Master Dry Beans: No More Mushy, Uneven Beans
00:00 Intro
01:11 Lectins and Bean Safety
04:09 My beans are all broken up
05:08 I’ve cooked my beans forever, but some are still hard
06:20 Perfect chickpeas (with baking soda presoak)
07:48 I don’t have time to baby-sit a pot of simmering beans
08:54 Pressure cooking beans
10:12 No soak beans at 195F
13:37 The Giant Beans example (using every method covered by this video)
15:30 How to store beans (fridge and freezer options)
Nik Sharma’s article in Seriouseats.com about baking soda soak:
https://www.seriouseats.com/baking-soda-brine-for-beans-5217841
Food Science article about lectins and temperature/time combinations that destroy them:
https://ift.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1365-2621.1983.tb14831.x
Baking Soda Soak:
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36g salt
10g baking soda
2 L (about 8 cups) cold to room temp water
1 Lb beans
In a large bowl, mix the salt, baking soda, and salt. Add the beans and soak overnight. Drain, rinse, and cover with fresh water by 2 inches for cooking. I salt the cooking water at this point (about 1 Tbsp Diamond Crystal Kosher or 1.5 tsp Table salt), but if you are sensitive to salt, you can wait until closer to the end of cooking.
Instant Pot Cooking Times on Pressure Cooker High Setting
With Baking Soda and Salt Overnight Soak:
Chickpeas: 25 min
Black beans: 18 min
Pinto beans: 18 min
Kidney beans: 20 min
Giant beans: 40 min
Instant Pot Cooking Times on Pressure Cooker High Setting
Without Overnight Soak (if skipping presoak, salt the cooking water generously):
Chickpeas: 50 min
Black beans: 35 min
Pinto beans: 35 min
Kidney beans: 45 min
Giant beans: 1 hour 20 min
Cooking beans at 195F:
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1 Lb dry beans
2 L (about 8 cups) cold to room temp water
12.6 g salt = 1.5 Tbsp Diamond Crystal Kosher or 2 1/4 tsp Table salt
(in the video, I made a mistake and called for 8.5g salt)
Put the beans, water, and salt in a pot that can maintain 195F (+/- 5F is fine). My old Instant Pot Duo could do it on Slow Cooker High setting. My new Instant Pot Pro does it on Sous-vide 190F setting (it’s not really 190, it’s 196 🙂 The first time you do it, check the temperature at 2 hour intervals. You don’t need to watch it for the whole cooking time. If it’s doing well after 2, 4, and 6 hours, it’s likely to continue with the correct temperature.
Cooking Times at 195F:
Cannellini and other delicate white beans: 7 hours
Pinto, black, and most other beans: 12 hours
Giant beans: 15 hours
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37 Comments
I love how the comments are quickly filling up with more myths and anecdotes.
thank you so much!!!!
Beans are best cooked in ceramic, not metal. Unglazed ceramic is best.
My kidney beans turned out perfect! Baking soda and salt overnight brine. Thank you!
Thanks for this video!
pls have kids. we need more yous in the world! have kids!!!
Such excellent instruction. As alwasys, good cooks become better cooks listening to you.
First time I have heard an explanation about why often, but not always, beans especially yellow chick peas but not so usually black beans, give violent cramps 15-20 minutes after eating.
No wonder I don't cook beans…
Where have you bean all my life??
I had dried lupins that were in the pantry for about 7 years that were hard as diamond. It needed an overnight soak and blasting in a pressure cooker for 90 min.
Thx from nz
For the most part I like them mushy and firm too. Only for certain dishes do I want them not mushy and of an even tenderness and whole. Like a salad or some such. Don't buy them canned for that reason unless I am making a specific dish.
One of the things I like about making beans, is some break down making the water thick. With the right seasoning, it tastes very hearty. I forget what other ethnicity cooking breaks down some of the good to thicken the sauce.
Great video!
What do you think about using potassium carbonate as the alkali instead of baking soda?
I learn SO MUCH from you! Thank you. Spassiba!
I really appreciate and can see all the effort you put into producing your videos and love how your videos are gentle to beginners and accessible and not overly complicated! Your lessons are always nurturing and easy to understand. Thank you! 💜
I've recently become a bean-aholic and I'm in love with Rancho Gordo beans. I just made soup with Rancho Gordo lima beans and they were not starchy or pasty at all.
Do you not recommend the sous vide method for chickpeas regardless of a baking soda soak? Thanks for such detailed and helpful information!
This channel is a gift to the world. So many food YouTubers act like they're trying to make things easy but they just want you to know that they hold the keys to this secret world of forbidden arcane knowledge, and they don't bother to actually explain concepts at work. So I can only make their recipe because I haven't actually gained any knowledge. You on the other hand patiently and humbly take the time to explain why things happen so I actually go forward with knowledge that can be used in other contexts. You have given me the greatest and sweetest gift in the whole world: the opportunity to really and truly learn from someone else's painstakingly won wisdom. Kudos. And thank you.
