphony orchestra pretty much sucks, as
> there is no similarity whatsoever. Classical music has solo passages. Do
> you start picking out beans from your mix to experience that one bean?
> If so, we're back to the advantages of solo bean dishes. If I was to use
> an
> anology, I'd use a miropoix, a specific mix of aromatic veggies (carrot,
> celery, onion) or the Holy Trinity (bell pepper, celery, onion). These
> are
> marriages of 3 aromatic veggies, but notice it's not 15! veggies. There's
> such a thing as too much.
>
> If 15 beans is good, which 15? If it doesn't matter, then what's the
> point?
>
> nb

The only reason those bean mixes came to be is that at the warehouses sacks
tend to tear so various beans get all mixed together... they're not going to
pay people to separate beans and they're not about to throw them away, so
multi bean soup mix packages were born, and at nearly double the price of
virgin one of a kind beans. Also many people use bean blends for
decorative purposes, they kinda look nice in glass bottles. But most
colorful beans like cranberry and calico lose all their color when cooked,
even pinto beans turn plain old dreary grey. After cooking in a recipe only
the ones that retain their unique color (red kidney, blackeye pea) and shape
(lima) there is no way to tell one bean from another... and only a few have
a flavor unique enough to taste the difference, like red kidney and lima.
Personally I don't see any point to bean blend soups, and I'm certainly not
going to pay a premium price for beans shoveled up off the warehouse floor.