How to Soften Old Beans with Baking Soda - Rill's Specialty Foods (2024)
How Does Baking Soda Help Old Dried Beans?
Baking soda creates an alkaline environment which reduces soaking and cooking time and preserves the beans’ skin. As a result, the old bean’s color comes to life, keeping them vibrant instead of dull. Compared to the grainy texture offered by old beans, baking soda beans can yield a creamy and smooth texture.
Some critics of this method have dismissed using baking soda to soften old beans as they say it gives beans a “soapy” taste. In large amounts, this may be true, but a little baking soda goes a long way! When used correctly, the flavors of the beans really pop! They taste just as fresh as if you just brought them home from the farmer’s market!
Dried beans typically have a moisture content of around 16%. However, as they age, moisture evaporates, giving pectin time to age and harden the skin. These beans can often take much longer to soften while soaking and cooking, up to twice the time! Baking soda can help significantly since itincreases the pH of the water, disintegrating that pectin and allowing beans to soften quicker. Baking soda also removes minerals from hard water, which can prevent beans from hydrating as quickly. We have found that baking soda can do its magic in the soakingANDcooking stages of the process.
Well, creating an alkaline (or basic) environment by adding a small amount (about 1 teaspoon per cup of dry beans) of baking soda to your soaking/cooking water can actually help your beans cook faster.
If your beans are still hard after soaking overnight, you can try cooking them longer on the stove. Simmer them gently in water or broth until they reach your desired level of tenderness. Adding a pinch of baking soda to the cooking water can also help soften them more quickly.
Old beans will take longer to cook, and the oldest beans will stay tough and chewy no matter how long (within reason), they simmer. If you find yourself cooking soaked beans for more than two hours, and they just will not soften, it may be your beans...not you.
The baking soda helps break down some of the beans' natural gas-making sugars. I tested this while fixing one of my favorite slow cooker recipes: red beans and sausage. To degas with baking soda, add a teaspoon of baking soda to 4 quarts of water. Stir in the dried beans and bring to a boil.
Heat to boiling; boil for 2–3 minutes. Remove from heat, cover, and soak for up to 4 hours. Hot soaking is the preferred method since it reduces cooking time, helps dissolve some of the gas-causing substances in beans, and most consistently produces tender beans.
Modern cooking websites often say it doesn't matter. In a way, they're both right. Soaking beans can help improve the texture of the final product once the beans are cooked and reduce the gas produced when the food is being digested. But it isn't necessary to soak them.
On the other side of the pH equation, the addition of an alkali such as baking soda will break down the cell structure of the beans. But use it sparingly—no more than1/8 teaspoon per pound of beans. Too much will destroy nutrients and result in mushy beans.
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