On 2015-12-18, KenK > wrote:

> When I make soup or whatever with dry beans, I normally soak them in the
> refrigerator overnight. What if I just go ahead with the recipe without
> soaking?
>
> Difference in taste? I suspect not.
>
> Lomger cooking time? Probably. But how much longer? One hour? Two hours?
> Depends on the bean type? How about northerns?
>
> It would be nice to use dry beans in a recipe and only have a plan a few
> hours earlier rather than the preceding day. Or is that just me?

One of my fave subjects and I'm a fanatical advocate of NOT soaking.

Beans WILL cook jes fine without soaking. I do it all the time. In
fact, I prefer not to soak certain thick-skinned beans like lima beans
and kidney beans. Why? Glad you asked.

When you soak beans, the pulp/meat of the bean absorbs more water than
the skins. This means the pulp/meat of the bean is finished cooking
before the skins have had time to properly cook. This is entirely a
personal preference, but I don't like the thick skins on lima and
kidney beans, so I do NOT soak them, AT ALL! Then, when I put the dry
(unsoaked) beans on boiling hot water, the skins tend to cook first.
Really! Lima bean and kidney bean skins become very soft, almost
diaphanous, long before the pulp/meat is soft and cooked.

OTOH, despite all my ranting (fer yrs), I recently tasted some dried
Navy (Northern?) beans that had been pre-soaked. They were excellent
and the skins were perfict. So much for my long advocated cooking
technique. I suspect it has to do with the type of dried bean. The
jury is still out on this one.

BTW, most restos do NOT soak. Too time consuming. Also, a lot has to
do with elevation. I usta live 150 ft above sea level. Took about
1-1/2 hrs to cook a lb of dried beans. I now live at 8K ft elev and
it takes about 3-4 hrs to boil a lb of dried beans. 8|

nb