In our last Rancho Gordo newsletter, I made this comment:
I was looking through our customer reviews on ranchogordo.com and in general, the feedback is the kind of thing most companies dream of. We have about 95% five-star reviews and the occasional clunker. Most of the bad reviews state something like this: “I’ve been cooking the beans in a bean pot for six to eight hours now and they still aren’t soft. They were soaked for twelve hours and have been simmering in a ceramic bean pot all afternoon and evening.” Or “I soaked them at least 24 hours and used them in my recipe and no matter how long I cooked them they were still crunchy.”
What do they have in common? Excessive soaking.
As I’ve said many times before, most of us here don’t soak our beans. We know how fresh they are and it’s easier to just cook them. Sometimes I’ll get up early on a Sunday morning and soak the beans for cooking later in the day but I really think between four and six hours is more than enough. It’s not science, but a suspicion I have is that the beans are starting to sprout.
I’m not anti-soaking but I do think you can over-soak the beans.
I was naive to think there wouldn’t be a response! I’ve decided to post
I should add, I don’t have any problem with our beans not softening. And judging by our customer service inquiries, neither do the vast majority of you. We have all kinds of problems, but this just normally doesn’t come up as one of them. But when it does, it seems to be accompanied by an extremely long soak.
Steve,
As a geologist, I thought I would add to your over-soaking comment. Many water systems have natural salts that may also harden prevent the beans not
I never had success cooking beans until I discovered Rancho Gorda beans and your website.
Thank you for the great products, cooking methods and fab recipes.
All my best,
MC
Hi Steve,
That’s an interesting take on soaking. I just drop the dry beans into boiling water, let them boil for 1 measured minute and then let them soak for an hour. They come out perfectly so long as I use the beans of the year.
I just finished harvesting my crop of Marcella’s and Tigereyes and am in process of harvesting white runners. I doubt that I will plant the last next year. The vines take over the world! This spring I harvested a small crop of red lentils and am waiting for cooler weather to cook up a mess of red lentil/Italian sausage potage.
I tried some nuñas popped in the microwave and was less than impressed. I’ll try them in a skillet next time but this variety doesn’t look like a repeater to me. Maybe some garbanzos will be worth a try next spring.
Growing and eating beans is immensely satisfying!
Walter
As I always say, if you have a system that works for you, keep on it.
re the Nuñas, I like the idea of them popping but after years of drying them to try and get them to pop, it’s seemed less than a thrill.
I find that if you add salt or tomatoes before the beans are soft, they will never get soft. Many recipes include salt or tomatoes too early.
I love your beans!!!
JoAnn
Steve, I’m wondering if your customers who are commenting on cooking issues are adding salt too early to the cooking water. I believe (from experience)that has an effect on cooking time. Love, love your beans! I’m grateful to my friend who introduced me to your products. Thank you, thank you.
Hi Steve,
I’m just wondering about your thoughts on the recommendation by Americas Test Kitchen on “brining” beans during the soaking period. Like you, I typically only soak for 3-4 hours before cooking but have found that 3-4 tbs of salt in the soaking water helps. You do have to rinse this off and cook in unsalted water after that and only adjust seasoning at the end. They (ATK) claim that brining causes some change to the skin structure which keeps it intact but not hard. Just wondering in RG has ever tried or heard of this?
Craig
We talk about this a lot because people bring it up. It’s hard to bother when our beans seem always to come out. Julia has promised to try this over the holiday weekend.
Steve: another culprit is salt. I used to salt my beans as soon as I added the water and other ingredients, but sometimes they never softened, no matter how long I cooked them. After doing a little research, I found a Diana Kennedy recipe that says to NEVER salt beans until near the end of the cook time. Now I never salt until the end, and they come out perfect every time! Salud, James
I tend to salt at the point when the beans aren’t quite done but it’s clear that there’s no turning back. The pot starts to smell like beans. If you wait too long, you’ll have salty broth and bland beans. It’s a balancing act.
Hi Steve,
So are you saying that over soaking causes “hard” beans??
Best,
Roger
Yes. It can happen!
Steve –
I agree! Rancho Gordo beans are so fresh they hardly require any soaking. I never have to soak the Midnight Black Beans – they are my all time favorite!
Will you ever have the Florida Runner Beans again? Or something similar?