Hi, Helen! I have been soaking my beans with salt for years. About a six months ago I started adding small amounts of baking soda because I read that it could help decrease gas production (It does seem to reduce overall discomfort.). I found that it also makes the skins of my beans softer and the beans themselves creamier. I've always cooked my dry beans in the pressure cooker. I've recently started trying various sous vide techniques so I'm super excited to try cooking beans this way–especially if it decreases gas production even more. My family seems to have particularly hale and hearty microbiomes are very enthusiastic about beans. Heh. Great video!
I live to grow runner beans. I wonder if I can grow giant beans in central Massachusetts. Anybody have advice? Thanks
i never understood the relationship how long you let beans soak vs how you cook them and this was really helpful
i truly learn so much from this channel, perfect mix of practical instructions and context to understand how to adapt the instructions depending on your situation and needs
From Chicago, I love you !!
NO ONE is as thoughtful and thorough as you! Thank you for the perfect patient explainer that covers so many methods. I've always had trouble cooking beans from dry, often ending up with some chalky centers (probably because they're often already old at the grocery store… I swear sometimes I see the same bags in the same spots week to week D:). I'm excited to give these methods a try!
Made a batch of beans in the sous-vide, in a jar. 1tsp salt, for about a cup of water, 90.5c for 24 hours: they came out fabulous!!! Like Heinz baked beans without the added tomato paste or sugar. Wow!!!
Highly recommend doing the chickpeas exactly like she say; they came out fantastic and mine were older. I would just use less salt in the cooking process next time. Thank you so much!!! 😊
I love this chanel! So informative, and your voice+cadence is very captivating and relaxing to me 😊 thankyou for sharing information in the way you do, it makes home cooking seem much less intimidating and much more approachable for the average person! Your teaching style is really appreciated in a world where a lot of other cooks are more about putting goldflake on everything than actual cooking guidance 💕
Baking soda in the soak water is enough to soften the beans if you don't mind splitting. I throw out the soak water and cook no salt for health reasons.
If you don't use a slow cooker, manufacturers directions say 2/3 full. Full slow cooker is failure. I was so disappointed cooking chili for at least 2 hours on high to the rim and having tough beans. After a meal, the remainder softened up.
Alkaline pH breaks down the pectins in the cell wall that make the beans so hard. Baking soda helps make the solution alkaline.
After I retired I worked in school kitchens a few years; we put dry pinto beans in those large hotel pans (I've forgotten the measurements), added the salt and seasonings, covered with water to just below the pan rim, then covered them with parchment paper and foil sealing the edges and left them cooking overnight at a low temp in the convection ovens. The kitchen manager would come in earlier than everyone else in the morning to check them and would add water if needed to cook longer or remove from the oven and place in the warmer. I was always amazed how good those beans were after all the beans I cooked on the stove at home and having to babysit them.
This was in an area with hard water.
So much great information!
Love this work! Thank you. One note: many of us live at higher altitudes where water boils at ever-lower temps, making the 195°F goal very difficult or impossible to reach. For many bean types, pressure cooking is the easiest (and sometimes only) method at high alt. But cannellini & white beans still end up blown out and mushy. Your video gave me a new idea: I used my Instant Pot, with the pressure gasket lid installed, and did your sous vide trick at 195°F. This made the pressure button pop up/seal, which in turn allowed the internal temp to make it all the way to 195°F but without the usual blowout problems of full-on pressure cooking. Brilliant!
Miss Helen! I discovered your channel very recently and have been binging your videos, I've learned so much and feel like I'm ready to tackle things in the kitchen I thought unattainable just a few weeks ago. But I do have a question for you and it's sadly unrelated to this video, it's about pesto. I watched the video on pesto that you made some time ago but every single time I try making it on my processor, the basil turns so unbelievable bitter it's inedible, no matter how many things I add to try to fix it. Texture is fine since I'm following your procedure. I'm no chemist but I know there has to be some compound in the basil that turns bitter after excessive friction with metallic parts (like the food processor blades). Through testing I've managed to develop a pasta sauce using the same ingredients but with the addition of boiling hot pasta water, which wilts the basil and prevents that bitter taste from forming, but since this only works when I'm making pesto for pasta (and it does deprive the sauce of some of its freshness), I wanted to know if you've ever encountered this problem and how did you work through it. I know this also happens if you chop onions in the processor which is likely due to the onion's sulfur, but since I always chop onions by hand it's not an issue as much as the basil is. Thank you for being my teacher these past 2 weeks, I can never repay you haha
soak + boil at low heat is my go-to, i've tried almost every tip in this video, but that one's just convenient and works for my go-to legumes (giant beans, black beans, chick peas, kidney beans, i also do it for black lentils). yes, it's not super fast but i can wait an hour when making lunch; also, FWIW i think the mechanism behind baking soda is the same as for potatoes, so the opposite should also be possible: adding an acid like lemon juice when cooking should make beans retain their structure better. (never cooked cannelini beans though, so i haven't tried it)
great technique video as always!