On Aug 4, 6:16*pm, (Steve Pope) wrote:
>
> Interesting, because I have seen black beans, soybeans,
> and broad beans all listed on different jars of Chinese
> fermented bean sauce.
>
> Mostly the jarred stuff is too salty for me to want to use.
>
It does get confusing. The "preserved black beans" product I cited is
whole soybeans, cooked, salted and fermented. In the package they are
dry and salty with a consistency much like raisins. If you want to
reduce salt you can rinse them in running water before chopping them
for the green beans recipe I gave.

There are also yellow bean paste and brown (or broad) bean pastes.
These are fermented concoctions of great flavor (also both quite
salty) but quite different from black bean flavor. I don't think it's
practical to try to make your own version. We used to have a poster
in rfc named Trillium, quite knowledgeable about Chinese food, who was
adamant about the superiority of using yellow bean paste in Ma Po
Tofu. -aem