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is a preparation of immature soybeans in the pod, found in
cuisine A cuisine is a style of cooking characterized by distinctive ingredients, techniques and dishes, and usually associated with a specific culture or geographic region. Regional food preparation techniques, customs, and ingredients combine to ...
s with origins in East Asia. The pods are boiled or steamed and may be served with salt or other condiments. In Japan, they are usually blanched in 4% salt water for 5 minutes. When the beans are outside the pod, the term mukimame is also sometimes used in Japanese. Edamame are a common side dish in washoku and as an appetizer to alcoholic beverages such as beer or
shōchū is a Japanese distilled beverage. It is typically distilled from rice, barley, sweet potatoes, buckwheat, or brown sugar, though it is sometimes produced from other ingredients such as chestnut, sesame seeds, potatoes, or even carrots. Ty ...
. As an ingredient Edamame are found in both sweet and savory dishes such as
takikomi gohan ''Takikomi gohan'' (炊き込みご飯, 炊き込み御飯) is a Japanese rice dish seasoned with dashi and soy sauce along with mushrooms, vegetables, meat, or fish. The ingredients of ''takikomi gohan'' are cooked with the rice. This dish is c ...
, tempura, and
zunda-mochi Zunda-mochi (ずんだ餅) is type of Japanese confectionary popular in northeastern Japan. It is sometimes translated as "green soybean rice cake." It generally consists of a round cake of short-grained glutinous rice with sweetened mashed soy ...
.


Name

In Japan, the name ''edamame'' is commonly used to refer to the dish. It literally means "stem beans" (枝 ''eda'' = "branch" or "stem" + 豆 ''mame'' = "bean"), because the beans were often sold while still attached to the stem. In China and Taiwan, ''maodou'' is used commonly to refer to the dish, which literally means "fur peas" (毛 ''mao'' = "fur" + 豆 ''dou'' = "bean").


History

Soybeans were first cultivated in China some 7000 years ago, while the earliest documented reference to the term "edamame" dates from the year 1275, when the Japanese monk Nichiren wrote a note thanking a parishioner for the gift of "edamame" he had left at the temple. History of Edamame, Green Vegetable Soybeans, and Vegetable-Type Soybeans (1275–2009)
In 1406, during the Ming dynasty in China, the leaves of the soybeans were eaten and during outbreaks of famine, it was recommended that citizens eat the beans whole or use them ground up and added to flour. Centuries later in China 1620 they are referred to again, but as ''maodou'', which translates to the term "hairy bean". They are found in the records of the Runan vegetable gardens and stated as having a medicinal purpose, as well as being a snack food. Edamame appeared in
haikai ''Haikai'' (Japanese 俳諧 ''comic, unorthodox'') may refer in both Japanese and English to ''haikai no renga'' (renku), a popular genre of Japanese linked verse, which developed in the sixteenth century out of the earlier aristocratic renga. I ...
verse in Japanese in the Edo period (1603–1868), with one example as early as 1638. They were first recognized in the United States in 1855, when a farmer commented on the difficulties he had shelling them after harvest. In March 1923, the immature soybean is first referred to in text in the United States in the book "The Soybean" by C. V. Piper and Joseph W. Morse. In this book, they are first pictured and shown as being eaten out of open shell pods. The first nutritional facts about them are published and some recipes are included, as they were a new type of vegetable to the public. The earliest recorded usage in English of the word ''edamame'' is in 1951 in the journal ''Folklore Studies''. ''Edamame'' appeared as a new term in the Oxford English Dictionary in 2003 and in the Merriam-Webster dictionary in 2008. In 2008, the first soybeans grown in Europe were sold in grocery stores as edamame and eaten as an alternative source of protein.


Preparation


Harvesting

Edamame is typically harvested by hand to avoid damaging the crop's stems and leaves. Green soybean pods are picked before they fully ripen, typically 35 to 40 days after the crop first flowers. Soybeans harvested at this stage are sweeter because they contain more sucrose than soybeans picked later in the growing season. Other factors contributing to edamame's flavor include free
amino acid Amino acids are organic compounds that contain both amino and carboxylic acid functional groups. Although hundreds of amino acids exist in nature, by far the most important are the alpha-amino acids, which comprise proteins. Only 22 alpha am ...
s such as
glutamic acid Glutamic acid (symbol Glu or E; the ionic form is known as glutamate) is an α-amino acid that is used by almost all living beings in the biosynthesis of proteins. It is a non-essential nutrient for humans, meaning that the human body can syn ...
,
aspartic acid Aspartic acid (symbol Asp or D; the ionic form is known as aspartate), is an α-amino acid that is used in the biosynthesis of proteins. Like all other amino acids, it contains an amino group and a carboxylic acid. Its α-amino group is in the pro ...
, and
alanine Alanine (symbol Ala or A), or α-alanine, is an α-amino acid that is used in the biosynthesis of proteins. It contains an amine group and a carboxylic acid group, both attached to the central carbon atom which also carries a methyl group side ...
. Often these unbound amino acids decrease as the pods fully expand and ripen.


