The first rule of Bean Club is NO SALT GODDAMMIT. This includes baking soda and all the other cockamamie things white people will tell you to do with your bean water.
Not until after the beans are cooked.
The second rule of Bean Club is NO ACID/BASES GODDAMMIT.
Ditto re: after beans are cooked.
You probably already know these things.
But their corollaries can be less obvious: if you have hard water, it will affect your bean cooking. If the mineral count (salts come in more than one kind) is high, it is just the same as having added salt to the water as far as the beans being tough is concerned. If your water is alkaline, this will do things to your beans also.
Third rule of Bean Club is start them in cold water, heat on moderate until just simmering, and leave them loosely covered without messing with them for at least an hour or two. Don't let the heat get too high, but also don't let it get too low.
Fourth rule of Bean Club is NO OIL GODDAMMIT (until after they're cooked).
Basically, when you cook beans, just cook beans. Then you can cook *with* beans. The only exception I sometimes make is to add some dry herbs to bean cooking water. Epazote. Sometimes a bay leaf or some sage, or savory.
I find the crockpot a great bean cooking tool because you can leave them all night and the temperature is very stable.
I second the pressure cooker advice, if you've got one.
If you don't have a pressure cooker, you can cook beans al fiasco (in the flask): put your beans and water in a jug or jar that can take prolonged heat. Quart or gallon Mason jars work great. 1:3 beans to water ratio is about right. Cap loosely so that as the air in the jar expands, it can escape as required. Place jars in a larger pot of boiling water up to their necks, preferably on a canning rack or steaming rack so they don't sit directly on the bottom. Bain-marie those bastards at a rolling boil for an hour or so, then check your beans.
Note: if you do beans al fiasco, stick a few sage leaves and a bay leaf into at least one of the jars. Heaven.
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Date: 2010-04-18 06:56 pm (UTC)Not until after the beans are cooked.
The second rule of Bean Club is NO ACID/BASES GODDAMMIT.
Ditto re: after beans are cooked.
You probably already know these things.
But their corollaries can be less obvious: if you have hard water, it will affect your bean cooking. If the mineral count (salts come in more than one kind) is high, it is just the same as having added salt to the water as far as the beans being tough is concerned. If your water is alkaline, this will do things to your beans also.
Third rule of Bean Club is start them in cold water, heat on moderate until just simmering, and leave them loosely covered without messing with them for at least an hour or two. Don't let the heat get too high, but also don't let it get too low.
Fourth rule of Bean Club is NO OIL GODDAMMIT (until after they're cooked).
Basically, when you cook beans, just cook beans. Then you can cook *with* beans. The only exception I sometimes make is to add some dry herbs to bean cooking water. Epazote. Sometimes a bay leaf or some sage, or savory.
I find the crockpot a great bean cooking tool because you can leave them all night and the temperature is very stable.
I second the pressure cooker advice, if you've got one.
If you don't have a pressure cooker, you can cook beans al fiasco (in the flask): put your beans and water in a jug or jar that can take prolonged heat. Quart or gallon Mason jars work great. 1:3 beans to water ratio is about right. Cap loosely so that as the air in the jar expands, it can escape as required. Place jars in a larger pot of boiling water up to their necks, preferably on a canning rack or steaming rack so they don't sit directly on the bottom. Bain-marie those bastards at a rolling boil for an hour or so, then check your beans.
Note: if you do beans al fiasco, stick a few sage leaves and a bay leaf into at least one of the jars. Heaven.