Soaking Foods in Water Destroys Water Soluble Vitamins & Minerals

[Guest guest]

Bean Basics - Part 1 -Storage and Soaking

--

How to Store Dry Beans

Sorting

Rinsing

Soaking

Cooking Without Soaking

To Discard Soak Water or Not

Hard Water

Bean Arithmetic

 

How To Store Dried Beans

 

Dry beans should be stored at room temperature in covered

containers. They will keep almost indefinitely. Do not keep dry

beans in the refrigerator. If stored incorrectly, the beans may

absorb water and spoil before you have a chance to use them.

 

The plastic bags beans are packaged in are good for storage if they

are airtight. Once opened, the bag may be reclosed with a twist

tie. For the longest storage life, keep beans in a glass or plastic

container with a tight fitting lid.

 

Sorting

 

Sorting means picking over the beans before cooking them. Remove

small rocks, pieces of dirt, beans with holes or cavities, badly

misshapen or wrinkled beans and those greatly undersized or

discolored.

 

Rinsing

 

Washing is not part of the packing process because water would

rehydrate the beans. Do not rinse beans until you are ready to soak

or cook them. Even then you do not have to rinse beans if you're

going to soak them. Any field dust will be removed and discarded

with the soak water. If you cook the beans without soaking, rinse

them after sorting.

 

Soaking

 

Soaking is not an essential step in bean preparation. The purpose

of soaking is to begin rehydration before cooking, thereby reducing

cooking time. Unsoaked beans take longer to cook and require more

attention so they won't cook dry.

 

During soaking, beans make up their lost water, increasing up to

twice their dried size. Enough water must be used to keep the beans

covered while soaking. Once rehydrated, beans cook in 1 to 3 hours,

depending on the type of bean.

 

There are basically two methods for soaking: long-soak and quick-

soak.

 

Both work equally well and differ only in the amount of time

required to rehydrate the beans.

 

Choose the one which best suits your time and schedule.

 

Long-soaking takes time and some advance planning, but needs very

little effort. First, cover the beans with water at room

temperature. Keep the beans covered by water while soaking. Be

sure the soak water is at room temperature.

 

Hot water may cause the beans to sour. Cold water slows

rehydration and the beans will take longer to cook.

 

Quick-soaking rehydrates dried beans in little more than 1 hour.

For most cooks, this is the most convenient method.

 

Bring the beans and water for soaking to a boil. Boil for 2

minutes. Remove the beans from the heat and cover the pot. Let the

beans stand in the soak water for 1 hour. At the end of the hour,

discard the soak water and cook the beans.

 

Hot-soak. The Preferred Hot Soak is the newest method for soaking

beans. Instructions for the Preferred Hot Soak are as follows:

 

After sorting and rinsing the beans, in a large pot add 10 cups of

water for each pound (2 cups) of dry beans. Bring to a boil. Boil

for 2 or 3 minutes, remove from heat, cover and stand at least 1

hour (quick-soak method), but preferably 4 hours or more; maximum 24

hours. (The longer soaking time is recommended to allow a greater

amount of sugar to dissolve, thus helping the beans to be more

easily digested.)

Whether you soak the beans for one hour or several, discard soak

water; rinse beans and pan. Return beans to pan, add fresh cold

water to fully cover the beans, 1-2 teaspoons oil or shortening and

2 teaspoons salt, if desired. Simmer the beans gently with the lid

tilted until they are tender, to avoid breaking the skins. If you

wish to further season your cooked beans, adding vegetables and

spices to the cooking water will enhance their flavor.

 

Cooking Without Soaking

 

Beans don't have to be soaked before they are cooked.

 

Soaking merely shortens cooking time.

 

Because unsoaked beans have to cook longer, they require more

energy from your stove.

 

To cook beans without soaking, use twice the amount of cooking water

specified in the recipe. Combine the water and rinsed beans in the

pot and bring to a boil. Some cooks like to bring the water to a

boil first, then drop in the beans a few at a time so the boiling

doesn't stop.

 

Either method will cook the beans satisfactorily. Cover the pot

and reduce the heat to maintain a simmer. The beans rehydrate while

cooking so you will have to watch them carefully and add more water

whenever necessary to keep them covered.

 

Cooking time for unsoaked beans can vary up to 2 hours. Most beans

will be tender in 2 to 3 hours.

