# Dried Bean Problems,HELP?



## Meerkat (May 31, 2011)

I was buying bags of beans from Winn Dixie ,last couple years I noticed they never get done,so I changed grocery store,now this problem is back with Publix,which usually has good Publix brand foods.
What has happened to the dried beans now?.You can cook them all day and they are still hard,like they are half way done or somerthing.!
I've never had this problem before with packaged beans.


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## stayingthegame (Mar 22, 2011)

try soaking the beans over nite. throw out the soaking water. this also helps with the gas. also light kidney beans cook easier than dark red.


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## JayJay (Nov 23, 2010)

If you have a Dollar General, I just picked up some great northern one day---their brand, Clover Valley...
They were the best white beans we've had in years----next visit, I bought several bags.
Didn't have a problem cooking; my problem was with the price!!!!!
$2.00 for beans????HELLO????


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## Clarice (Aug 19, 2010)

I have had this problem before. Now I can all my dried beans. Wash beans and look over them to get rid of any bad ones (the ones that float are not good), watch for small rocks that sometime get in the beans. Cover with water and heat. Can as you would fresh beans. Directions in your canning books. Good luck.


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## neldarez (Apr 10, 2011)

Meerkat said:


> I was buying bags of beans from Winn Dixie ,last couple years I noticed they never get done,so I changed grocery store,now this problem is back with Publix,which usually has good Publix brand foods.
> What has happened to the dried beans now?.You can cook them all day and they are still hard,like they are half way done or somerthing.!
> I've never had this problem before with packaged beans.


Hi Meerkat.........my beans take a very very long time to cook. I bring to boil the night before and then soak over night, still takes many many hours to make soft, get part way soft, but not all the way. I looked online and because my beans are old it takes this long to cook. It was their suggestion to bring to boil when I go to soak overnight..........I've had these beans for a little over 10 years, they taste just fine but I think I could cook them for 2 days!!!


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## TheAnt (Jun 7, 2011)

Im no dry bean expert but whenever I do beans I put them in the crock pot in the morning and let them cook all day.


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## OldCootHillbilly (Jul 9, 2010)

The older the bean the longer there gonna take ta cook.

A good long soak then I put em in a pot an bring ta a boil, then simmer after that. Some beans simply won't get soft, just the type a bean. Canned (store bought) beans usually done fresh, so they stay soft.

Hope that heps some.


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## tsrwivey (Dec 31, 2010)

Like others here, I've read the older a bean is, the longer it takes to cook. If the above suggestions don't work, you could always grind them & make refried beans. :2thumb:


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## Jimmy24 (Apr 20, 2011)

Yep, soak 'em over nite or all day, till they appear bloated or split. Then cook as usual. Cheaper to let soak than cook long time.

Jimmy


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## Journey (Feb 16, 2011)

We were having trouble with dried beans as well, but found adding baking soda to the soak water to help. This time it didn't. Perhaps we didn't leave them long enough. So we brought them almost to a boil then took them off the heat and let them soak ("quick soak method"). I think it ended up being a couple hours before we got to using them in our Three-Bean Turkey Chili. They *still* were not getting soft enough, so I added a teaspoon of baking soda right into the chili and turned the heat down and let it go longer than we originally planned to cook it. Turned out just great in the end. I think we might want to try canning some when/if we are able to get a pressure canner though.


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## efbjr (Oct 20, 2008)

I have tried the following and it seems to make the beans cook faster and helps eliminate an unfortunate social problem that comes from eating beans! 

De-gassing Beans, from Diana Mirkin's healthful recipes (mostly vegetarian), based on Dr. Gabe Mirkin's healthy lifestyle guidelines.

"If you're bothered by gas when you eat beans, try this simple cure for your problem. Put the beans in a large pot and cover them with water. Bring them to a boil and take them off the heat. This breaks the capsules surrounding the beans and allows stachyose, verbascose and raffinose, the gas-causing sugars, to escape into the water. Stir a teaspoon or so of baking soda into the water (to make it more alkaline) and let the beans soak overnight. Drain the soaking water off the beans and rinse them several times. (If you eat the soaking liquid, you will cause unbelievable discomfort for yourself and those around you). Then proceed with your recipe to cook the beans. "


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## Meerkat (May 31, 2011)

stayingthegame said:


> try soaking the beans over nite. throw out the soaking water. this also helps with the gas. also light kidney beans cook easier than dark red.