Best –
Diane
Hi Steve! Hope you are well! On soaking beans, I will say that those who live in places where the water is hard as a rock, do need to add a teaspoon of baking soda to the quick
Hello there!
Regarding soaking beans: I’ve been experimenting a little with my new toy…a Fissler stove top pressure cooker. I have been doing a quick soak first. I pour boiling water from the kettle on my beans and soak for about an hour, then pressure cook them for about 20 minutes. I probably don’t need to do the presoak. I never have when I’ve cooked my beans the normal way. But I like the way the beans are coming out. Just thought I’d share.
Best wishes, Cheri
Loved the New Yorker article. Really enjoying your beans. A quick question hopefully.
I soaked a pound of Scarlett runners (will do less soaking next time, I hear you on they’re so fresh don’t necessarily need it). I drained early the next morning and put in a container and promptly forgot about them. They’re about ten days old now. They look fine, smell fine, haven’t sprouted, aren’t soft or mushy, etc. Do you think they’re okay to cook still?
Another question as I’m writing this: can I freeze simply cooked beans (I’m thinking I do a basic cook, split in half, freeze one, cook the other and the next week or month, unfreeze and make a completely differ t recipe).
Thanks in advance for anything you might offer. Hope all is well there for you and yours!
Amy
I would pass but only based on instinct, not science.
Freezing is easy and those that do it recommend freezing with plenty of bean broth.
Interesting article on bean soaking…we are above 5000′ and use a pressure cooker…never had problems with soaking overnight…no consistent issue except maybe for some beans in the batch. just our two cents worth for what that is worth anymore 🙂
great beans and newsletter…
best, Will
Ah ha! So one
Recently, I took a class at Sur la Table. We used an
Erin
If you soak beans (at least
Best, Paul
ps – In your searches, please look for small garbanzos. I got some from Arrowhead (sorry) but most are much bigger. The little ones are more like those I’ve had in Italy.
I just read your latest newsletter and I wanted to say something about oversoaking beans. I’m with you — my (starting to become extensive for a home cook) experience shows that yes, you can oversoak beans. Basically, I think that once the soaking water starts to froth on the top they’ve been soaked too long and are starting to ferment (or maybe sprout, as you suggest). 12 hours is too long! Overnight is too long! 24 hours is way too long. 3-6 hours is fine, and not soaking at all is also fine but does take a little longer. Maybe an hour or two. So I’m not sure if you’re really saving much time by pre-soaking anyway.
The only Rancho Gordo beans I’ve found tricky in regards to cooking time are the
Thanks for all your work
Used some yellow eye beans of yours that I had for a while. Never had them before and saw a recipe of yours for Pasta Fazoul. I soaked the beans (a little too long I’m afraid) and proceeded to cook them with a ham bone. I cooked them for a long time, unsalted and they stayed hard for a few hours. I persisted and cooked them until tender. It was amazing. They stayed whole, were real creamy and made a lovely soup bean. Before finishing cooking I added some of your Miztecca salt. No too much. The taste was phenomenal. I am so glad my friend Tim Nekuza sent us our first batch of Rancho Gordo beans.
Thanks! I’m glad, too!
With regard to soaking beans — We’ve found that the hard boil (show ’em whose boss) or a few hours soak is fine for most RG beans. However, in our experience the Royal Coronas cook more evenly with an overnight soak.
Yes, if I’ve soaked, the who-da-boss thing isn’t probably needed!
I pull the beans out throw them in a bowl with some filtered cold water and let them sit while I prep the rest of my ingredients for the dish. I can literally see them puff up before my eyes..These beans are the best. I feel like a rock star every time I cook’em. LoL.
I toss the beans in my Fagor multicooker on high pressure for 35 min. Just barely covered with water and they come out pure perfection every time… Toss them in salads soup or my favorite is to just let them sit in the pot and nibble on them through out the day. The size is so fun that no one can resist a nibble or an handful.
I’m fortunate that my local grocery stocks a good assortment. Thank you Steve.
Steve one of the problems with a really long soak is the beans may start to ferment. (smell sour) I ferment many things and have read about fermenting beans but it doesn’t interest me.
Since using RG beans I haven’t had any problem with hard beans. I do soak overnight – some old habits die hard. I use my beans within the date on the package. Old beans never seem to get soft.
I wonder if oversoaking and bad water might make things worse.
