Saturday, February 28, 2009

Cooking Beans

Soaking and cooking beans before mixing with other recipe ingredients helps to get the right tenderness and can minimize final cooking time.

Overnight soaking:
For each 1 lb. dried beans, dissolve 2 teaspoons salt in 6 cups of cold water. Wash beans, add to salted water, and soak overnight.

Quick soaking:
For each 1 lb. dried beans, bring 8 cups of water to boil. Wash beans, add to boiling water, and boil for 2 minutes. Remove from heat, cover, and soak 1 hour.

To cook soaked beans:
For each 1 lb. dried beans, dissolve 2 teaspoons salt in 6 cups hot water, and bring to a boil. Add soaked beans and boil gently, uncovered, adding water if needed to keep beans covered, until tender. Yield 6 to 7 cups.

To cook old hard beans:
Wash and sort to remove any discolored beans or foreign material. For each cup of dry beans, add 2 1/2 cups of hot tap water and 2 teaspoons of baking soda and soak overnight. Drain and rinse two times, then add water to cover and cook until tender and soft, adding more water if necessary.

Adding a tablespoon of oil will cut down on foam as beans cook. Rapid boiling and frequent stirring causes the skins of the beans to break, so simmer slowly and don't stir unless necessary. Stored beans should be rotated regularly. They continue to lose moisture and will not reconstitute satisfactorily if kept too long.

WHITE BEANS REPLACE FAT
IN MOST BAKING


Method 1: Cover beans with water and cook until very soft. Mash until they are the consistency of shortening (use blender). Substitute in recipes cup for cup. Example: If recipe calls for 1 cup of margarine, use 1 cup of mashed beans. Liquid may be added to adjust the consistency. Mashed beans do not keep long in the fridge, so freeze them.

Method 2: Grind beans in your wheat grinder. Store in air-tight container. Replace fat in the recipe cup for cup as above. You will need to add liquid since the ground beans will be part of the dry ingredients.

DIRECTIONS FOR REFRIED BEANS

Add 1 cup dried refried beans to 3/4 cup boiled water, stir briefly, and cover. Allow to sit for 10 minutes. More water may be added for a thinner consistency. Makes about 2 servings.

(Source: "Basic Food Storage Cookbook", South Jordan Utah River Stake, 2003, pg. 11)

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I have enjoyed going through your preparedness web site. Good job!

On your page regarding using dried beans for fat replacement ( http://preparednessnibblesandbits.blogspot.com/search/label/White%20Beans%20Replace%20Fat%20in%20Most%20Baking) may I suggest that you add the following:

After grinding beans in a stone wheat grinder the beans will tend to gum up' the stones. Grinding a cup of dried corn after grinding beans will de-glaze the stones. This is not as much of a problem in a steel grinder, but the corn will still be effective in cleaning the grinding surfaces.

Also, it may not be clear to inexperienced that you are suggesting to grind DRIED beans.

Bean flour can also be added to waffles, pancakes, cookies, bread and most other baked goods to increase the protein content; adding beans to recipes containing grains turns the proteins into complete proteins.
regards,
margo