The Lemon Fool

Ive had a load of dried haricot beans takingb up ciuupboard speace for a couple of years (maybe a tad less) so thopught Id makea shed load pof baked beans and work my way through them for a couple of weeks.

Ive soaked them overnight, changed the ater and boiled them for a couple of hours at least. they are "cooked" in that they are eatable but there are very "al dente" shall i say.

Any tips as to how to get them mushier before I start making a sauce for them incorporating chorizo and smoked polish sausage (think very poor mans' cassoulet! LOL). ??

didds

Old dried beans take longer to cook than relatively new ones. Salt, or stock powder added to the water tends to make them tough and difficult to soften. I would try soaking them overnight again, in fresh water, and then reboil them until soft. Good luck! I do remember some dried soya beans once that could never be boiled into submission ...

I'll give them another few hours - i haven;t added salt or stock to the water at any time (*phew*)

didds

I second the bit about not adding salt (or stock that ususally contains salt) when soaking.

However another trick, normally used with chickpeas, is to add a small amount of Bicarbonate of soda while soaking/cooking. Too much will efect the taste so don't go mad. I'd use half a teaspoon.

Old beans cook poorly. I would dump those old beans, me.

When I buy dry beans, I’ll put the date I bought them on the bag and then put the beans in the freezer for a week or so to kill any insect eggs that may have been included with the beans. From the freezer, the beans are placed into sealed glass canisters that go into the cupboard. After about a year or so, I’ll dump the leftover beans and buy new ones.

C.J.V. - works for me, yes

I agree with the comments on old beans. The modern approach is to soak the beans in salted water, rinse and cook the beans in slightly salted water, as explained here:

https://www.seriouseats.com/2016/09/sal ... r-bad.html

The cook's myth of not salting beans may have come about because of the use of 'old' beans which have been lying in a cupboard, I know I have quite a few partly opened packets 'ageing' as I type

TonyB

TonyB wrote:The cook's myth of not salting beans may have come about because of the use of 'old' beans which have been lying in a cupboard, I know I have quite a few partly opened packets 'ageing' as I type

TonyB

Alternatively you could go with the science of beans and prepering them.
http://beaninstitute.com/cooking-with-d ... uy-crosby/

I have always understood salt to be detrimental, but it seems that a source of sodium in the soaking process (salt or bi-carb) helps as does cooking with bi-carb in the water.

cheers - I shall bear the bicarb idea in the future

I boiled them to death and they got a bit softer. Still definitely on the crunchy side but they are good enough for festival rations this weekend

didds

I second the bicarb. I always cook my chickpeas with the point of a knife of bicarb and see no reason why it would not work with other dried beans.

john