To soak or not to soak

[roysha]

If this has been brought up before, and I suspect it has but I couldn't find it doing a search, please point me to the thread and then just ignore this one.

After reading Boaz's post about "Tamale Beans" (which by the way I HAVE to try) I noticed he did not soak his beans first. Got me thinking about that process. I googled the topic of soaking beans before cooking and the result was very enlightening. There is NO positive yes or no answer. It seems one can do as one wishes, depending on the individual taste.

I have always soaked and with the exception of "Ham-N-Beans", didn't add salt until the beans were finished cooking. After reading probably 20+ articles on both sides of the topic, I think I'll just keep on doing what I do because I'm comfortable with the process. However, I may try not soaking and adding salt just to see if I can tell any difference.

So my questions are:
1. Do you or do you not soak your beans before cooking?
2. Add salt to soaking water, cooking water or after finished cooking?
3. Why?

[Greg S]

Both, depending on forethought and time. The only one I'm not perticularly fond of is kidney beans (due to tough skin) and will soak reguardless for potentially softer skin/texture. Been thinking of soaking and pressure cooking to see if that softens them up better. As far as salting during and post cooking, I can't tell the difference. Never tried salting soaking water.

[farmerjim]

Monday lunch in South Louisiana. Red Beans and Rice.
Same as Greg S. If I plan ahead and have time, I will soak beans overnight.

[gtrpickr]

I have also read alot about soaking or not soaking. I dont soak myself mainly because I rarely plan ahead. I never really seen an advantage to doing either. As far as salt goes just depends on if I am cooking with ham or bacon.

[Boaz]

Soaking or not they come out fine . Soaking will cut down on cook time but I never do , just old habits . I put the salt in a any stage , never made a difference that I could tell .

[DCP]

Wife says she always soaks her beans. She said it makes them softer.

[Shiloh]

Soak.

Shiloh

[MaryB]

I usually soak unless I forget, then do the simmer quick soak method. Soaking is supposed to help cut down on gas...

[Bazoo]

I dont soak beans. Im told the reason folks soak them, is that they cook quicker if they have been soaked.

[Minerat]

I tried both ways soak and no soak. I now soak navy bean over night then pressure cook with ham, ham base, celery, & carrots. No salt. They come out softer and have better flavor.

[tunnug]

When I plan the meal I'll soak, otherwise just throw it on the fire.
I was told that if you salt your beans at the beginning they will take a long time to cook/soften, something that the salt does to prolong the cooking, I have not tried it since it already takes quite some time to cook the beans.

[Lloyd Smale]

I soak them overnight

[GhostHawk]

My mom was born in New Orleans, raised in El Paso Texas. Dad was from up north, he started in Iowa original, then North Dakota then northern Minnesota.

I was raised on pinto beans cooked with a hambone and rice. I still cook it, and I still soak beans overnight.

Lately these newfangled crockpots make it pretty simple. Soak beans night before, rinse, drop into crockpot with hambone. Walk away for 8 hours.

I salt to taste after they are done because ham seldom is all the same level of saltiness.
And as they cook down, lose moisture they will probably taste saltier than when you put it in.

So that is where I come from.

Hmmmmm hambone, beans. Good idea, might be a good time for some beans.

[Hickory]

Note from experience;
Do not add salt at anytime during the soaking, cooking process.*
Salt will make beans hard or at best very tough and chewy.

*Salt maybe added the last 5-10 minutes of cooking.

[Pine Baron]

Just like Ghost. Soak, rinse, crockpot with hambone, potatoes, onions, etc. If I'm in a hurry (very rare) pressure cooker. Rarely add salt. Recently, I have been using one of those new fangled immersion blenders, really mixes things up. And, oh yeah, reaper and/or ghost pepper. Who needs salt?

[Thundarstick]

Here's my method.

