Cooking Dried Beans

[Keith Orr]

The reason that baking soda works that it raises the pH of the pot of beans. Likewise adding tomatoes or another acid ingredient will lower the pH and increase the cooking time.

Here's a Cooks Illustrated Article that addresses acidity a bit. I didn't watch the video so this may just be repetitive. Several recipes I've used for beans call for adding the acid ingredients into the beans later in the cooking process after they've already started to get tender. Here's the pertinent text:

"Troubleshooting Hard Beans

Finally, if you’ve cooked your beans for hours and found they failed to soften, chances are they are either old and stale (and will never fully hydrate or soften), the water is too hard, or there’s a acidic element present. Food scientists universally agree that high acidity can interfere with the softening of the cellulose-based bean cells, causing them to remain hard no matter how long they cook. Alkalinity, on the other hand, has the opposite effect on legumes. Alkalines make the bean starches more soluble and thus cause the beans to cook faster. (Older bean recipes often included a pinch of baking soda for its alkalinity, but because baking soda has been shown to destroy valuable nutrients, few contemporary recipes suggest this shortcut.)

But how much acid is too much acid? At what pH level is there a negative impact on the beans? We cooked four batches of small white beans in water altered with vinegar to reach pH levels of 3, 5, 7, and 9. We brought them to a boil, reduced the heat to a low simmer, and tested the beans every 30 minutes for texture and doneness. The beans cooked at a pH of 3 (the most acidic) remained crunchy and tough-skinned despite being allowed to cook 30 minutes longer than the other three batches. The beans cooked at pHs of 5, 7, and 9 showed few differences, although the 9 pH batch finished a few minutes ahead of the 7 pH batch and about 20 minutes ahead of the 5 pH batch. Acidity, then, must be relatively high to have any significant impact on beans. So in real world terms, season with discretion and don’t add a whole bottle of vinegar or wine to your beans until they are tender."

Finally, I think that it's easier to screw up beans by not using enough water than any other way I can think of.

[Keith Orr]

The pH of the cooking liquid affects the way beans cook. One of the reasons beans don't soften properly is if the pH of the liquid is to low. Baking soda will raise the pH and help the beans get tender.

Here's a Cooks Illustrated Article that addresses acidity a bit. I didn't watch the video so this may just be repetitive. Several recipes I've used for beans call for adding the acid ingredients into the beans later in the cooking process after they've already started to get tender. You'll need to read the article online - my previous attempt at posting quoted too much of the article.

Personally,I think more beans are ruined by too little cooking liquid than any other reason.

[Lisa Shock]

Old beans can definitely be unusable and may never soften. That said, I used to cook black beans daily for the cafè I worked in, and, once I switched from tap water, which is very hard here and full of minerals, to filtered water (I actually used ice from the ice machine) I got great beans every time. -No soaking, just simmered for about 35 minutes with salt and a few spices.

[hannap]

for a while, i was afraid that my tombstone would read "did not soak beans". here's what i believe about beans:

Russ I absolutely agree with you. I think everything you state in your post is right.

I just wanna add another item to your list: Beans are more tasty when you cook them mixed with vegetables and condiments.

During the cooking process the beans double their size. That´s because they absorb a lot water.

If we cook them mixed with the other components of the recipe they absorb all the flavors we have choosen, so they integrate better to our dish.

In some receipes the beans seem to be like a flavor separated from the other components. That´s because they were soaked or boiled just in plain water so, when we cook them they have no capability of absorbing the other flavors.

Some people use to soak them with some condiments and salt, but as you say, the cold cooking is not as good as the hot one.

Many of the review articles are taken from this online casino site.

[Ttogull]

I'm bumping this topic up to let folks know that Purcell Mountain Farms now has Rattlesnake Beans, new crop in stock.They don't usually last long so now is the time. I've ordered five pounds and am thinking of getting more as I use them for baked beans.

Thanks for the heads up! Rattlers are my favorite.

[andiesenji]

I'm bumping this topic up to let folks know that Purcell Mountain Farms now has Rattlesnake Beans, new crop in stock.They don't usually last long so now is the time. I've ordered five pounds and am thinking of getting more as I use them for baked beans.

Thanks for the heads up! Rattlers are my favorite.

