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Don't soak your dried beans

latimes.com

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Re: Don't soak your dried beans

#41

Post by haroldp »

spodek wrote: post #34

Want to drop your bean preparation time down to about two minutes? Cook them in a rice cooker. Just put them in with about 3:1 water to bean, press the button, and it turns itself off when they're done. Cooking time is still about an hour, but preparation time is a couple minutes. I add olive oil, salt, and herbs (meat eaters can add bacon, ham, or whatever), which may add another minute to preparation time. You can…

In a pressure cooker, time is under a half hour.

I live at high altitude, so no amount of time just boiling in a pot will ever soften dry black beans.

Re: Don't soak your dried beans

#42

Post by JustSomeNobody »

tdicola wrote: post #8

I am genuinely curious, why is this post on Hackernews' front page? Yes I know this type of comment is typically frowned upon (and will happily accept the downvotes), but seriously--a story about cooking beans with some vague science and anecdotes?

Because, in all seriousness, this is about hacking food. How could it NOT be worthy of HN?

Re: Don't soak your dried beans

#43

Post by freehunter »

Havoc wrote: post #9

I thought it's a safety issue. Not sure which type but one of the beans definitely have to be soaked.

Kidney beans should definitely be soaked prior to cooking. The FDA recommends soaking dry kidney beans for 5 hours then cooking them for half an hour to dissolve the toxin they contain. It takes a surprisingly low number of beans to induce the toxicity, as well.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phaseolus_vulgaris#Toxicity

Re: Don't soak your dried beans

#44

Post by iffz »

califield wrote: post #11

I make really delicious slow cooker black beans every Sunday, following this recipe I found online: http://cafejohnsonia.com/2013/02/how-to-slow-cooker-black-be... She recommends skipping the soak and I haven't noticed any problems yet!

Don't do this with kidney beans.

http://www.dadcooksdinner.com/2010/09/slow-cookers-and-red-k...

Re: Don't soak your dried beans

#45

Post by [deleted] »

tdicola wrote: post #8

I am genuinely curious, why is this post on Hackernews' front page? Yes I know this type of comment is typically frowned upon (and will happily accept the downvotes), but seriously--a story about cooking beans with some vague science and anecdotes?

[deleted]

Re: Don't soak your dried beans

#46

Post by logfromblammo »

Title is misleading, as the article recommends not soaking beans in cold water.

Those of us who cover the dry beans in water, bring to a boil, drain, soak in warm water, drain again, then cook as required by the recipe are vindicated later in the article. That's when it mentions that the fermentable oligosaccharides responsible for bean-related flatus are largely removed by that method.

If you're going to soak uncooked beans in water cooler than pasteurization temperature for any length of time, it would be wise to inoculate your water with a safe fermentation bacterium, such as by adding a blob of yogurt. That will reduce the amount of internal fermentation that happens later, and if you opt to sprout the beans instead of cooking them, the safe bacteria may be able to outcompete any pathogenic bacteria that may have remained on the surface of the dry beans.

Re: Don't soak your dried beans

#47

Post by aqme28 »

tdicola wrote: post #8

I am genuinely curious, why is this post on Hackernews' front page? Yes I know this type of comment is typically frowned upon (and will happily accept the downvotes), but seriously--a story about cooking beans with some vague science and anecdotes?

Because why not? It fits within the guidelines (https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html) after all.

Re: Don't soak your dried beans

#48

Post by yellowapple »

tdicola wrote: post #8

I am genuinely curious, why is this post on Hackernews' front page? Yes I know this type of comment is typically frowned upon (and will happily accept the downvotes), but seriously--a story about cooking beans with some vague science and anecdotes?

It's important to remember that the hacker mentality is not limited to the field of computer science, or even science at all; the concept of creative ingenuity transcends fields and industries.

Re: Don't soak your dried beans

#49

Post by reitanqild »

haroldp wrote: post #41
spodek wrote: post #34

Want to drop your bean preparation time down to about two minutes? Cook them in a rice cooker. Just put them in with about 3:1 water to bean, press the button, and it turns itself off when they're done. Cooking time is still about an hour, but preparation time is a couple minutes. I add olive oil, salt, and herbs (meat eaters can add bacon, ham, or whatever), which may add another minute to preparation time. You can…

In a pressure cooker, time is under a half hour. I live at high altitude, so no amount of time just boiling in a pot will ever soften dry black beans.

May I ask what altitude, roughly, you live at?

Re: Don't soak your dried beans

#50

Post by bunderbunder »

haroldp wrote: post #41
spodek wrote: post #34

Want to drop your bean preparation time down to about two minutes? Cook them in a rice cooker. Just put them in with about 3:1 water to bean, press the button, and it turns itself off when they're done. Cooking time is still about an hour, but preparation time is a couple minutes. I add olive oil, salt, and herbs (meat eaters can add bacon, ham, or whatever), which may add another minute to preparation time. You can…

In a pressure cooker, time is under a half hour. I live at high altitude, so no amount of time just boiling in a pot will ever soften dry black beans.

We've taken to pressure canning dried beans in pint jars. All that, plus the end product is shelf-stable so you can build up a variety of pre-cooked beans in the pantry for convenience.
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