Dried beans etc vs tinned

rachbc

i do all beans except kidney in the sc with no soak - work brilliantly overnight.

Penelope_Penguin

rachbc wrote: »

i do all beans except kidney in the sc with no soak - work brilliantly overnight.

If you soak your beans, some of the work of softening them is done for you, so you need cook them for less time, and save fuel and money :money:

I like to cook big batches of beans, then freeze them in small portions to use from frozen

I'll add this to the existing thread so that you can see more of the pros and cons of tinned vs dried.

littlesnuggy

I just decided that I wanted to make a 3 bean chili for dinner tonight (never done it before) and I've got some dried butter beans and dried pinto beans (plus tinned red kidney beans). The dried beans haven't been soaking but I've read about 'quick soaking' by bringing to the boil and then simmering for an hour or so.

Please could anyone advise how long I should simmer for, before putting into the chili which I expect I'll cook for around 30 mins in the sauce.

I don't want the beans to go to mush as am trying to convince my meat-loving OH that this beans can be good, but equally I want them to be safe to eat.

TIA

Memory_Girl

Could you put off the chilli until tomorrow?

I've found that quick soaking is OK for the robust beans - kidney and haricot but never that successful with the more delicate cannellini and butter bean. Quick soaking can still take up to 4 hours BTW.

This lass is quite good for the info

http://marcia-passos-duffy.suite101.com/how-to-cook-dried-beans-a167673

MG

littlesnuggy

Help!
I decided to go ahead as planned (as I didn't have an alternative to cook tonight). at 5pm I boiled the beans for 3 mins and then left them in the hot water covered until 7.30 (2.5 hours). They were softer, but still firm. I think transferred them to my onion/pepper mix and added some passata thinking we could eat at 8.15 - I've just checked them and they are hard.

Are they safe to eat? I've made a huge pot of it and will be so annoyed if we can't eat it. Due to serve in 10 mins, putting rice on now, so quick advice much appreciated., please!

Memory_Girl

If the kidney beans were canned - then you should be safe. Raw kidney beans have a toxin that is only destroyed after 15 minutes of hard boiling.

So your pot should be "safe" if not very enjoyable to eat if the beans are still hard - you could try leaving them in a slow cooker overnight until they are soft.

Sorry mate, but there really isn't a "short" shortcut to beans - quickest method I have is overnight soak and cook in a pressure cooker which speeds it up a little.

MG

littlesnuggy

Yep, the kidney beans were tinned (which I rinsed and then boiled as per instructions prior to draining and adding to the chili). I should have just got the tinned variety for all, but didn't want to pay 3 x the price of the dried

Diflower

Sorry I wasn't on here earlier but hope this helps for another time.
I trust Delia, and use her method as an alternative for overnight soaking, which is bring to the boil, boil for 10 mins, cover and leave for 2 hours.
Most beans then take about 1/2 hour to cook.

tiff

Again for future ref, the way I do beans is to buy a 500g bag and cook them in the slow cooker then freeze in tin size portions so I have them when needed. Then its a case of throwing everything together without worrying if its cooked or not.

zippychick

ive merged this with our dried beans thread

Zip