Kuner’s brand is my go-to for canned chili beans in sauce. Usually I buy the black beans “in cumin and chili spices.” They work well as a weeknight shortcut for nachos and butternut squash chili.
Kuner’s is from the same parent company (Faribault Foods) as the S & W beans you mention. If I ever see S & W at my grocer, I’ll do a side-by-side taste test for the fun of it.
That makes me wonder if they’re the same product, but labeled differently for the East and West, similar to Hellman’s/Best Foods? I haven’t seen Kuner’s in the markets around here @tomatotomato. But the black beans of which you speak sound delicious.
Cooking in alcohol toughens the outer layer of vegetable matter, adding to the cooking time, according to Lidia Bastianich.
Agreed. I was talking about wine for the cook. grin I think Ms. Bastianich would concur.
I always like to season beans with salt at the beginning. Just taste better to me when the salt penetrates the beans early on in the cooking process
So- what should I do to soften navy beans that had tomato added too soon? I had soaked them 24 h, and simmered them around an hour, but maybe my water wasn’t simmering the whole time.
I’ve tried simmering them longer.
Should I add baking soda? Any other tricks? I could refry them, but they contain celery and carrots.
Recently, I cooked some of those old dried navy beans. After the usual soak and 2 hour simmer, they were still inedible. 20 minutes in the pressure cooker took care of the problem much to my delight and they made a delicious Senate Bean Soup.
We’re big fans of New Orleans style red beans and rice. I always simmer red kidney beans in a salty broth with all the vegs and seasoning, until “creamy”, at least 4 hours.
Answer for me is always the pressure cooker.
(I avoid baking soda if I can, because I can alway taste it later, no matter how minute the quantity.)
I tried everything. Overnight soaking slow slow cooking you name it. I’m going to tan now. Life is too short to worry about beans.
IMHO, it depends entirely on the age of the bean. That, besides provenance, is why Rancho Gordo’s beans enjoy such a good reputation. “This year’s” beans cook in a short time; some of the 10 year old beans in my pantry take 4 hours. So you cook a bean until it is tender.
To paraphrase the cliche, it’s not you, it’s the bean. Additions while cooking have very little to do with cooking time.
I don’t think salt has a negative effect, but acid from tomatoes seemed to have a negative effect on some beans I tried to cook.
They never softened up. I should have waited until they were soft, to add the tomato.
I’m avoiding some brands now, but I am enjoying the beans cooked from scratch more and more as I get better at soaking & cooking them.
Yes, I know all that. I’m saying I don’t care anymore. I don’t want to take a chance on buying old beans. I’m not a gourmand. I just like nice, juicy, plump beans. For that, I’ll open a can, and forgo the pseudo-authenticity of cooking them for 10 hours.
I like that. I still find it hard to get pigeon peas locally, but that would be my choice.
Cooks Illustrated experimented with brining beans and found that the best way of seasoning them. I can’t remember what they are called, but there are two teensy “navels” on a dry bean, which open during a salt water brine, enabling the salt to penetrate the bean’s “flesh”. Boiling water won’t allow the navels to open, and both salt and acid toughen the skin, so the interior takes a prolonged time to soften, if it ever does.
Acids toughen the skins of cooked produce, so it’s best not to add acidic ingredients until late in the cooking process.
I was in your camp for decades. Then I bought some Peruvian beans from a vendor at our local flea market. They were apparently new crop and cooked up in a matter of minutes. I know that they are predictable, which as you say is what one wants when planning on beans. So, yes, unless I am sure of the age of beans, I prefer to reach for a reliable can.
OTOH, I also like procrastinating, so an overnight brining is almost always what I do. And since I bring my pigeon peas from my MIL in Atlanta to California in my suitcase, I prefer dried.
Another source regarding brining dried beans, “an alkaline environment” (baking soda), and cooking dried beans in the oven.
I am such a procrastinator that overnight soaking is problematic. I almost always use the fast “bring to a boil, let boil 10 minutes, turn off heat and let soak for an hour” method, Works for me.
Understood. Perhaps I am a different kind of procrastinator. I get to feel like I’m getting things done. Soaking, marinating, brining, maceration, dry rubbing, sous viding; that sort of thing. Never in a hurry.
I’m often a spur of the moment kinda cook. So I’m often cooking beans without the over night soak. I do salt my water when cooking beans
