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The great dried bean soak time mystery
I decided to save money by switching from canned beans to dried ones, figuring how hard could it be? The bag said to soak them for 8 hours, so I planned my chili for the next day. After the soak, I boiled them for what felt like forever. An hour in, they were still like little rocks. I kept checking every 20 minutes, adding more water, and finally after 3 hours total cook time they were edible but still a bit firm. My whole afternoon was gone. I looked it up later and apparently the age of the dried beans changes everything, and old ones just take forever. Has anyone found a good way to tell if your bag of beans is going to be a day-long project before you start?
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lunaw725mo ago
I read somewhere online that you can tell if beans are old by the color fading and if there's a lot of loose skin floating around after the soak. @wright.michael, that lentil thing sounds rough, I had a bag of green lentils do the same thing and they turned into mush but refused to soften. Another trick I heard is to add a little baking soda to the soak water, just like a pinch, it helps break down the old beans faster. I still buy canned when I'm in a hurry but I keep dried ones on hand for when I have a whole day free now.
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