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Go Soak Your Beans! Successful Soaking Metho

Category: Misc

Author: The Savvybearcat

Date: 1/1/2007

Rating:

(4.0) by 2 users

Ingredients:

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Instructions:

Perhaps no other factor in bean cookery is more controversial than
whether beans should be soaked, and if so, how to soak them properly
before cooking. "What??", you say, "Soak the beans?" Perhaps you've
been cooking them for years without soaking because many cooks do,
but it's a fact that before those beans can really start cooking,
they must rehydrate--the purpose of soaking.

Since a bean contains only about 15% moisture in the dry form and
rehydrates to about 60% moisture when fully cooked, you can see it
has to soak up a lot of water. If you fail to soak the beans first,
some of your cooking time (and energy expense) is wasted while the
beans rehydraate. So our recommendation is, SOAK the beans
first--especially the denser varieties such as kidneys, pinks and
small whites.

Another important factor about soaking beans is that if you use the
preferred hot-soak method described ([below]), and let the beans soak
for at least four hours before pouring off the soak water, you should
find the beans cause less problems in your digestive tract. During
the hot-soak process, many of the undigestible, soluble sugars in
beans (a partial cause of gas problems) are dissolved into the soak
water and go down the drain with the water. Afraid of throwing away
some valuable nutrients? Don't be. Scientists tell us that no
significant amounts of essential nutrients are lost. Further, the
protein and carbohydrates, the main nutritional reason people eat
beans in the first place, are not disturbed. And certainly, for most
people the discomfort avoided and the improvement in flavor gained by
discarding the soak water are much more important than the
insignificant loss of nutritional benefits.

HOT-SOAK (Preferred) METHOD and QUICK-SOAK METHOD

For each pound of California dry beans, any variety, add 10 cups hot
water. Remember, beans will rehydrate to at least twice their dry
size, so be sure to start with a large enough pot. (Note: Up to 2
teaspoons of salt per pound of beans may be added to help the beans
absorb water more evenly.) Heat to boiling, let boil two to three
minutes. Remove from heat, cover and set aside for at least one hour.
(Quick-Soak Method), but preferably four hours or more. The longer
soaking time is recommended to allow a greater amount of sugars to
dissolve, thus helping the beans to be more easily digested. Whether
you soak the beans for an hour or several hours, discard the soak
water.

From "Cooking with California Dry Beans" published by the California
Dry Bean Advisory Board, 531-D North Alta Avenue, Dept. CB, Dinuba,
CA 93618.

Posted by Michael Prothro KOOK-NET
:þ Mike's Resort BBS, Fayetteville,AR,(501)521-8920þ