Run out of butter or eggs? Here's the science behind substitute ingredients

Daryl76679@lemmy.ml to Science@beehaw.org – 29 points –
Run out of butter or eggs? Here's the science behind substitute ingredients
phys.org
4

Aquafaba

Well I learned something new today. Crazy that the water you use to cook beans in can function so similarly to eggs, and even crazier this was only discovered in 2014.

They use it as a substitute for egg whites in cocktails, and honestly it's better.

The reason you cook beans and traditionally throw away the water and foam is because you want to get rid of saponins - which aquafaba contains. Legume-eating traditional cultures carefully skimmed off this foam, so presumably because they learned it's not so good. Of course, a little is not so bad, presumably the plants evolved this as a pesticide. But there are other egg replacements like flax or chia seeds.

Damn I have been pouring my eggs down the drain this whole time