Guide to Cooking Dry Beans, Part 1: To Soak or Not to Soak (2024)

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Do you have to soak beans before cooking them? We look into different dry bean soaking methods, and what happens if you don't soak beans before cooking.

Welcome to my dry bean cooking series! This started as a simple post about the best way to prepare dry beans. I quickly realized, however, that there was a crazy amount of information to learn and test about this subject. To help you be fully informed (that's a goal here at The Incredible Bulks), I've decided to break this down into a series of posts. There will be posts explaining the different methods of cooking dry beans, as well as posts about the experiments I did to test those methods. By the end, we'll all be bean geniuses. Now that's something you can put on a resume!

​How to Cook Dried Beans Series

Part 1: To Soak or Not to Soak (you are here)

Part 2: How to Cook Your Beans Quickly

Part 3: Different Cooking Methods (stove top, instant pot, crock pot, etc)

Part 1: Soaking Dry Beans

It is often suggested that before dry beans are cooked, they need to be soaked in water. Soaking the beans helps to soften them before cooking, which then drastically cuts down on cooking time for the beans. For example, the instructions that came with my Instant Pot say to cook dry beans for 25 minutes, and only 8 minutes for soaked dry beans.

For this post, I tried out different soaking methods to see what the differences between the cooking processes would be and if I could determine a preferred method.

Soaking Dry Bean Methods

In my research, I found 3 different methods people use to pre-soak their beans. They are:

Long, Hot Soak

Beans are covered in several inches of water and are boiled together in a large pot for 2-3 mins. The pot is then covered with a lid and left to soak for 4 hours. Beans are then drained and cooked in fresh cooking liquid.

Quick, Hot Soak

Beans and water are boiled together for 2-3 mins, then covered and soaked for only 1 hour. They are then drained and cooked.

Traditional Method

Beans are covered in cold, clean water and soaked for at least 8 hours, often left for an overnight soak. Beans are then drained and then cooked the next day.

Testing the Soaking Methods Out

For the first round of our test, we used dried black beans cooked in the Instant Pot (pressure cooker), all for the same amount of time--6 minutes at high pressure. We tried out 3 different ways of soaking the beans: 8 8-hour cool water soak, 4-hour hot soak, and a 1-hour hot soak. We also did a batch of beans that had not been soaked and cooked them for 22 minutes. The purpose was to see how the different soaking methods affected the appearance, texture, and taste of the dried black beans.

Appearance

It may be difficult to tell from the photo, but the beans that were not soaked ended up being a darker color and had less splitting than all of the beans that had been soaked. All of the beans that were soaked had a similar amount of beans that split.

Texture

The beans that had been soaked in hot water were more evenly cooked than the beans that had not been soaked or the beans that had been soaked in cold water. However, there was no detectable difference between the beans that had soaked in hot water for 4 hours versus the beans that had soaked for 1 hour.

The beans that had not soaked, and the beans that had an 8-hour cold soak both had a bit of a chewier skin, while the inside of the bean was very tender. The chewier skin was not significant enough to make the beans unpleasant, however.

Taste

The beans that had not been soaked were very slightly more flavorful than the beans that had been soaked. The difference, however, was not big enough to be significant.

Stove Top Test

Because the results from the Instant Pot were so similar, we decided to try out another cooking method. For the 2nd round of our test, we cooked beans on the stovetop. We tried one pot of beans that had not been soaked, and one pot of beans that had been hot soaked for 4 hours.

The major difference between the two pots was the cooking time. The soaked beans cooked for 1 hour and 13 minutes, while the unsoaked beans took 2 hours and 6 minutes

So, do you have to soak beans before cooking them?

Well, honestly, the answer is no.

From a taste standpoint, soaking dry beans is not necessary. The texture of the beans was basically the same, whether soaked or not. They both result in tender beans. While there is a difference, it is small enough not to matter.

The real benefit of soaking beans comes down to cooking time. Soaked beans cook significantly faster than unsoaked beans.

However, the different soak times and water temperatures seem to result in similar beans, so you can use the soaking method that works best for your time frame.

So if you have a lot of time earlier in the day, and less time later, then soaking is for you! Otherwise, I really wouldn't stress about doing a pre-soak. The results will basically be the same.

Frequently Asked Questions

Are you surprised about the results of our test? Let me know what you think in the comments!

Sources and Further Reading on Soaking Dry Beans

So You Like Flavor? Don't Soak Your Black Beans!

Don't Soak Your Dried Beans! Now Even the Cool Kids Agree

The Traditional Four-Step Method to Bean Soaking

How to Cook Dried Beans (the Tastiest Beans of All, if You Ask Us)

Up Next: Dry Beans and When to Add Salt.

Part 2 of our cooking dry beans series is where we learn all about how to cook beans quicker.

Favorite Bean Recipes