Do you really have to soak beans before cooking them?

[CatWoman]

I want to cook some pinto beans and rice.

Should I soak the beans first?

[NMDemDist2]

1. yes, unless you want an EXTREMELY musical evening

you can do a cheat with a "quick soak"

All dry beans and legumes except lentils, mung beans, and split peas should be soaked before cooking. Soaking shortens the cooking time and makes the beans more digestible. To soak, cover the washed beans with four times their volume of water, then choose one of these soaking techniques.

1. Normal soak: Leave the beans to soak for 4-8 hours. This is the traditional and healthier method of soaking beans. (If you put them on to soak at night, they'll be waiting for you whenever you're ready the next day.)
2. Quick soak: Bring the beans to a boil for one minute, cover, and let sit for one hour.

The beans are soaked once they are uniformly tender.

After soaking, you have the choice of 1. draining the soaking water, rinsing the beans, and cooking with fresh water, or 2. cooking with the soaking water. The former reduces flatulence, while the latter provides more nutrients.

[CatWoman]

2. LOL

Thanks!!

here's to a "flatulence free" cooking experience!!

:hi:

[NMDemDist2]

3. always one of my goals

:rofl:

[Sparkly]

4. I've heard that any sort of sugar adds to the flatulence effect, too.

Which is why baked beans cause it (and why people whose only beans are "baked beans" blame it on the beans themselves). Just keep any sugar substances away from them!

(Gratutitous smiley I never thought I'd have occasion to use...)

[NMDemDist2]

5. and don't salt beans either while cooking

and here's a handy tip on how to check if they are done. If you blow on the skin and it splits they're ready!

[CatWoman]

6. does the instructions hold true for black beans as well:?

how do you cook black beans?

[NMDemDist2]

7. all beans Cat the only exception are lentils and split peas n/t

[babylonsister]

8. So please share your knowledge about split peas!

What am I supposed to be picking out while rinsing them? :shrug:

[NMDemDist2]

9. rocks

or anything not split and green LOL

[babylonsister]

14. Ah! But you have to eat a pound of dirt before you die;

wouldn't rocks fall into that category? :rofl:
I kid! Thanks; I always did wonder why I was rinsing, and I actually
have a ham bone defrosting to make some pea soup!

[yy4me]

10. unsavory bean pieces, small stones, anything not a bean or pea

n/t

[Warpy]

11. The theory is that soaking removes some of the

polysaccharides in the beans, thus reducing gas. The theory is also that soaked beans will have a shorter cooking time.

The latter theory is accurate if you're at sea level and not pressure cooking the beans; the former is only minimally true. Yes, you do get rid of some of those indigestible complex sugars (we can't eat 'em, but the bacteria in our colons love 'em, hence the nether eruptions), but most of them stay locked tightly within the bean.

The good news is that your gut eventually adapts to a diet heavy in legumes, as any veg-head will tell you, and the eruptions lessen in number and velocity and you're fit for human companionship in a relatively short time. However, if you're a once a month baked bean diner, just resign yourself to the fact that you'll embarrass yourself in public the next day.

Whether or not I soak depends on the bean and the cooking method. If I'm going to cook small beans in the crock pot overnight, I soak them. If I'm going to pressure cook larger beans (and at 6000 feet, that's the only way they ever get done), then I just wash them and toss them in.

[CatWoman]

12. aren't you just a fountain of knowledge, Warpy

:hi:

thanks!! :D

[Warpy]

13. No, but as a serious veg head, I know my fart foods.

[Kolesar]

16. If I pressure cook them, can I save on gas?

Natural gas, that is. Would it be eco-friendly to cook the beans in a pressure cooker in a half or a third of the time?? I live at 740 feet above sea level.

[cally]

15. Well, the bean farmer at my local farmer's mkt insists that

you don't have to because it takes away nutrients. I still soak mine unless I forget to soak them which happens frequently. I don't notice the difference. :shrug:

[watercolors]

17. No

You can boil them for an hour, drain off water, impotant that you do, and then cook them. I have had no problem about gas from them. Of course keeping Beano on hand doesn't is a good idea!