Cook dry beans without fail
At the bare minimum, learn to cook one pot of beans now, while it's easy. It's a skill, not a purchase.
Dry beans are a third of the price of canned and keep for years, but only if you know how to cook them. Old beans can stay hard forever if you rush them.
Here's the soak, boil and simmer method that works on a stove, a camp burner or a wood fire.
YOU'LL NEED
- Dry beans
- A big pot with a lid
- Water (about 3 L per 500 g beans)
- Salt
- Baking soda, optional for old beans
Instructions
- Sort and rinse. Spread the beans on a tray and pick out stones and shrivelled beans. Rinse them in a colander.
- Soak 8–12 hours. Cover with 5 cm of water. Older beans soften faster if you add ½ tsp of baking soda per litre of water. In a hurry? Boil for 2 minutes, then let them sit covered for an hour.
- Drain and refill. Pour off the soak water and add fresh water. This cuts down on gas.
- Hard boil 10 minutes. Kidney beans especially must boil hard to destroy a natural toxin. Never slow-cook raw kidney beans.
- Simmer until creamy. Lower the heat, cover and simmer for 45–90 minutes. Add salt in the last 20 minutes.
- Save fuel with a hay box. After the hard boil, wrap the pot in blankets or put it in a cooler. It'll keep cooking with no fuel for 2–3 hours.
TIPS
- Cooked beans freeze well in their liquid.
- 1 cup dry makes about 3 cups cooked.
- Lentils and split peas need no soaking and cook in 20 minutes. They're great when fuel is short.
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