Loading…
3
My coworker Dana bet me $20 that dried beans could beat canned and she was right
Dana kept telling me to stop buying canned beans at $1.19 a can and grab a $1.50 bag of dried pintos instead, but I figured soaking them overnight was too much hassle. I finally tried it for a pot of chili two Sundays ago and got about 6 cans worth out of one bag, so I've basically cut $30 a month off my grocery run. Is there a trick to keeping the beans from getting mushy on day two, or should I just cook smaller batches?
1 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In1 Comment
spencer_owens5812d ago
Did you salt the soaking water or the cooking water? That's the thing that gets people every time, because salt in the soak actually helps the skins stay firm while the inside softens up, but if you add it too early in the cook with an acid like tomatoes you're asking for trouble. Chili is the worst case for this since you've got all that tomato in there breaking the beans down on day two. Try cooking the beans plain in salted water first, then add them to the chili when it's almost done, and keep them in their own liquid in the fridge instead of swimming in the sauce overnight. Also how long are you actually simmering them, because 6 cans worth is a big pot and the ones at the bottom are going to keep cooking from the leftover heat. Smaller batches fix it too but then you're back to cooking every few days, so I'd rather just nail the timing.
4