I posted that two years ago.

[Ttogull]

I'm bumping this topic up to let folks know that Purcell Mountain Farms now has Rattlesnake Beans, new crop in stock.They don't usually last long so now is the time. I've ordered five pounds and am thinking of getting more as I use them for baked beans.

Thanks for the heads up! Rattlers are my favorite.

I posted that two years ago.

Too funny! I just saw November... I needed more anyway.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Very timely that this thread should get bumped up! For the last couple days I've been preparing for a pot of beans, black beans in this case. Soaked the beans, rendered the lard, that sort of thing.

I started with a pound of beans. For the lard I took a couple pounds of bacon ends and cooked them in water as andiesenji suggested. I fished out and reserved the meaty bacon pieces, but did not crisp them right away. After the water cooked down I added the remaining fat and stuff to a canning jar with baking soda and did the MC technique on them: 4 hours in the pressure cooker to render. Beautiful clear lard. Yum.

I chopped and sauteed an onion and some garlic in lard, in the pressure cooker bottom, along with a portion of the reserved bacon from above. I added two bay leaves, a sprig of rosemary from the small tree sized bush that spends the winter in my dining room, and the pound of well soaked beans, drained of soaking liquid. I added four cups of fresh water. I cooked at low pressure for nine minutes, which was an amalgam of all sorts of contradictory cooking times. (Pressure cooker method mainly from Cook's Illustrated.)

The beans taste delicious, but I'm at the moment reducing the liquid a bit before adjusting salt.

Edited December 17, 2013 by JoNorvelleWalker (log)

[pauleats]

Nice discussion, beans are really great. Going to buy some beans today. Right now, so glad having this topic here. There are really a lots of things in this forum that one would like to read and I hope the person will learn much from this great forum. Anyway, a little break to www.fence-system.com come back soon though.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

I should have done less posting and perhaps more pot stirring. The beans reduced more than I had intended. I was aiming for something slightly soupy. But, wow, were they good. I am fond of beans but before acquiring a pressure cooker I almost always used canned...and then there was that time I used beans that had been a pie crust weight...

These were just delightful. I served with sour cream, freshly ground black pepper, and a few shakes of salt. There was no added salt in the pot, just the contribution from the bacon. This dish made for the entire meal.

I'm thinking that maybe the four cups of added water, which is what I thought the CI folks had specified, was a bit too much. Actually, upon rereading, the CI folks say "4 quarts"! Oops. I'm glad I didn't follow their directions.

[Special K]

I've been using Mark Bittman's slow cooker method (http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/06/30/magazine/bittman-slow-cooker.html?_r=0) since it ran in the NYT last June. Works every time. I mean, sometimes you just want to spend about five minutes in the morning and have a nice, hearty comfort dish when you get home. I was quite surprised that this didn't pop up here at the time.

[patris]

It's a coolish day here in Buffalo and I decided a nice big pot of bean and barley soup would hit the spot. I chucked sautéed aromatics, roasted tomatoes, veg stock, herbs and a dried 14-bean mix (Wegmans organic), unsoaked, into my crockpot and let it cook away on low all day (9 hours and counting now) I added the barley a little while ago and noticed the beans were still quite tough, so I did a little googling.

Much to my horror, I learned that red kidney beans, which are the first ingredient in my bean mix, are loaded with a toxin - phytohemagglutinin - which causes intestinal distress and which is killed by a soak and a boil pre-cooking. This toxin is more potent when the beans are cooked at temps of 80C, but I can't find any info about temps between 80 and 100.

My soup registered 92C before I turned it up to high in hopes of getting a boil on for an hour or so, but I figured I would ask here - should I chuck the whole pot, or do you think it will be safe after it boils for a bit?

[MelissaH]

I'm still here, and it's been a long time since I soaked red kidney beans (or any other kind of bean, for that matter) before cooking and experienced any issues.

 

I'd bring it up to a full boil and let 'er rip, which should take care of both your issues.

[patris]

Thanks - I ended up binning the soup after all. Part of it was to go to an elderly aunt who will be checking out of the hospital this week, and I couldn't take the risk.

[Anna N]

Thanks - I ended up binning the soup after all. Part of it was to go to an elderly aunt who will be checking out of the hospital this week, and I couldn't take the risk.

