Please tell me about soaking beans

[IMGONNABE40!]

I bought a mess of pinto beans (years ago I had a roommate from Albuquerque and she said that beans are measured by the mess) and I know I should soak them. I just don't know the best method and how long I should let them soak. I know some people add vinegar to the water, others add beer? Okay, so I thought of the beer (hey--it is Friday night ).

So, how do you soak your beans, how long? Thanks

 

[Mimi Q]

Just put them in water to soak overnight. I have never heard of putting vinegar or beer in them.

 

[pjlla]

Fill a large pot with water... add the bean. You need a large volume of water, as they will soak up lots of it. Drain remaining liquid the next day and cook according to your recipe...That's it. Never heard of the vinegar or beer method!...................P

 

[nhrenee]

A shorter method to overnight soaking is to cover the beans with water, bring it to a boil for 3 minutes. Cover and let sit for an hour.

The overnight method is supposed to be better though for the vitamins.

 

[IMGONNABE40!]

Thanks everyone. I heard that the vinegar may take some of the gassiness out of the beans so that, well, the gassiness does not get into those who eat the beans .

 

[powellrj]

I have heard of adding baking soda when you cook the beans to make them less gassy, but never vinegar.

 

[Boots]

Whenever we have a ham with a bone in it, I always save the bone with some meat on it (in the freezer) to put in with the beans when they are cooking too. I soak mine overnight like the others. DH always wants corn bread when we have dried beans.

 

[FroggyinArk]

there is another shortcut to soaking beans if you dont want to leave them out over night,, you can add water in a glas sbowl and microwave them for about 15 min,, then let sit fo r15 or so and start cooking, can season with bacon, sausage ham,, any thing reallly,, i ussually will carmelize some garlic asnd onions in the bean pot first,, then add the water and beans after it seasoned the pot,, i add my sausages to teh oniob/garlic/ and butter,, then after thats all cooked i'll asddd the beans. and gotta have a black iron skillet full of cornbread,, real southern style corn bread

 

[tar heel]

I didn't know people in NM measured beans by the mess -- I thought that was a strictly Southern term! I hope you've not already put your pintos into soak b/c you first need to "look" them -- my granny's term there. This consists of picking up a handful and slowly moving them from one hand to the other while you look at them. Seriously, dried beans are harvested by machine and sometimes small rocks end up in the bag. I remove any little rocks and bad looking beans when I do this. I also rinse the beans in a colander before I put them into soak.

 

[IMGONNABE40!]

Gosh! i forgot all about picking out the rocks. It has been so long since I have used dry beans. Thanks for the reminder.