Canned beans or dried?

[vagriller]

I like to make chili and soup, and I have a question. Is it preferable to use canned beans or reconstitute dried beans? I have never had luck reconstituting dried beans. They always seem a little hard.

[pdswife]

I use canned beans for chili
and dried for soup. WHY? Don't ask me. It's just what I do.

[Alix]

Canned for me. I have had issues with dried beans too. Sometimes they are too old to reconstitute well. Canned beans have never failed me.

[ChefJune]

If I have time, I prefer to use dried beans, but sometimes you just can't! so I rinse off the canned beans very well and proceed. I always prefer to cook my own because I like to add herbs and sometimes cook the beans in stock for more flavor, and because I sometimes think I can taste the "can"

[vagriller]

Maybe it's a hard water issue as suggested in this thread.

Soup Beans---how do you make yours?

[sattie]

Canned has my vote.... never has failed and I never notice the difference.

[Gretchen]

I think I posted in the other thread that I don't think hard water makes any difference with cooking beans. Give a thought to our pioneer foremothers. I use canned beans for chili and a lot of other things. I also love to cook dried beans.
The MOST important thing about dried beans is their comparative freshness. Even dried beans can be "old" and will not cook to soft.

[Euralenna]

I think old beans might be problematic too, but in my case, I have bought new beans at least 6 times, and at first I thought it might have been old beans, so I bought them at different places. What are the odds that in 6 times at at least 5 different stores ( in two states) that I got old beans?
And the fact that I've never had a problem before cooking beans in WA, KS, or Germany, or at the two other houses I lived at in Mi where I had city water.

And now the beans I cooked today are perfect...they were made with reverse osmosis water.

I say, if your beans are not getting soft after hours of cooking ( 10) and/or if they are shedding thier shells that have the texture of pill capsules, then it's either old beans or it's your water.

I found this link which mentions dry beans and hard water.

http://www.kelleybean.com/Consumer-info.asp

[jennyema]

Originally Posted by pdswife

I use canned beans for chili
and dried for soup. WHY? Don't ask me. It's just what I do.

That's what I do too, usually.

I use dried beans for most all things that call for beans, 'cept chili. I like them better and they come in more interesting varieties.

[licia]

I use the canned beans in chili gravy for chili and I used canned beans in salad (rinse and drain), but I use dried beans for soup and just for a bean dish.