I knew there was a reason not to eat beans! Now if only I could pronounce the name of the disease it causes.

Glad you are OK although the risk seemed pretty minimal. I have always been a proponent of "if in doubt throw it out".

[rancho_gordo]

Everything I've ever read says this toxin in red beans is killed by regular cooking. Do your beans come to a boil in your slow cooker? Some of the older models didn't bring liquids to a full boil. New ones come with a HIGH setting and you should always use this for beans, at least for the first few hours. 
Lima beans also pose a special challenge. They also have to be boiled and they also need to cook for some time with no lid to release the gas. But this should be a practice for all slow cooker bean cooking. I put them on in the morning, unsoaked at HIGH and then it goes to LOW automatically after 6 hours. When I come home, I am confused about who did all this glorious cooking all day and then I remember- Me! I remove the lid and let them continue cooking on low for an hour. This allows some air and evaporation which makes the broth much more delicious and apparently releases potentially bad gasses from lima and maybe even red beans. 

[pbear]

but I can't find any info about temps between 80 and 100.

 

I did some digging last year to find something definitive on this.  The best thing I found was a 1985 article in the Journal of Food Science.  Only the abstract is available without subscription, but I'll quote that in full:

 

Methodology was developed that allowed sensitive measurement of phytohemagglutinin (PHA), the lectin of kidney beans. Trypsinated porcine red blood cells were treated with saline extracts of kidney beans, incubated, and the nonagglutinated cells were quantitated using a Coulter Counter. This hemagglutination activity (HA) assay was then used to monitor the PHA in cooked kidney beans. The thermal treatment (minutes @°C) required to reduce HA by 1 log cvcle was: 12 @ 100°C: 62 @ 93°C: 136 @ 88°C: 160 @ 82°C. Beans were prepared in commercially available low-temperature cookers and evaluated for tenderness and residual hemagglutinating activity.

 

In plain words, for future reference, any slow cooker which hits 88C/190F at least two hours before the beans are finished should be fine.  And the time required goes down as the temp goes up.

 

Incidentally, I found several articles to similar effect.  That one just seemed to me the clearest and most authoritative.

Edited September 22, 2015 by pbear (log)

[patris]

Thank you so much, pbear - that is exactly the kind of information I tried and failed to find. I thought I was safe, but wasn't in the mood to kneel at the porcelain altar all night if I was wrong.

 

And thank you, rancho_gordo, for the technique notes. Now that I know what's what, it's time to place an order on your website and make something wonderful!

[rancho_gordo]

I think you are wise! 

[SLB]

People, Help!  I discovered an infestation in my lentil stores.  I have never seen beans infest before, and I'm pretty sure given the density in a certain bag that the weevil (or whatever it is -- it's a black multi-legged but that is on the large side for a weevil).  Anyway  They bags were confined inside of a big rubbermaid bin, so I'm hoping nothing got out into the other bins.  Not only have I never had a bean infest, I've never even heard of it!  I did see the same black bug in a different cabinet in a bag of walnuts following a sweep of the area; I've never had nuts infest either.  Have any of you had vermin infest your dry beans???

 

Meanwhile --   I have lots of beans in different bins in that original cabinet, and even though there is no evidence that the bugs got into those bags, it seems prudent to freeze everything for a few days.  [the thought of tossing what must be a hundred bucks of RG beans . . .]

 

But I'm afraid of condensation; should I air-dry the beans after they come out of the freezer, and then re-bag them?  (I have had been get moldy-smelling, which I assume indicates that there was some moisture.)  Any counsel??

[SLB]

Wow!  NUTHIN'!!!  

 

This confirms my sense that dried beans don't infest commonly.  Those lentils were from a store that has big vats of all kinds of grains nearby, so I'm going to assume t that the situation entailed a granary weevil checking out the lentil bin, and laying some eggs just 'cause.  

 

Carry on.  I made the RG garbanzos this weekend, which I was not expecting to be particularly different from all the other ones since, well, old-world 'n all; but they were astonishingly delicious.  Like, the taste was something else.  Not that there is any rice or anything, since it all got tossed.  But, still.  A nice end to a difficult, costly-ass overhaul.  

