INGREDIENTS

INSTRUCTIONS

Perhaps no other factor in bean cookery is more controversial than
whether beans should be soaked, and if so, how to soak them properly
before cooking. "What??", you say, "Soak the beans?" Perhaps you've
been cooking them for years without soaking because many cooks do,  but
it's a fact that before those beans can really start cooking,  they
must rehydrate--the purpose of soaking.  Since a bean contains only
about 15% moisture in the dry form and  rehydrates to about 60%
moisture when fully cooked, you can see it  has to soak up a lot of
water. If you fail to soak the beans first,  some of your cooking time
(and energy expense) is wasted while the  beans rehydraate. So our
recommendation is, SOAK the beans  first--especially the denser
varieties such as kidneys, pinks and  small whites.  Another important
factor about soaking beans is that if you use the  preferred hot-soak
method described ([below]), and let the beans soak  for at least four
hours before pouring off the soak water, you should  find the beans
cause less problems in your digestive tract. During  the hot-soak
process, many of the undigestible, soluble sugars in  beans (a partial
cause of gas problems) are dissolved into the soak  water and go down
the drain with the water. Afraid of throwing away  some valuable
nutrients? Don't be. Scientists tell us that no  significant amounts of
essential nutrients are lost. Further, the  protein and carbohydrates,
the main nutritional reason people eat  beans in the first place, are
not disturbed. And certainly, for most  people the discomfort avoided
and the improvement in flavor gained by  discarding the soak water are
much more important than the  insignificant loss of nutritional
benefits.  HOT-SOAK (Preferred) METHOD and QUICK-SOAK METHOD  For each
pound of California dry beans, any variety, add 10 cups hot  water.
Remember, beans will rehydrate to at least twice their dry  size, so be
sure to start with a large enough pot. (Note: Up to 2  teaspoons of
salt per pound of beans may be added to help the beans  absorb water
more evenly.) Heat to boiling, let boil two to three  minutes. Remove
from heat, cover and set aside for at least one hour.  (Quick-Soak
Method), but preferably four hours or more.  The longer  soaking time
is recommended to allow a greater amount of sugars to  dissolve, thus
helping the beans to be more easily digested. Whether  you soak the
beans for an hour or several hours, discard the soak  water.  From
"Cooking with California Dry Beans" published by the California  Dry
Bean Advisory Board, 531-D North Alta Avenue, Dept. CB, Dinuba,  CA
93618.  Posted by Michael Prothro KOOK-NET  :þ Mike's Resort BBS,
Fayetteville,AR,(501)521-8920þ  From Gemini's MASSIVE MealMaster
collection at www.synapse.com/~gemini

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