Wash beans in cold water, cover with three to four times water to beans. Bring this to a full boil for two minutes, turn of the heat and set the timer for an hour. After the hour soak, rinse the beans in cold running water until the water runs clear, cover with about 1/3 depth of water to swelled beans. This goes into a pressure cooker for twenty minutes at 10 psi. After the ten minutes I quick cool to open the canner then add ham, onion, salt etc. Cook till meat is done. If I just want beans I let the cooker cool slowly to finish cooking. You would have to adjust your cook time for your elevation.

My understanding is this prep allows most of the complex sugars (that you can't digest, but the bacteria in your gut can! ), to be leached out and washed away with the second rinse water. My wife is very intolerant of beans if they arn't prepared this way, so it must work. I have found that if you add ANYTHING to the beans before they are mostly cooked it will effect how they take up water even to the point of making them impossible to cook.
You don't have to pressure cook, but I always do the first part. O, and the older and harder the beans, the longer to cook.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

I always pressure cook beans.
I had always used the "quick soak", to avoid the gassiness, and it must have worked, as one time, I read online about the flavor benefits of not pre-soaking (or not using the quick soak method in the pressure cooker). So I've tried a few varieties without the quick soak (Pintos, small red beans, and a heirloom Noir Cowpea...these 3 are the main beans I use)...and let me tell ya, I got the gassiness each time...I couldn't sleep those nights.

Now, I always use the quick soak.

[CHeatermk3]

I love beans especially the crockpot-cooked recipes. Whether to soak or not for me depands mainly on the age of the dried beans, type of beans and whether I've planned ahead or gotten a wild craving for bean soup of one kind or another.

Leftover bean soups in the freezer make for an easy quick spur-of-the-moment meal/supper without having to eat boxed/prepared foods loaded with salt and unpronounceable ingredients.

Dried Limas and Lentils or split peas-no soaking Most others some form of soaking both ways mentioned above work great.

[big bore 99]

I soak and salt pintos overnight. Otherwise bad gas. Then 16 hrs in a crockpot on low with some bacon or salt pork ,chopped onion,brown sugar, some mustard and a bottle of bbq sauce. Works for me.

[Traffer]

I copied this from the internet years ago. It is the only way I cook beans now. THIS TECHNIQUE WORKS FOLKS:
"I am an Appalachian "kid" and bean soup was a staple in our family. Here is a little trick I learned. Cover your beans, nothing else added, with cold water, and bring to a solid boil for about 10 minutes. Remove the pan DON'T DRAIN and SET THE PAN IN YOUR SINK. Throw in about 1/4 cup baking soda, (in the hills it's a handful) and stir like crazy until the foam that will appear disappears, (don't worry if the foam looks green). Drain and rinse very well in cold water to remove all the soda flavor, then start recooking according to the directions. Doing this, you won't have to soak the beans, it cuts your cooking time, and removes maybe not all, but most of the "gas". More soda, less gas. The reason for setting the pan in the sink is that it will foam quite a bit and could go over the sides of your pan. BTW, never used a bay leaf in my life for bean soup.
BARB MAXWELL"

[MaryB]

Ham always meant 2 days of bean soup in my family. Mom would find the biggest ham they had(she was feeding 7-14 people depending on friends etc that were there at supper time. We kind of floated around in our teens and ate wherever we were at). Celery, potato, carrots, onion, garlic, some tomatoes from the basement... Friends always seemed to show up when we were having Mom's bean soup.

[Char-Gar]

My wife is a bean soaker and I am not. She swears soaking is an absolute necessity, but I think that is nonsense. I won't eat her beans and she won't eat my beans. Here are my Border Beans. I have won contests with these jewels.

1. 1 lb of pinto beans
2. I clove of mashed garlic
3. I T of Mexican oregano
4. I chopped yellow sweet onion
5. 1/3 finely chopped fresh jalapeno
6. Salt to taste
7. 1/4 lb chopped bacon

Wash the beans. Put them in a crock pot covered with water. All all the rest of the stuff and stir. Add more water to cover everything with about 1/2" above top of stuff.

Start the beans about mid-afternoon on high. At bed time, check the water and add more if needed. Turn down low, cook all night and have beans for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Contest rules state that there can be nothing in the pot bigger than a bean, so I chop things that size or smaller. It really doesn't matter though.