 Thanks Staying,but I always soak them,been cooking beans for over 50 years so its not me this time,haha. :dunno:
I'e never had this problem with beans,even if they were old ,they still cooked until done.


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## Meerkat (May 31, 2011)

JayJay said:


> If you have a Dollar General, I just picked up some great northern one day---their brand, Clover Valley...
> They were the best white beans we've had in years----next visit, I bought several bags.
> Didn't have a problem cooking; my problem was with the price!!!!!
> $2.00 for beans????HELLO????


 Jay,I'll check them out.:flower:


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## Meerkat (May 31, 2011)

Clarice said:


> I have had this problem before. Now I can all my dried beans. Wash beans and look over them to get rid of any bad ones (the ones that float are not good), watch for small rocks that sometime get in the beans. Cover with water and heat. Can as you would fresh beans. Directions in your canning books. Good luck.


 I was told you can't cook dried beans,this would be a really good thing if you can.


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## Meerkat (May 31, 2011)

EFBJR,Jimmy,Wivey,Coot Ive tried all this.
Do yall think maybe its the bean itself,maybe some scientific kind of fool got to adding something to it?I hope I live to get my garden done right and whoever lives after me can enjoy good food until the SHTF.I'm so tired of this newcropola they call food with everything from corpse hair to frankengenes in it.
Thanks all,I can't paste so I tried to bring soem down by names.
:flower:


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## Meerkat (May 31, 2011)

Naldaraz,Ant,thanks for the help.I will let yall know when I cook these beans again.:flower:


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## horseman09 (Mar 2, 2010)

Meerkat, it's the altitude. You live in Florida. You are 3 feet above sea level. Buy a shorter stove!  Ahem. Sorry.

Perhaps the beans weren't ripe when they were harvested? Just a guess, but I'd bet unripe dried beans would remain hard. :dunno:


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## OldCootHillbilly (Jul 9, 2010)

If all that ain't workin, it be the bean. Who knows where them beans come from anymore. We started grown our own ta dry this year, got several varities ta try. The ones we like were gonna plant more of next year. There heirlooms to, so seed won't be a problem.

Like some one else said, maybe grind em an use ta thicken some other dish's?


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## Meerkat (May 31, 2011)

horseman09 said:


> Meerkat, it's the altitude. You live in Florida. You are 3 feet above sea level. Buy a shorter stove!  Ahem. Sorry.
> 
> Perhaps the beans weren't ripe when they were harvested? Just a guess, but I'd bet unripe dried beans would remain hard. :dunno:


 Yea maybe!.I never had this problem with any beans in my life.Also I bought some can navy and lima beans about 5 years ago that did the same thing,they were hard in the middle.
How can you store up beans if you don't know if they are even beans anymore!
 I was going to buy some since I did'nt grow any.


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## Meerkat (May 31, 2011)

OldCootHillbilly said:


> If all that ain't workin, it be the bean. Who knows where them beans come from anymore. We started grown our own ta dry this year, got several varities ta try. The ones we like were gonna plant more of next year. There heirlooms to, so seed won't be a problem.
> 
> Like some one else said, maybe grind em an use ta thicken some other dish's?


 Coot if I can't cook the damn things,I sure don't want to eat em.
.i had planned on buying beans to store.:wave:


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## Momturtle (Nov 2, 2009)

If beans are too old many times they will not rehydrate and cook properly. It is not your technique, it is the beans. When buying dried beans at a grocery store, you are often better off going to a store where there is a high turnover of beans and are more likely to get "newer" beans. There are stores here where I know the beans have been on the shelf for years . . . a hard bean to cook. If you have beans like this, they are still perfectly edible (and nutritious) but you need to either grind them into flour and use them in soups/stews/chili or just set the grinder to crack them into chunks and then cook them as usual. They aren't as pretty but they are still good. A lot of beans do this, sprouting old mung beans can lead to "stone beans" and sometimes even alfalfa when it gets too old will leave little rock hard seeds.


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## Meerkat (May 31, 2011)

Hi Mom,are you the english cops wife'just kidding I like Turtle'.
:wave:.

I am thinking about buying beans by the bushel if we can't grow them.I can make a trip to N.Ga. to visit family and go to farmer market there.Beans seem to be finished here.


