That whole thing about soaking beans....an update.

Interesting article.

Don't soak your dried beans! Now even the cool kids agree

Pretty scientific in a shade-tree kitchen sort of way.

Notice the comment near the bottom about the taste from an Aluminum cookpot. If you can taste it, you're eating it. Aluminum is bad for your health in several different ways.

One of the wisest moves I ever made was a total ban on Aluminum cookware forty years ago. I think it greatly prolonged my period of almost godlike physical perfection. Up until last week, anyway.

Cooking in cast iron, BTW, provides traces of iron that the body needs. They pulled all the old cast iron pots out of an orphanage in Indonesia a zillion years ago, and thereafter the kids started getting sick.

Iron deficiency anemia, I think it was. They brought all the old ironware back, and the problem went away.

 

+1 for the old iron!

 

I changed out my GI canteen cups from aluminium to stainless steel years ago. No problem there.
I cannot recall Dad or Mom ever soaking dry beans overnight. They always did the long boil. Never a problem with gassiness.

 

I was raised to soak beans over night with some baking soda to help cut down on the gaseous issue. The article says that is an old wives tale and that soaking reduces the flavor. Very interesting article.

 

I soak mine. Less cooking time, uses less fuel

 

Never soaked mine as my 88 yr old mother never had either and she grew up in the 1930's Depression, she was cooking since she was 7 to 8 years old on the farm. I get a few cups of water to boiling, throw in the how many cups of beans I'm gonna cook, let that boil maybe 5 minutes and then set the pot in the sink and throw in a couple tablespoons of baking soda, bubbles up like mad. Rinse a couple of times in HOT water and add my beans back into hot water to cook with whatever. My dh who wouldn't eat beans before he met me because he didn't like the gas issue in his insides, he has never had a problem with the ones I have cooked over the last 42 years.

 

Pressure cooker, ftw. 30 minutes and done

 

Cider vinegar will eliminate the gas problem.
In public restaurant I add catsup which has white vinegar and that deals with the gas issue. on potatoes and beans.

 

^^^ This is the only way to go...no soaking necessary!