No-soak beans, in the oven, in 90 minutes

[slkinsey]

There are two things you want to do when cooking dried beans: 1. hydrate the bean; and 2. gel the starch, break down the internal cell walls, etc.

McGee has some interesting things to say about bean cookery on pages 488-489 of the new edition.

Cooking presoaked beans, he says, reduces the cooking time by around 25%. This is primarily because the bean is already hydrated. Heat penetrates the bean much faster than water does, so when you cook unsoaked beans you are spending some of that time simply waiting for the beans to hydrate. This can create an effect whereby the outer part of the bean is overcooked and becomes fragile by the time the center is fully cooke, although this can be mitigated by cooking just below the simmer.

According to McGee, beans soaked in cold water will absorb more than half of their full capacity in the first few hours and reach full capacity at around double their original weight in 10-12 hours. But hydration is accelerated with temperature. If, for example, you boil the beans for 1.5 minutes and then soak in cool water, you get complete hydration in only 2-3 hours. That's a big reduction compared to 10-12 hours. Apparently much of this is due to the rapid hydration of the seed coat, which controls water movement into the bean (this is why beans with the seed coat removed, like split peas, cook so rapidly). It's worth noting that when we cook directly from dry, we are effectively performing an accelerated high-temperature presoak followed by the actual cooking. The bean won't really start cooking until it is hydrated.

Anyway, a 25% reduction in cooking time is not all that much. So it's unclear that presoaking is worth the trouble on a time basis. If unsoaked beans cook in an hour and a half, the same beans presoaked would still take around 67 minutes. A 23 minute difference is not such a huge amount of time saved that presoaking is worth the bother. However, there may be some other things Steven is doing that makes his cooking times even shorter -- maybe even to the point of being faster than conventional cooking of presoaked beans. Steven salts the water right from the beginning, which has the effect of hydrating the beans with salted water. Although cooking conventionally presoaked beans in salted water may extend cooking time, hydrating beans in salted water actually reduces cooking time.

McGee says that using salted water has two interesting effects: It slows the rate at which the beans absorb water; but cooking beans which have been hydrated in salted water reduces cooking time significantly. When we cook no-soak beans, the hydration of the bean is already accelerated by higher temperatures. Then, when we use salted cooking liquid right from the start, we are hydrating the beans with salted water and this hastens the cooking time. The net effect is probably an overall shorter cooking time.

Some of this also goes to the overall desired effect. It's also noteworthy that Steven mentions cooking the beans "al dente" -- meaning that they are fully cooked, but have some bite to them. They're not creamy. Here is what McGee says: "the presence of salt [in the beans from the hydrating water] reduces the swelling and gelation of starch granules within the beans, which means that it favors a mealy internal texture over a creamy one." "Mealy" is exactly the kind of "al dente" effect I get when I cook beans using the no-soak method with salted water. On the other hand, sometimes what you want is a creamy texture (when using fabes to make fabada, for example). This is a case where I wouldn't use the no-soak method and would hydrate in unsalted water.

ETA: It's interesting to note in an informal read-through of the posts above, that many (most?) of the remarks about the no-soak method taking much longer than 90 minutes were from people who did not add salt to the water in the beginning.

Edited July 10, 2010 by slkinsey (log)

[FrogPrincesse]

I just tried this technique for the first time using cannellini beans (and salt added right from the start).

They came out beautifully however they took about 2.5 hours to cook.

Could the cooking time be a variable of the type and the age of the beans?

[Paul Bacino]

I use the same method with the crockpot instead of the oven since I read the original thread.

Was a real eye opener for me.

Crock pot works for me.. about 5 hrs for the northern beans I used.. but I did soak mine over night. I will have to try just throwing them in.

The last great northern I did, I have my fare-share of RG's , I added granulated garlic , cayenne pepper, bay , oregano, and salt. The end liquor was fabulous for my Italian soup.

I'll check it out Guy..

Oh since I'm here.. I haven't had any luck cooking Steve's Scarlet Runner Beans.. they always turn out hard ?