 

To Discard Soak Water or Not

 

Some people are more susceptible than others to the discomforts of

the gas, or flatulence, sometimes caused by eating beans.

Flatulence occurs when bacteria normally found in the digestive

tract reacts on certain chemical compounds in beans. Some are water-

soluble and will be partially removed when the bean soak water is

discarded.

 

Small amounts of water-soluble vitamins and minerals are also

removed by discarding the soak water. Therefore, many cooks believe

it is nutritionally important to use the soak water for cooking the

beans. Current research shows that only small amounts of nutrients

are lost. For many people, the discomfort avoided by discarding the

soak water is more important than the small amount of nutritional

benefits from using it.

 

Hard Water

 

If you consistently have problems cooking beans to the desired

tenderness within the specified cooking times, it is possible you

have hard water. Another sign of hard water is the appearance of a

thick white or gray residue on the inside of your teakettle every

time you boil water. This is caused by the presence of excessive

amounts of certain minerals. High concentrations of these minerals

interfere with chemical and physical changes that are supposed to

occur in beans during soaking and cooking.

 

Some cooks suggest adding a small amount of baking soda to the

cooking water to soften it. We don't recommend this because baking

soda may give the beans a soapy flavor and its ability to improve

the bean cooking process has not been proved.

 

Amounts of baking soda over 1/8 teaspoon per cup of beans may

destroy the thiamine (Vitamin B1) in beans.

 

Thiamine is a valuable nutrient and one reason why beans have a

reputation for being nutritious. If you have hard water and are in

doubt as to whether or not to use baking soda, buy purified bottled

drinking water – not distilled water – for soaking and cooking

beans.

 

Bean Arithmetic

 

A pound of beans measures about 2 cups.

Beans triple in volume when soaked and cooked.

A cup of dry beans yields 3 cups cooked.

A pound of dry beans yields 6 cups cooked.

Use 3 cups of water per cup of dry beans for soaking.

Simmer each pound of beans 2 hours after soaking.

A pound of dry beans makes about 9 servings of baked beans.

A pound of dry beans makes about 12 servings of bean soup.

A one-pound can of cooked beans measures about 2 cups.

Click Here to Continue on to Part Two - Cooking Your Beans

Soaking Beans

Soaking - A lot of energy is spent wondering if beans really need to

be soaked. I find it useful to remember that beans are a dried food,

that soaking is simply re-hydrating them.

However, I found that you can get very decent beans without soaking

them. But if you're going for the most plump, evenly cooked beans

soaking helps.

 

http://www.globalgourmet.com/food/egg/egg0198/soakbean.html

 

TO QUICK-SOAK DRIED BEANS

In a large saucepan cover dried beans with triple their volume of

cold water. Bring water to a boil and cook beans, uncovered, over

moderate heat 2 minutes. Remove pan from heat and soak beans 1 hour.

 

Gourmet

Quick soaking - Give me a break! Quick soaking is where you boil

beans hard for a minute or two, take the pan off the heat, cover it,

let it sit for an hour, then drain the beans and call them soaked.

 

Now yes, in one sense it is quick-an overnight soak is accomplished

in one hour. But come on, unsoaked beans only take an extra 30

minutes or so.

 

So in another, very real sense, there's nothing quick about quick-

soaking.

 

Soaking revisited, how long to soak - A useful factoid is that beans

will only take up so much water and that's it.

 

They don't continue to absorb water like an insatiable sponge. When

beans are soaked, they're soaked. Longer isn't better. The fact is

that most beans are done drinking up water after 4 hours. (Beans

will take up warm water faster than cold water.)

 

However, there is nothing wrong with soaking beans overnight if

that's convenient. But throwing beans in a bowl of water at

breakfast works just as well.

 

How can you tell if beans are fully re-hydrated? - You can judge by

their skins. At first their skins will be wrinkly, then the beans

gradually swell up and their skins become smooth again.

 

At that point they're soaked. But if you want to be compulsive,

then cut a bean open. If the bean is undersoaked, you'll notice the

core is chalky, like a kernel of rice was in the center. If the bean

is fully soaked, it has an even color all the way through.

 

http://nutrition.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?

zi=1/XJ & sdn=nutrition & zu=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fns.usda.gov%2Ftn%

2FResources%2Fblocks5.pdf