Tough Beans

Saucyman – I love me some beans, especially white beans slow baked and finished with olive oil and garlic. Occasionally though, I hit a bean that isn’t cooked, while the other beans are in the words of Goldilocks, ‘Just right’. What gives? Fagoli


Cooking beans inspires a wide range of faith-based "facts", something a cook or a cookbook reader just doesn’t see in similar kitchen fundamentals, like boiling pasta. For successful spaghetti, linguine or penne - a big pot of boiling salted water is all that is required. Beans, which aren’t any more complicated than pasta, have some serious theoretical work surrounding their preparation – To prepare dried beans properly a cook is told in no uncertain terms not to add salt, soak the beans, avoid adding acidic items like tomatoes until the very end of cooking and/or add alkaline items, like baking soda.

While little evidence exists to support these claims, kitchen superstitions are not easily ignored. Dried beans need little more than steady moderate heat and adequate amounts of liquid. There are a few variables to address - Hard water, not enough water/liquid or low quality beans are the likely culprits of your legume woes.

First, is hard water - Excess levels of dissolved minerals, in particular magnesium and calcium might form hard deposits in and around the bean’s cell walls making it difficult to for the legume to absorb liquid. This can be countered by adding bicarbonate of soda to the pot-o-beans. Baking soda produces a peculiar texture, the beans seem mushy even before they are finished cooking. Besides, hard water and you’ll know if you have it, will effect all the beans, not just a few strays.

Roughly speaking there should be 3 parts water/stock/liquid to each part bean, except...Lentils, dal and split peas absorb less liquid and only need 2 cups wet for each cup of dry. Chickpeas suck more water than a Los Angeles lawn and need 4 to 5 times more water than bean. The problem of a few uncooked beans, could be caused by the cooking liquid evaporating, leaving a few beans drying out on the top, making them hard, unpleasant and inedible. Start all the beans in ample cold liquids, cover your pot and cook at a steady simmer and you should avoid the problem of too little liquid.

Finally, quality - Old beans are drier and take longer to cook. Spend the extra 10¢ a pound - Even the more expensive free-range organic legumes cost less than canned beans. Purchase beans from the bulk section in a store that sells a ton of beans – traditionally natural foods store or what is still referred to as an ethnic store (although I prefer the term nationalistic) are going to turn product over quicker and offer a fresher product.

Generally, you are going to have better results by using quality ingredients, avoid buying and cooking beans that look shriveled from the get go. Soak your beans for 3 to 4 hours before cooking – this will reduce cooking time (every day is earth day) and afford you the chance to discard any beans that rise to the top of the soaking water: Unfortunately named floaters, these little guys could be the ones that are too dry and are causing your problem. If you don’t have time to soak or don’t want to run your oven all day, try a crockpot. Or if you are like the Saucykitchen™ and don’t think about meals until about an hour before eating a pressure cooker works well.