Soaking beans in salt water
Soak dried beans 8 to 12 hours in water with about 1 tablespoon of salt per liter. Sodium takes the place of calcium in the skin's pectin and loosens it. The beans cook evenly, with fewer split skins and less toughness.
Add acid last
Tomatoes, wine, vinegar and lemon slow the softening of beans, and a pot with acid can stay firm for hours. Boil the beans hard for the first 10 minutes (kidney beans need that boil to be safe), then simmer in plain water until fully tender. Then add the acid and simmer 10 to 15 minutes more.
Test yourself
Questions from the interactive lesson, with the answer and the why.
You soak dried beans overnight in salted water. What is the main benefit?
Softer skins and a creamier middle. Sodium loosens the pectin in the skin, so the beans soften evenly.
True or false: Adding tomatoes or vinegar at the start of cooking can keep beans from getting tender.
True. Acid firms the pectin in bean skins, so wait until the beans are soft.
What went wrong? You simmer dried beans in tomato sauce from the start. After three hours they're still hard.
The tomato acid kept the skins firm. Acid firms pectin, so the skins stayed hard. Cook the beans in plain water first.
Fill the blank: Salt in a bean soak swaps calcium for sodium, which helps the skins turn ___.
Salt in a bean soak swaps calcium for sodium, which helps the skins turn tender. Sodium loosens the pectin, which softens the skins.
A bag of dried beans is three years old and still hard after 3 hours of simmering. Why?
Years of storage toughened the skins and cells. Old beans resist water and heat, so they stay firm even after hours.
Salted vs plain bean soak
Does salt toughen or soften?
Do the 45-minute experiment
