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Post by nana on Oct 22, 2020 15:00:40 GMT -5
I have hard water. Very hard water. I have never been able to cook with dried beans unless I used bottled distilled water. Otherwise they just never softened no matter how long I let them cook. And distilled water makes everything taste flat. (Until I found out that the minerals in hard water, particularly the calcium and magnesium, prevent the beans from softening, I thought it was just some really peculiar cross I had to bear.) But no more! My bean troubles are over! The Test Kitchen, bless them, has figured out that by soaking the dried beans in salt water, as though you were brining them, the sodium ions rush in and prevent the other minerals from literally calcifying the beans. Today was the test: I’m bringing baked beans to a potluck tonight. Using my own tap water, I soaked them overnight with the salt, went to work, left my husband detailed instructions to drain and rinse them and put them in the thermowell at the appropriate time with the appropriate seasonings, and Hallelujah Glory Be, when I got home they were creamy and soft, without being mushy like they get if you use baking soda, which used to be my old trick if I had no distilled water. I will never be afraid to use dried beans again!!
Soak 1lb dried beans in 4 qts of water with 3 Tbsp of salt dissolved in it, for 8 hours, and up to 24 hours. Drain, rinse, and proceed with whatever your recipe is. That’s it!
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Post by vaporvac on Oct 22, 2020 17:55:00 GMT -5
I have read this technique over the years, but never tried it. I may do so with some soy beans as they often take much longer to cook, especially if they've been around for a while. I'll let you know how they turn out when I try them. The other advantage to this over the BS method is that the b vitamins are left intact, whereas they are mainly destroyed by the soda. Thanks for posting this and being the guinea pig!!! P.S. Does it make the beans salty or do you still have to season them?
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Post by nana on Oct 22, 2020 20:58:11 GMT -5
The beans were great! They came out seasoned, but not overly salty. I cooked these with some peppered bacon, and they were fine, still not too salty. I suppose if you are on a low sodium diet you wouldn’t want to try it. People told me they were the best baked beans they ever had. No one’s ever said that about my beans before!
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Post by pooka on Oct 23, 2020 4:57:03 GMT -5
This is a great life hack to know. We here get our water from the Ohio river, but water from wells around here tend to be hard. I seem to remember The Cooks Kitchen show talking about using baking soda like you suggest, but I can't recall why.
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Post by cinnabar on Oct 23, 2020 11:58:38 GMT -5
The baking soda was supposed to release the "gaseous" nature of the beans, But I use ajwain or epazote to the dishes to do that job, plus it tastes better. Will try the salt soak next bean or lentil dish I make. We have Lake Superior water and the city pipes are around 100 so lots of iron. Hard as can be, orange tinges on everything.
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Post by mach12 on Oct 23, 2020 13:56:56 GMT -5
Wow - that little light bulb in my head just came on! Great info!! I did a search and found a bunch of sites with all kinds of info, the science behind it and so on. My brain hurts.
We're on a well and though our water isn't drastically hard it's fairly high in several minerals that can be unhealthy so we installed a 5 stage Watts under counter Reverse Osmosis system. It does the job nicely but is not a whole house system so the buildup on sinks and fixtures was a constant battle and clothes never cleaned that well in the washer. To help with that I installed a water softener in the pump house and a whole house filter between the tank and the softener. The softener uses salt to ionize the media in the softener and the ionization attracts the minerals to the beads, then the softener back-flushes every so often and rinses the media. The filter does the first straining, then the softener gets hardening minerals out to where we have very little buildup on fixtures and the washer gets the clothes clean. The water at that point is perfectly useable and the lab tests I do annually show that the water is at safe levels but the softener adds sodium and the other minerals are still there, though at a much lower level. After I went through the Army's water purification school back in the 80's I really became concerned about drinking water, even from public systems that are supposed to be maintained, so we use water from the RO for cooking and drinking. I always rinse rice (lowers arsenic levels) and soak dried beans with tap water that has gone through the softener but have found I need a minimum 12 hour soak, and even longer is better. I've gotten to where I put them in a pot in the garage refrigerator the day before I plan to use them. I'm thinking maybe I have my softener set too low and need to be getting even more of the minerals out. That'll raise the salt level in my tap water so I'll need to watch that.
I just bought the ingredients last week to make chili so I'm going to give it a try. Thanks for the info!
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Post by nana on Oct 23, 2020 19:57:57 GMT -5
It has really changed my attitude towards dried beans. I’ve used mostly canned beans, a little shame-facedly sometimes, especially since I got Marilyn, since she’s tailor made for that type of cooking. But while the baking soda works to soften the beans, it ruins their look and texture. The skins peel open and the insides blow out. They taste fine, but they’re pasty and mushy. These were perfect. And so freakin’ easy!
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Post by vaporvac on Dec 10, 2020 18:38:16 GMT -5
Nana, although we have hard water, I've been able to cook all legumes easily except for the above mentioned soybeans. I thought it was due to their age, but recently found the same issue with new bought. They are also the one bean I won't pressure cook as their skins always come off and clog the vent easily. Well, thanks to your thread, I did finally try this a couple of days ago and it is a game changer. Not only did they finally cook soft in a reasonable amount of time, but the skins didn't separate as much. I also put oil in the pot as they always boil over, unlike other beans. They weren't salty at all after rinsing them, yet the flavour was more intense. Thanks for the reminder. I try to use soybeans often, but now I actually will! Mach12, did you ever try this?
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Post by mach12 on Dec 11, 2020 0:14:44 GMT -5
Mach12, did you ever try this? I haven't tried soybeans but have done it with dried kidney beans and with dried fava beans that I make Ful medames with. I need to learn more about using soybeans!
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Post by vaporvac on Dec 11, 2020 21:10:02 GMT -5
Great. That's why I was just wondering if you ever made that chili. Sounds like you did. :-) soy beans are great so high in protein and delicious also. Different to other beans very sweet. I bet it's great with fava beans as they take awhile for me also.
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