Should Cooking Dried Beans Really Be This Easy?

[EllenL]

For years I shied away from cooking dried beans---used cans. Decided I wanted to make my own (avoid sodium and BPA from cans, possibly save money---not 100% sure the dried beans are cheaper). Had heard that it took forever to cook beans. ??????

Have now made pinto, kidney, and today, black eyed peas. They cook up much more quickly than the cooking directions on the bags indicate. Today I did the quick soak method for black eyed peas. Boiled them for 2 minutes. Sat for an hour (actually more like 40 minutes). After the quick soak, they are supposed to be cooked 1/5 to 2 hours---but they are almost soft enough without further cooking them, just after the quick soak.

Am I doing something wrong? Should they took longer? I'm next going to try dried chickpeas, which I hear take forever to cook.

May have to get some of those heirloom beans Canice has posted about if it's really this easy to cook beans.

[wallycat]

The duration of cooking depends on the age of the bean, more than anything.
If you have newly dried beans, they will cook much faster.
Some people cook up beans after storing them for a year and find the cooking time is longer.

I think most people who use canned versus dry simply object to the planning (soaking, even fast soak, and cooking for 1/2 hour versus heating through).
When I used to eat beans, I would toss them in a crockpot in the morning, and they would be ready for me in the evening.

[Ohioan]

I use an even "quicker" method -- and I put that in quotation marks because I'm counting working time rather than waiting time. I boil a kettle of water while I'm picking over and rinsing the beans. Then I put the beans in a pot with some slices of onion and garlic, pour the boiling water over them to a depth (or height?) of an inch or two above the beans, stir everything up, put on the lid, and go away until the beans are done, usually an hour and a half or two hours, depending on the type and age of the beans. Every now and then I check on them and give them a stir, but mostly I go about my business and let them take care of theirs (i.e., cooking). Tra la.

Oh, and one nice thing about the long cooking time is that the onion and garlic dissolve into the bean water.

Cheers,
Phoebe

[Varaile]

I cook mine in a slowcooker. Usually with just a bay leaf, but I'll have to try adding an onion. I measure beans, then cover with filtered water (I have hard water), walk away. Low for about 6 hours, high for about 3. I have accidentally overcooked them on a couple of occasions so I start peeking at three hours. Has worked like a charm.

Agreed that age of bean makes a difference in how long.

Pheobe - I'll have to give your method a try. That sounds like it would help prevent over cooking my uber fresh beans (from last years garden).

[Kate B]

I use an even "quicker" method -- and I put that in quotation marks because I'm counting working time rather than waiting time. I boil a kettle of water while I'm picking over and rinsing the beans. Then I put the beans in a pot with some slices of onion and garlic, pour the boiling water over them to a depth (or height?) of an inch or two above the beans, stir everything up, put on the lid, and go away until the beans are done, usually an hour and a half or two hours, depending on the type and age of the beans. Every now and then I check on them and give them a stir, but mostly I go about my business and let them take care of theirs (i.e., cooking). Tra la.

Oh, and one nice thing about the long cooking time is that the onion and garlic dissolve into the bean water.

Cheers,
Phoebe

Phoebe -- quick question... do you put the covered beans/boiling water over heat or just let sit at room temp to cook?

Thanks!

Kate

[Ohioan]

Phoebe -- quick question... do you put the covered beans/boiling water over heat or just let sit at room temp to cook?

Thanks!

Kate

Oops, forgot to mention that I simmer the beans on low heat after pouring the boiling water on them. The pre-boiled water is just a little time-saver, in that I don't have to wait for the beans to come to a boil; the water comes to a boil while I'm picking over and rinsing the beans. The rest is regular cooking.

Cheers,
Phoebe

[Kate B]

Oops, forgot to mention that I simmer the beans on low heat after pouring the boiling water on them. The pre-boiled water is just a little time-saver, in that I don't have to wait for the beans to come to a boil; the water comes to a boil while I'm picking over and rinsing the beans. The rest is regular cooking.

Cheers,
Phoebe

Thank you! I figured just letting them sit off the heat was too easy but thought I'd ask.

Kate

[heavy hedonist]

[QUOTE=Varaile;1704122]I cook mine in a slowcooker. Usually with just a bay leaf, but I'll have to try adding an onion. I measure beans, then cover with filtered water (I have hard water), walk away. Low for about 6 hours, high for about 3.

Agreed that age of bean makes a difference in how long.

[QUOTE]



me, too, but i usually add the onion, and i often soak them in leftover coffee for a subtle flavor boost.

[EllenL]

Yay! I guess my beans were fresh.

But---as nice as it was that they cooked up quickly, not as easy as I thought----in that a lot fell apart! Definitely not as pretty as canned beans...

[Canice]

While it's true fresher beans will cook faster than older ones, could you have been boiling them rather than cooking a low simmer? I ask only because of your mentioning that a lot of them fell apart. As for price, there is no question at all that where I live dried are a lot cheaper than canned, but I know food prices fluctuate from places to place. I can buy a pound of organic dried beans (pinto, kidney, Great Northern types) from the bulk bins at Whole Foods for maybe a $1.50 -- that's the equivalent of four cans, which are definitely more than 35-40 cents and not organic. Plus, if you cook up some small white beans and then compare them side by side to the canned ones it's really hard to go back. Or, it was for me.

[RiverFarm]

We just tried cooking a package of great northern beans, and they are still a bit chewy! We boiled them for a couple of minutes and then let them soak for an hour, and then DH made pasta e fagioli with them, but they are not softening the way we expected them to. Not sure what we did wrong, but they probably weren't very fresh.

[wallycat]

If water is hard, it toughens the skins.
So....if you want to delay your cooking time, add salt.
If you want to speed up old, tough beans, add baking soda...and WATCH them carefully.

[mizqueen]

RiverFarm,
Your post makes it sound like you didn't cook the beans after the boil and soak. They'll still need to be cooked before you use them in a recipe. Great Northerns for me usually take another 1 - 1 1/2 hours. That could be because I don't use Great Northerns nearly as often as others, so I know they are older. Lately I have been using Cooking Light's method of brining on black, navy and garbanzo beans. The beans seem to cook more quickly, have a better flavor and keep their shape, not falling apart. The brine is 2 quarts water and 1 1/2 T. table salt for 1/2 lb. beans. You soak them 8 - 16 hours, then rinse and cook with fresh water. I generally put them to soak at night, and start cooking in the AM before I go to work. I'm a convert after being very skeptical that it would work. I don't bother with pintos since they cook so quickly anyhow.

[RiverFarm]

MizQueen, I think you're right, but the recipe we have for pasta e fagioli indicated that you simmered the ingredients together until the beans were cooked through; it didn't imply that the beans should be cooked before adding them to the rest of the items. We cooked the whole thing for several hours, and when we had it again the next day the beans were soft enough, after we reheated it. We were surprised that it took so long, though. I guess if I were to use them again I'd try to soak them overnight instead of using the boil/sit for an hour method. But they'd been in my cupboard for a very long time so maybe they were just quite old.

Ana, our water is fairly soft; we have a treatment setup in the basement, so it wasn't that.

[wallycat]

Riverfarm,
is your softwater salt-softened? That would harden your beans.
If it is potassium, I am not sure if it would (or how much) affect the bean skin.
If your cold water bypasses the softener, then you are getting hard water.