Cooking habits are all over the map! I like to brine because I like the flavor of the salt in the bean. I soak and use an instant pot because, the way my life is right now, saving even 30 minutes of cooking time makes a difference. But the beans are just as good without brining and without soaking!
I have to do this one of these days. People seem to really like them this way. As I’ve said, I just have had no issues with hard beans so it’s hard to experiment!
Steve,
You may recall that I actually ran some experiments to test soaking. Used FRESH (ordered just for the purpose) RG coronas & pintos. I found no over soaking effect up to 24 hour soak.
I have really hard water, but I used distilled water for the tests to eliminate that as a factor.
That said, I live at 7000 ft, and that may well have been a factor. I would love to see the experiments repeated “down there” to see. Also testing effect of hard water. Also the salt hypothesis, and the acid hypothesis. :D.
We want our politicians to use science, not BS. We should be willing to do the same!
Bob
It’s not BS. It’s anecdotal and I stressed that this was a hunch. I’m not trying to put over anything on anyone.
And your conclusions are great but they’re also anecdotal.
This is a discussion. Not an academic paper.
Sorry Steve, did NOT mean to demean you or any of customers. The BS was more in reference to the way some folks deny the facts.
I ran the experiments as scientifically as I could, but yes, by themselves, they are still anecdotal. There are many factors, and I did not, could not, control for all of them. The experiments should be repeated under other environmental conditions.
Anyway, all I’m really saying is that if we think X affects how the beans cook, we should do some trials to test it.
Bob,
I used to live in Colorado at about 7000′. I cooked my beans in the oven then. Now I live near Lake Erie and I cook my beans in a pressure cooker. I like to let them go low and slow in my Staub or cazuela on the range, but if I’m really in the mood for that I soften them in the pressure cooker or oven first.
Our water is as hard as it gets. I’m going to have to try to distilled water method; great idea.
I used to soak my beans (and split peas) for a long time (12-24 hours). I thought that the bubbles meant they were losing what makes people gassy. Had no idea they might be sprouting!
The pressure cooking method is great when you feel like making beans and don’t have a lot of time. But for those of us who love the slow food method, I start them in the oven and bring them up to the range. I no longer soak them first either way.
I’ve got to say, discovering Rancho Gordo and their beautiful beans, I’ve never had hard ones and have had some of the best meals ever 😉
Now let’s all ladle some up and pour a glass of wine or beer!
Erin
I know I’m late to the conversation, but I thought I may have a little something to add to the jumble of thoughts already stated; I have noticed that when I am sprouting really good crop of beans for planting that they will often start sprouting internally in just a few hours. Once they do that, the bean becomes much harder, and can get really bitter too. Just a thought.
Although it’s certainly true that acid prevents beans from softening, this talk about holding the salt until the end of the cooking time is old wives’ tale hogwash. If you don’t believe me, I urge you to do the easy side-by-side experiment. Adding salt in the beginning of the boil slightly *accelerates* softening.
After experimentally invalidating Grandma’s un-tested bad advice about when to add the salt, I embraced the Cooks Illustrated advice of brining the beans overnight in a quart of water with 2Tb kosher salt. It’s foolproof. Velvety goodness every time. After reading this thread, I’m starting to wonder whether the secret of the brine is actually that the salt is inhibiting the germination process. I really think Steve is onto something with that idea. When I think about cooked mung bean sprouts, I’m realizing that the fully germinated beans stay crisp no matter how much you cook them.
Resurrection….. Throwing in my .02 cents: Was just googling “soaking beans for too long” and “Cooking slightly fermented, over-soaked beans”. I kept reading how they don’t soften up and was about to dump them when my brain shouted “HEY! Don’t do that! Give it a try!”. So I did. For reference and comparison purposes for others who might venture down the “fermented, over-soaked bean” route, I soaked them with some liquid smoke added to the water overnight. The next day I then left the house expecting to be home that evening to cook them. As a single dude with no immediate obligations, plans changed and I ended up staying where I was for 2 days…. Yayyyyy single life!!! When I got home I realized I had forgotten about the beans. Then I googled.
I rinsed them of the foam really well and threw them into the Instant Pot for 20 minutes on high pressure with some onion and garlic, cumin, pepper, jalapeno and salt. As I type this, I’m eating a delicious bowl of slightly fermented yet perfectly cooked Mayo Coba beans. I now wish I had threw in some bacon. YOLO