beans!

[sage]

Dear cooks who know more than me,

I've been cooking with dry beans for the last some-odd months to save money and reduce exposure to harmful toxins and such. The cookbooks say:

1. soak beans 8 hrs or overnight.
2. parboil soaked (rinsed, drained) beans at a rolling boil for 10-12 minutes.
3. rinse and cover with fresh water and simmer for 45 minutes to an hour or more, depending on the kind of bean.

Got it. The thing is, after I parboil? I simmer for 25 minutes and the beans are done!

I'm generally cooking one cup of any of these varieties: black, pinto, lima, rattlesnake, kidney, or small red. Chickpeas and chana dal take longer -- much closer to what directions indicate.

Why are my beans done so fast? If I look away for like, a minute, they get mushy and/or burn to the bottom of the pot.

Also, I'm at practically sea level, whatever San Antonio is at, if that matters.

I am so confused. I mean, they taste okay, but I keep thinking I must be doing something wrong! Help?

Thank you!

Comments

[serene]

Different beans take different times. Don't pay attention to times in recipes, except as estimates. Black and pintos and most other small beans cook quickly. Chickpeas take forever. You're doing it right.

[sage]

oh, that's so reassuring! Thank you!

[serene]

Sure. Also, occasionally, you'll get an old batch of beans (either because you held onto them for too long, or because they didn't have quick enough turnover in the store) and no matter what you do, they won't get soft. When that happens to me, I just get them as soft as they'll get, then blend the heck out of them with some of the cooking water, and make soup. :-)

[jd]

Just as a general note - usually elevation doesn't matter in cooking unless you're over 3000 feet (SA is about 600-800 ish. Start going any further west, though, and you'll run into it.)

Have you checked the directions on the bags of beans themselves? Sometimes they can give a more precise time estimate.

[sage]

Hi, thanks! Yes, I've run into the elevation problem while camping before. Good to know the altitude to watch out for!

The package times are even longer, that's why I was baffled. In another comment, someone mentions the plainer the liquid, the shorter the cook time, so that may be related...

[leanne]

What everyone else said, plus:

Fresher beans cook faster. So -- this is really good! You're getting high-quality fresh beans, rather than old beans.

I looked at how you're prepping the beans as well, and you're doing a lot of things that will make them cook faster. Soaking overnight is one of those steps, but parboiling is also one of those steps. Typically, I'll skip the soak-overnight step, boil my beans for about five minutes, let sit for an hour, drain, add fresh water, and then cook for about two to three hours.

So yeah, you're fine! (:

[sage]

Hi, thanks for answering this. It's so interesting how many different ways there are to do this! :)

[libitina]

I also learned this year that means are very sensitive to pH. The more basic your cooking liquid, the faster beans turn to mush. And at a certain acidity, you can cook them forever and they will always be distinct beans that don't break down.

[damned_colonial]

Yup, I was going to say this! Some people say, if beans are taking too long to get soft, you should add a little bicarb soda to the water and it will make it a bit more alkaline and help them go faster.

[marymac]

There's at least one brand of dried peas (in Ulster) that comes with little bicarb tablets for exactly that purpose. We tend to have insanely soft water, so they take forever otherwise.

[sage]

This is fascinating. We have insanely hard water here -- central Texas is either limestone or pink granite bedrock, and my area is all limestone, complete with caves and underground aquifer. There's calcium in *everything*. It freezes into white clumps in ice cube trays. I suppose I need to learn a bit more about the chemistry of cooking...

Thanks for the comment. :)

[libitina]

means -> beans

[sage]

Oh, that's awesome, thank you! I got trained out of eating salt ages ago and I still forget to add it when cooking. I guess I forget that the chemistry of cooking kind of relies on it sometimes. Oops? :)

[libitina]

Well, it's more that the timing might vary by the natural pH of your water, not that you have to change anything.

But if you do want to play with your beans, then perhaps -

basic = bicarbonate of soda/baking soda
acid = tomatoes, vinegar, wine, citrus

Salt is more the end product of an acid/basic reaction. It affects texture through ionic balance of water through membranes. Also, a pinch of salt does wonders for bringing out flavor in grains and legumes. The other fun thing about salt is that it can neutralize the ability to taste bitter flavors.

[gchick]

So, first, I learned the soak and parboil as an either/or thing -- either you soak 'em overnight, or if you don't have time to do that, you can do the boil thing instead.

And second, I never bother to do either step. I just start with clean picked-over beans and cook them until the taste and texture is what I want. Just use the cooking time in your step 3 as a guideline, and then taste them. Bigger beans take longer than smaller ones, but there's absolutely nothing you can do wrong by changing the time (although if you're burning them, use way more water than you are now) -- if they taste okay, they're done.

I suspect that all those old rules came from that era in American cooking when beans were feared because being in the same room with one might have once made someone fart, and when all vegetable matter was to be boiled into mush and submission.

[sage]

Huh. I learned it as an AND because of digestive issues. Whenever I have done the quicksoak way, the gas afterwards was epic by comparison -- and I cook beans nearly daily, so it wasn't a matter of not being used to them. But yes, I think the answer lies in changing the time and figuring out what effects different kinds of cooking broth/water/etc. have.

Thanks!