Cooking dried beans

[kengr]

(posyted because fayanora wanted a copy and I thought others might be able to use it)

A few years back a friend gave me a 2 pound bag of dried pinto beans. They were one of those USDA surplus food thingies that'd been in a food box he'd
gotten and he didn't like beans much.

The bag had several recipes on it, the most important being how to cook the beans.

Yes, every decent cookbook has an entry about that. And they all amount to "soak in lots of water overnight, they cook like this..." And I've had *lousy* luck with them. This recipe was different. I tried it. And it *worked*..

Cooked Dry Beans

2 cups dry beans
5 cups water
2 teaspoons salt

Wash and drain beans

Put beans and water in a large pan and bring to boiling. Boil 2 minutes.

Remove from heat.

Cover and let stand 1 hour.

Add salt. Cover and boil gently for 1.5 to 2 hours, or until tender.

Add more water during cooking if needed.

Makes about 5 cups cooked beans.

I usually make a double recipe because the rice & beans recipe from the bag calls for 2 cups of cooked beans and it's easier to not have to make a half batch.

The cooked beans keep well in the fridge for days. I just pull them out and dump the required amount into a pot when I make the rice & beans recipe.

Comments

[phinnia.livejournal.com]

That's the 'quicksoak' method they're using there - I have better luck with that too. Part of it also depends on the age of the beans and the type: some beans have to soak longer, and if the beans are too old longer still. this website has a chart. (http://www.pccnaturalmarkets.com/products/grocery/tips_beans.html)

[glinda-w.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I learned that method from Laurel's Kitchen waaaay back when. Still forget about it sometimes though, as the 'soak overnight' method is what I learned when I was a kid. *wry*

(Just made baked beans a couple of days ago... OMNOMNOM.) (Oh, and Boston brown bread to go with...)

[kengr]

Well, my "cheat" on the rice and beans recipe is that since I don't have the "canned lunchmeat" (aka SPAM) that it calls for (nor do I *want* it :-) I just dump in some beef or chicken "soup base".

Winco sells the stuff in the bulk section and a couple pounds goes a long way when you are using an ounce or less per pot of rice or rice & beans. Very NOM NOM

Still wish I could find the dried, flsavored TVP that Corno's (gone for 20 years now) used to have in *their* bulk food section.

Both chunk and "flake" in beef, chicken and ham flavors.

Those, rice, the soup base stuff and frozen veggies got me thru a *lot* of poor periods.

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

[kengr]

Nah, this stuff is the "restaurant" stuff.

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

[badriya.livejournal.com]

Try planting a couple in the garden outside....

[kengr]

That would be difficult as I used up the original batch some time ago.

The current batch probably wouldn't grow.