Cooking

Pods may be boiled in water, steamed, or microwaved. The ends of the pod are sometimes cut before boiling or steaming. The most common preparations use salt for taste, either dissolved in the boiling water before introducing the soybean pods or added after cooking. Edamame is a popular side dish at Japanese
izakaya An () is a type of informal Japanese bar that serves alcoholic drinks and snacks. are casual places for after-work drinking, similar to a pub, a Spanish tapas bar, or an American saloon or tavern. Etymology The word entered the English l ...
restaurants with local varieties being in demand, depending on the season. Salt and garlic are typical condiments for edamame. In Japan, a coarse salt wet with
brine Brine is a high-concentration solution of salt (NaCl) in water (H2O). In diverse contexts, ''brine'' may refer to the salt solutions ranging from about 3.5% (a typical concentration of seawater, on the lower end of that of solutions used for b ...
is preferred on beans eaten directly from the pod.


Storage

Edamame purchased fresh is preferably eaten the same day, with flavor
degradation Degradation may refer to: Science * Degradation (geology), lowering of a fluvial surface by erosion * Degradation (telecommunications), of an electronic signal * Biodegradation of organic substances by living organisms * Environmental degradation ...
being noticeable in as few as 10 hours after harvest. However, fresh edamame will stay edible for three days when stored in the refrigerator. Damaged pods brown more rapidly however, mainly due to the enzyme polyphenol oxidase. If stored fresh, the pods should be kept humid to prevent discoloration and
wilting Wilting is the loss of rigidity of non-woody parts of plants. This occurs when the turgor pressure in non-lignified plant cells falls towards zero, as a result of diminished water in the cells. Wilting also serves to reduce water loss, as it ma ...
. This can be accomplished by wrapping the pods in plastic or another material which traps moisture. Freezing fresh edamame is another option for maintaining good quality over a few months. Fresh edamame should be blanched first before being frozen.


Eating

Edamame can come in two forms: pods or beans. Edamame beans are easy to eat and can be cooked just like any other type of beans. The edamame pods require using the teeth or fingers to slide the edamame beans into the mouth, after which the pods (or shells) are discarded. Eating them with chopsticks has been characterized as requiring some skill.


Nutrition

The United States Department of Agriculture states that edamame beans are a "soybean that can be eaten fresh and are best known as a snack with a nutritional punch". Frozen, prepared edamame beans are 73% water, 12% protein, 9% carbohydrates, and 5%
fat In nutrition, biology, and chemistry, fat usually means any ester of fatty acids, or a mixture of such compounds, most commonly those that occur in living beings or in food. The term often refers specifically to triglycerides (triple est ...
. A 100-gram reference serving of edamame provides of
food energy Food energy is chemical energy that animals (including humans) derive from their food to sustain their metabolism, including their muscular activity. Most animals derive most of their energy from aerobic respiration, namely combining the carbohyd ...
, and rich amounts (20% or more the Daily Value, DV) of protein, dietary fiber, and micronutrients, particularly folate (78% DV), manganese (49% DV), and
vitamin K Vitamin K refers to structurally similar, fat-soluble vitamers found in foods and marketed as dietary supplements. The human body requires vitamin K for post-synthesis modification of certain proteins that are required for blood coagulation ...
(26% DV) (table). The fat content in edamame supplies 361 mg of omega-3 fatty acids and 1794 mg of
omega-6 fatty acid Omega-6 fatty acids (also referred to as ω-6 fatty acids or ''n''-6 fatty acids) are a family of polyunsaturated fatty acids that have in common a final carbon-carbon double bond in the ''n''-6 position, that is, the sixth bond, counting from ...
s.


References


External links


The Soybean
Piper, C. V. (Charles Vancouver)., Morse, W. Joseph. (1923). New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc. {{Soy, state=expanded East Asian vegetables Hawaiian cuisine Korean vegetables Pod vegetables Soy-based foods Vegetarian dishes of China Vegetarian dishes of Japan