sour beans

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Salt cutting beans as a commodity (the beans taken from the pack are still not watered here)
Bean cutter

Sour Beans , also salt beans , salt-cutting beans , Rhineland cutting beans or popularly known skein beans called, are green garden beans that are similar to sauerkraut and pickles by lactic acid fermentation were preserved. They belong to the group of sour vegetables .

For production, larger green beans are cleaned, stripped and cut into bite-sized pieces. After a short blanching process, the cold beans are mixed with salt to initiate the fermentation process. Previously, the prepared and cut were in normal domestic production, especially in rural areas, ( coll. "Gefitzelten", "gefitschten") beans were alternately layered with salt in an earthenware pot and tamped until the own juice covered. The beans were then covered with a clean cloth and weighted down with a board and a stone until the fermentation process was completed after a few weeks (during which the board and stone should or had to be thoroughly cleaned several times).

In some regions of Germany, sour beans, mostly packaged in bags, are also available as commercial goods. Due to the relatively high salt content, the cutting beans must be watered intensively before further preparation.

Sour beans are traditionally prepared as a stew with ingredients such as bacon , onions and smoked pork or Mettwurst . In the North German kitchen , they are also prepared together with separately cooked beef and used in salads , where they are previously steamed and sometimes further processed warm. “Rhenish-style sour beans” (“Suur Bonne”) are less liquid and also contain mashed potatoes .

In Swabian, sour beans are usually not cooked from the milk-sour fermented beans, but from fresh beans in a roux acidified with vinegar and served with spaetzle , similar to lentils .

literature

  • Gertrud Herrig: Rural food in the structural change of the 20th century (=  cultural change , volume 1). Anton Hain Verlag , Meisenheim am Glan 1974, ISBN 3-445-01206-7 , pp. 53, 208 (also dissertation , University of Mainz 1972).
  • Josef Fröhlingsdorf: An unusual woman of the 20th century. The life of Katharina Fröhlingsdorf (1885–1957). BoD , Norderstedt 2013, ISBN 978-3-8482-3250-5 , pp. 42–43 (detailed description of the production and use of sour beans in private households; excerpt from Google Books ).