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## Momturtle (Nov 2, 2009)

When you buy fresh "dried beans" you need to make sure they are really dry before trying to store them long term. If you can shatter it to bits with a hammer, it should be dry enough to store, if it just kind of makes a sort of mashed and slightly cracked chunk, it needs to be dried longer. Nothing like opening a container of long term storage and finding a solid chunk of mold. Bleah!


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## goshengirl (Dec 18, 2010)

Momturtle said:


> When you buy fresh "dried beans" you need to make sure they are really dry before trying to store them long term. If you can shatter it to bits with a hammer, it should be dry enough to store, if it just kind of makes a sort of mashed and slightly cracked chunk, it needs to be dried longer. Nothing like opening a container of long term storage and finding a solid chunk of mold. Bleah!


I had no idea - thank you for this info.


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## Meerkat (May 31, 2011)

Momturtle said:


> When you buy fresh "dried beans" you need to make sure they are really dry before trying to store them long term. If you can shatter it to bits with a hammer, it should be dry enough to store, if it just kind of makes a sort of mashed and slightly cracked chunk, it needs to be dried longer. Nothing like opening a container of long term storage and finding a solid chunk of mold. Bleah!


 Especially after all the work you put into it.I may just go with fresh bens and can them,forget about dry beans.:wave:


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## Emerald (Jun 14, 2010)

This the thread you were looking for?


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## Meerkat (May 31, 2011)

Emerald said:


> This the thread you were looking for?


 LOL,yep this is it,thanks.:wave:


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## Riverdale (Oct 31, 2009)

horseman09 said:


> Meerkat, it's the altitude. You live in Florida. You are 3 feet above sea level. Buy a shorter stove!  Ahem. Sorry.
> 
> Perhaps the beans weren't ripe when they were harvested? Just a guess, but I'd bet unripe dried beans would remain hard. :dunno:


Horseman, unripe beans are soft  You need to soak overnight because they are dried , otherwise they would mold 

Never grew dry beans, but had neighbors that grew Great Northerns and Kidney beans.

It was real cool being able to buy 25# of kidney beans for $6


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## tommixx (Dec 10, 2012)

have you ever tried pressure cooker,soak over night and then pressure cook about 40 min. I use an 8 Qt. use plenty water in the cooker


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## JustCliff (May 21, 2011)

Are you adding salt when you begin to cook the beans? Salt will inhibit the bean from taking up water. I have done that before trying to save time. It just made a hard pot of beans. It may be your water. Try buying a gallon of drinking water from the store and make the beans using that water and see how they come out. 
That's all I have.


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## cowboyhermit (Nov 10, 2012)

I am very curious because I love dried beans. You tried adding baking soda? Adjusting the ph of the water can have a big effect, uncooked beans in a tomato sauce for instance can sit forever without getting soft. Municipal water supplies can vary quite a bit depending on what they add (chlorine, caustic soda) and what is in the source.
If regular cooking doesn't work a pressure cooker will. I have gotten OLD beans from people who never used them and in the pressure cooker it was no problem at all.


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## Clarice (Aug 19, 2010)

I saw on America's Test Kitchen the other day if you soak the beans over night is salt water this will soften the outside and the beans will cook more evenly. Soak in a brine, pour this off and can or cook following the directions.


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## Jimmy24 (Apr 20, 2011)

I also ran into a bag of pintos that would not get soft, just recently.

No problem. About 4 minutes on high in my pressure cooker and they will be as tender as you could want.....I love my pressure cooker....

Jimmy


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## rtierney (Aug 31, 2013)

I have had the same problem with Winn Dixie dried beans. I *never* had this problem with the dried beans I bought at Whole Foods Markets and at Giant Foods up in the mid-Atlantic area. Now I live in a Florida city with only Winn Dixie and Publix. They must cut corners by selling old dried-out beans. I am going to look for some smaller markets, or make road trips to buy beans. We soaked each Winn Dixie batch about 16 hours, then cooked/simmered 4 hours and they're still tough.


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## readytogo (Apr 6, 2013)

*5 minute beans.*

Soak beans over night with a tbsp. of baking soda, this helps with the fermentation or gas, rinse well and pressure cook them in fresh water, 5 minutes tops, then saved some of the water, season as per recipe and cook, if to thick add some of the reserved water if to watery add a shredded potato as thickener at the end with a shot of olive oil. All beans most be pre-soak before cooking, best way for lots of beans is a slow cooker over night with all seasoning except salt, precooking the beans in a pressure cooker will assured you of tender beans. Enjoy.


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