Wayne Boatwright wrote:

> On Tue 29 May 2018 03:32:40a, songbird told us...
>
> > Terry Coombs wrote:
> > ...
> >> Â* You are wrong on every single point you mentioned ...
> >
> > i've cooked dry beans thousands of times and they
> > come out fine. i suspect the cook doesn't know what
> > he's doing if they come out poorly that often that
> > they can be called a crapshoot.
>
> It's rude and a rash statement to point a finger at a cook to say
> they don't t know what they're doing if their beans come out poorly.
>
> I have always had success when cooking dried blackeyed peas, crowder
> peas and split peas. However, after countless attempts at cooking
> any other dried bean I always end up with something that is
> practically inedible.
>
> After trying many recipes and followiing many tips, any other beans
> I've tried end up with either tough skins, hard as a rock, mealy
> texture, etc. I've tried a quick-soak, pvernight soak, sometimes
> adding baking soda, long slow cooking at a bare simmer, boiling, etc,
> and I could go on and on, but still no success.
>
> > i've never have canned beans that were better than
> > fresh cooked from dry, but that is because i dislike
> > additives and off tastes that comes from many
> > containers. beans put up in glass jars at least do
> > not have as many off tastes but they still often have
> > added salt and other preservatives i don't like.
>
> Whether or not you like canned beans is besides the point. Evidently
> you have some technique that yields perfecct results. Why not share
> it instead of criticizing others?
>
> After all, you must be queen of the bean!

Hi Wayne, Missed a lot of threads (my Mother passed away last week). I
kept this one though.

That is interesting! I've almost never had any type of bean fail
except the occasional Pinto or Kidney bean. In those cases, I think
the beans were really old (and possibly mis-stored) as normally they
work fine.

I pretty much have one universal method for them. Lots of water in a
crockpot on low (Technically the kidneys are supposed to be boiled for
30 minutes first due to something in them). No salt (or very little)
at the start.

That said, there's nothing all that wrong with canned beans. They tend
to additives I don't prefer but they are fast and easy to work with. I
do use canned black beans because it's easy to keep the colors distinct
and heat them separately then add to a dish.

Here's a scetch of a recipe I make from time to time with them (an cans
are fine for this but I'd have made dried and frozen excess):

Knock off 'Wedding Soup'

Start with 2 quarts of chicken broth

1/2C dry brown rice
1/4C dry black rice
1/4C dry red lentils
1/2C dry white Navy beans
1/4C butterbeans (large dried Limas)
1/2C whole dried green peas
3/4-1lb mini sausage balls
1C loose packed Asian Spinach leaves, left whole
1/2C canned black beans, rinsed

Ok, very approximate there but the beans if not leftover frozen, would
all get cooked the day before, together (except the black beans). Then,
they get sifted out. The mix in the bean pot is roughly that above so
'one part each White Navy Beans and whole dried peas and 1/2 part each
red lentils and butterbeans'. Lift out 1.5 cups with a slotted spoon
and add to the chicken broth with all the rest except the black beans.

Nuke the black beans to warm and add at serving time to each bowl.

The asian spinach leaves just look cool in the soup as they are like
blades of 6-7inch long grass on a stem. They taste just like any other
spinach.