Paully

Edited March 30, 2011 by Paul Bacino (log)

[robirdstx]

The revival of this thread is very timely for me. I had just purchased some small red beans at last weekend's farmers market and was planning to cook some of them for adding to chili. I rinsed and brought to a boil 8 ounces of the beans, popped them into a 250F pre-heated oven and set the timer for 75 minutes. As I continued to read the posts in this thread, I came across the one about adding some aromatics, so about 30 minutes into the oven time, I added a couple of crushed garlic cloves, some fresh thyme stems and a bay leaf. At the one hour mark, I took the pot out of the oven and tested a few beans. Almost done! I then added a large pinch of kosher salt and put them back into the oven. When the timer dinged, I brought the beans out of the oven and transferred them to the stovetop. They are perfect! Thank you to everyone who has contributed to this thread!

Edited March 30, 2011 by robirdstx (log)

[snowangel]

Time for a bump up on this topic. I just made baked beans for a BBQ tomorrow, using this method, adding everything I usually add to my baked beans, to the pot before putting in the oven. So easy, so quick. No excuse not to make baked beans. And, last summer, when it was super hot, and I was in charge of baked beans, I did them in the crock pot. It took longer, because I didn't bother to bring stuff to a boil on the stovetop, but that, too, worked well.

[emmalish]

Reviving this old thread yet again. I just recently discovered oven-cooked beans via an article in the kitchn. I've made them this way a few times and they turned out fantastic every time. Much better texture than beans cooked on the stove. The big difference I see between the method I used and what is mentioned already in this thread is that the oven is set to 325°F, and they go in the oven cold -- they're not brought to a boil first.

Has anyone else tried skipping the stove-top boil first? Does it really add anything to the method? Or is it just to speed things up a bit?

Edited February 27, 2013 by emmalish (log)

[patrickamory]

I'm not sure, but the stovetop plus simmer works for me. It's probably a timing thing.

However I have since moved to the pressure cooker method. It's not a substitute, just a different approach.

[Ttogull]

Reviving this old thread yet again. I just recently discovered oven-cooked beans via an article in the kitchn. I've made them this way a few times and they turned out fantastic every time. Much better texture than beans cooked on the stove. The big difference I see between the method I used and what is mentioned already in this thread is that the oven is set to 325°F, and they go in the oven cold -- they're not brought to a boil first.

Has anyone else tried skipping the stove-top boil first? Does it really add anything to the method? Or is it just to speed things up a bit?

I might be wrong, but I think in this recipe the cooking accommodated a clay cooking pot. Some clay pots cannot be put on a stove to first bring to a boil (OTOH some can). I have both types. I would be hesitant to bring beans to a full boil even in the stove-top compatible. I exclusively use the stove-top compatible clay pots in the summer; both in the winter. Also the former when cooking beans in a fireplace, which is just awesome.

I don't understand the cooking times listed here. I buy my beans almost exclusively from Rancho Gordo (the rest from Purcell Mountain) and even if I cooked them the day they arrived they would be inedible after 90 minutes sans soak at 275. I'm sure it depends on the type of bean. Black runner beans would take 8 to 10 hours, I would think. Fantastic beans, but they take forever. Maybe pinquitos would be ok. I never presoak.

I cooked beans in various vessels for years. Love clay. But I think patrickamory is spot on. I don't see any comparison to pressure cooking. Faster cooking, sure, but the taste is just a world apart. If you have a pressure cooker, you must try cooking beans conventionally and PCed for comparison. It's amazing. I say this while being in love with my clay pots - PC rocks.

There is the caveat that some kidney-type beans need an early boil to deactivate a toxin. I don't eat kidney beans, so I don't worry about it.

[emmalish]

I might be wrong, but I think in this recipe the cooking accommodated a clay cooking pot.

Ahhhh, actually that makes a lot of sense. Thanks! I just picked up one of the Chamba clay pots so I'll just carry on using this method. Edited February 28, 2013 by emmalish (log)

[Kerry Beal]

Blast from the past - saw this recipe  from Serious Eats and decided I needed to try it. Dug into he cupboard and found some RG Corona beans 'best before 2018'.

 

They are in the oven now. I'll let you know how they work out. 

[Kerry Beal]

So - 90 minutes didn't do it - another 30 at 325º F didn't quite do it - so 30 min in the instant pot the next day did!  I think 20 min would have been perfect - a couple of them were mushy.