Soaking Beans and Travel

[Porthos]

Tomorrow night my DW and I will be traveling for about a 6-hour drive. I am going to start 8 cups of pinto beans soaking when we leave. They will be in a stainless steel vessel. Since I often soak beans overnight for use the next afternoon, just sitting on the counter, I see no need to refrigerate the beans just because they may sit for an extra maybe 2 hours. I just want a sanity check that I haven't overlooked anything.

Since the bean dish will be something my DW will be making, and she believes in always soaking beans, then draining and cooking in new water, no-soak methods are of no interest to her.

Thanks in advance for any feedback.

[Lisa Shock]

Should be fine. I'd salt the water, just for flavor, but there's debate on that.

[Porthos]

Yes, I will have salted the water.

[liuzhou]

I can't see any problem. I regularly start soaking beans in the morning and go off to work for the day. I wish I could get home in six hours, but it is more usually nine or ten. Never had a problem with the beans - lots of problems with the work!

And no, I don't usually refrigerate them except in the depth of summer when the ambient temperature in my kitchen is over 40ºC.

[Ttogull]

There is no problem! I do not regularly soak for making straight-up beans, but I do soak them first before sprouting them. (I like sprouted beans a lot too.). My soak for sprouting is always 24 hours or more for things like pintos. Don't worry, your pintos will not sprout as there are a couple more steps. The beans are well hydrated after that time, but nothing bad happens. You might consider sprouting beans sometime too.

After a significant time - 48 hours? - the beans might show fermenting. I do this too, particularly with black-eyed peas. Even then they are still good (unless they are not, which you'd know).