Here’s Your Roadmap to Cooking Beans
First tip: Don’t buy canned ones
The first step in cooking beans is buying the right ones. Most dried beans you’d find at the grocery store or in the bulk section of high-dollar organic markets aren’t very good since they don’t see enough turnover to be remotely fresh.
It would be easy to think, who cares? The beans are dry and they’re made for storage; it’s not like they are going to go bad. While that may be true, older beans don’t cook as well as new ones.
When it comes to beans, consumers generally have no idea where they’re from and how old they are. Those beans may come from a number of different farms in a number of different conditions even from different harvests where beans from two or more years ago are mixed in with last year’s crop to bulk it out.
I would be willing to bet that anyone who has bought dried beans could tell stories about cooking a pot of beans and ending up with a total mess where some of the beans are completely blown away and turn into mush, while others are still starchy and hard. Many people avoid dried beans for this reason and instead choose canned beans — don’t reach for the cans. If this has happened to you, know that it was probably not your fault. You just bought some crappy dried beans.
Don’t be discouraged. Find good dried beans, and it will get better from there. Look for suppliers who will guarantee they are selling new crop beans, who approach beans with the care and reverence they deserve.
Rancho Gordo has excellent beans; so does Zursun, a company out of Idaho. At farmers markets, you’re likely to find farmers who sell a variety of beans, too: Ask them about their beans, and if they can talk about when they’re grown and how they’re stored, there’s a good chance you’re getting a quality product. Of course, they’re likely to cost a lot more than beans in the grocery store — and they’re worth it.
A cheaper alternative would be to buy beans from busy international markets that cater to bean-loving populations, where there’s a better chance that the store is turning over its inventory.
Once you’ve purchased beans, the next question is whether to soak them. If they’re new crop and have been stored properly, there’s no need to…
