Cooking Beans at Home, Leaving the Can Behind

[elleng]

'Let’s get one thing straight.

Canned beans are never going to be as good as home-cooked dried beans, no matter how many seasonings you add to your pot. They’re like any other convenience food: a wan simulacrum, fine in a pinch but never transcendent.

You can do a whole lot better for not much more work cooking your own dried beans, once you get over the notion that they are fussy or in any way intimidating. Cooking up a pot of beans is one of the easiest ways to get dinner on the table. It may not be the fastest, but you can’t get any simpler.

Whether your resolution for the coming year is to eat more healthfully, cut back on meat, be more frugal, do more home cooking or prepare food ahead for the week, simmering a big pot of beans will help you get there and then some.


But here’s the most compelling argument in their favor: A bowlful of home-cooked beans bathed with their own magically delicious, creamy broth — served on rice, farro or polenta, or as part of a salad, soup or stew — makes a terrific meal.'

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/13/dining/how-to-cook-beans-recipes-tips.html?

[japple]

1. I like that the author says to cook the beans with salt, and that you don't

really need to soak the beans. I have found this to be true.

And if they don’t seem to ever get tender, it’s not the salt’s fault. It could be that your beans are very old; they start to deteriorate after a year, and by two years go completely downhill. (Once that happens, toss them.) Or the culprit may be hard water.

I posted last week about heirloom beans and am thrilled to report that the Bob's Red Mill flagolet beans made an awesome soup. The beans are tender, rich, creamy, divine. The instructions said to put one cup of beans in the pot with 4 cups of water and cook for one hour or until tender. It took them nearly 3 hours to reach that point, but they are wonderful beans.

[kentauros]

2. Or, you save the bean-water (aquafaba)

and use it as an egg-substitute
(sometimes it has to be cooked down if it's not thick enough.)

As for cooking my own beans, I will continue to buy canned black beans. Because black beans ignore me when I try to cook them. They remain hard and crunchy in the center. And while I thank any of y'all that take the trouble to suggest methods to make them obey me, I know in my heart that they will disobey the laws of physics in my kitchen just out of spite

[dem in texas]

3. I cook 'em in the crockpot

I have a really bad crock pot that won't get hot and takes forever to cook anything. But it is perfect for cooking dry beans. I put them in at night when I go to bed and by morning I have a pot of perfectly cooked beans. I turn them off and reheat them when we eat out mid-day meal.

I cook all kinds of beans, pintos being my favorite. I cook navy beans, lima beans, split peas and great northern. Usually put in a small ham hock, a chopped onion and a few cloves of garlic. For split peas, I add some chopped celery and carrots too. I don't soak the beans, just rinse them for a few minutes in hot water.

I season them in the morning after they are cooked, depending on what I am going to do with them. I usually make soup from the navy beans and split peas, chopping up the meat from the ham hock and adding to the soup. Great northern beans make a great soup too when tomatoes and white wine are added.

Dry beans are a cheap food and so good for you.