Edited November 9, 2015 by SLB (log)

[Beebs]

I had creepy crawlies infest a jar of adzuki beans.  Don't know if they were weevils.

 

A few weeks ago I threw out a bin of cornmeal, semolina and probably a bag of beans that was infested with moths.  But I think it came from the semolina.  I didn't try to save the beans, but then again they were regular non-fancy beans and I was so grossed out I just tossed everything.  This was a week after I tossed out a bunch of boxes of nice pasta infested with grubs and beetles that were in a completely separate cupboard.

 

You are in good company, my friend.

 

Anyway, I froze a couple bags of cooked, non-buggy beans (great northern), and am planning to have some for dinner tonight.  I'm a bean newbie (didn't grow up eating beans), and I'd like to try fast baked beans with pre-cooked beans. What's a good recipe?  I will probably end up tossing ketchup, molasses, etc., bake it, and see what comes out the other end.

[andiesenji]

Looking at the title and the avatar photo at the top of this page reminds me of how much I miss Fifi.  Especially at this time of the year and I recall her mentioning that after making a batch of burnt sugar candy, she scraped the pan after it had cooled and made a "meal" from the remains, unable to shove the pot into hot water and wash away all the good leavings.

 

I have never had a problem with weevils or similar bugs in beans but the incidence of creepy crawlies in the desert is not as pronounced as in areas with more ambient humidity.

I have had one incidence of opening a bag of "heirloom" beans that came in a 10-pound burlap bag and having a horned lizard fall out.  The poor thing seemed as startled as I was and I wondered what he had been living on - (bugs???).  Anyway, I caught him before the basenjis could and put him or her out in the yard and apparently it found a mate of some kind because for a number of years afterward I would see these little tan guys with the little horns on their faces, quite different from the native stock.

 

After freezing, I think it would be wise to put the beans in a wire colander and dry them well - I would use my dehydrator with the temp on low but a fan would do as well. 

Growing up on a farm where a lot of beans were grown, the beans were harvested by pulling or cutting the vines after the pods looked and felt dry and brittle, the mass was spread on the floor of the hay barn and allowed to dry some more out of the weather (it rained a fair amount in the early fall in western Kentucky) until they were considered "throughly dry" according to the man who was in charge.  They were "winnowed" in a machine that beat the hell out of the vines and pods and the dry beans and a lot of chaff fell into a long wire "box" which was also shaken and which conducted the beans down the length of it till they were funnelled into burlap bags - mostly 50 pounds - the bags sat on a scale.  Beans stored in this fashion, in a bag with air circulation, could be stored for many months.  The bags were stacked on slatted platforms and shifted every month or so, putting the top ones on the bottom and so on. 

 

I don't like to keep beans in plastic bags.  If they arrive in plastic bags I transfer them to glass jars or metal canisters (not aluminum, some beans can cause aluminum to corrode).  The hard acrilic plastics are okay but I have had some issues with bean in Cambro, the translucent flexible containers, which I love for most things but have had a couple of batches become mildewed or funky. 

 

I continue to use my electric pressure cooker for most bean dishes (not lentils, they cook rapidly) and have done a squash and beans "stew" using half of a kabocha squash I split with my neighbor, and "flavored" with some homemade sausage made from some chunks of pork "por carnitas" that I bought at the Mexican supermarket. 

I didn't follow a recipe so can't record that, but it turned out nicely, warm and satisfying for these chilly days.

Edited November 10, 2015 by andiesenji (log)

[cyalexa]

  I'm a bean newbie (didn't grow up eating beans), and I'd like to try fast baked beans with pre-cooked beans. What's a good recipe?  I will probably end up tossing ketchup, molasses, etc., bake it, and see what comes out the other end.

I just posted my recipe for baked beans in RecipeGullet. It may not be what you are looking for as I'm not sure what you mean by fast baked. 

 

https://forums.egullet.org/topic/152268-oklahoma-baked-beans/

[Beebs]

Thanks, Cyalexa - that looks tasty, I'll give it a go next time. By "fast", I mean that it can be baked in an hour or less (as opposed to the 4 hours or so some baked bean recipes call for). Anyway, I ended up mixing up ketchup, molasses and a few other ingredients, baked it for about 40 mins at 375F. Turned out pretty well. Leftovers for breakfast.