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.

http://www.discusscooking.com/forums/f20/soup-beans-how-do-you-make-yours-25791.html

 

[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]

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.

 

[jennyema]

Woops ...

Canned beans in Italian white bean salad and in burritos.

 

[Aurora]

... I rinse off the canned beans very well and proceed.

Why do you rinse the beans? The liquid is very flavorful. I always add it in preference to water in chili or soups or even salads. I've fixed these dishes with the beans with the can liquid and rinsed without the liquid and I cannot tell any difference in digestion. The dishes are just more flavorful with the can liquid.

I've always wondered why recipes specify to discard the liquid and rinse the beans well.

I'd love to hear some good reasons other than "my mother did it that way" or "that's what the recipe said to do".

Alton, are you out there?

 

[kimbaby]

I use can BEANS for chili...
I use dry Beans for bean soup(s)

 

[Chief Longwind Of The North]

I use canned kidney, pinto, and black beans for chili. And I add the can liquor as well. As Aurora said, it adds flavor.

For home-made soups, refried beans, and baked beans, I use dried beans. But I have made great baked beans starting with great northern beans that came pre-cooked in a very large jar and they worked great as well.

I believe that it's just a matter of preference. But with kidney beans, the dried variety have less flavor than the canned, due to the sweetener added to the canned bans.

Also, when you are cooking the beans, if you have a pressure cooker, it will virtually garuntee that your beans come out tender. Just be sure to follow the directions that come with your cooker.

I have relatively hard well water and have never experience any problems with my beans. But I suspect that if your water has sulphur in it, that might inhibit the softening action as sulphur plus water will create a weak sulphuric acid. And any acids that are added to beans before they are fully cooked with interfere with them becoming soft.

Seeeeeya; Goodweed of the North

 

[VeraBlue]

Using dried beans is always more effective if you soak them overnight. It gives them a head start absorbing the cooking liquid. Just change the water and rinse them off before you add them to your broth.

Once you get used to working with dried beans, you'll remember which varieties cook faster than others.

 

[VeraBlue]

Why do you rinse the beans? The liquid is very flavorful. I always add it in preference to water in chili or soups or even salads. I've fixed these dishes with the beans with the can liquid and rinsed without the liquid and I cannot tell any difference in digestion. The dishes are just more flavorful with the can liquid.

I've always wondered why recipes specify to discard the liquid and rinse the beans well.

I'd love to hear some good reasons other than "my mother did it that way" or "that's what the recipe said to do".

Alton, are you out there?

I always found the liquid in the cans to be gummy....I'd rather just have the bean to work with than the odd textured bean residue...

 

[licia]

I don't like the texture in the canned beans either and I'd rather rinse the salt and stuff out and use my own seasonings.

 

[Swann]

I am one who always uses dried beans. I dislike the taste of canned beans.

 

[ChefScotty]

I'd love to hear some good reasons other than "my mother did it that way" or "that's what the recipe said to do".

I'll give you the rationale and you can decide for yourself. Its essentially to do with flatulence. That's generally an issue when the digestive system has an inability to absorb particular carbohydrates in that we don't have digestive enzymes to break down complex oligosaccharides. Beans, cabbage, brussels sprouts, apricots, bananas, etc etc Most flatulence is caused by bacteria, who actively feed on indigestible carbs and sugars

The more you eat beans the better your body will become at dealing with these issues. It seems to be generally accepted that soaking beans for a long time will remove more of the carbohydrates, so the extended rationale then is that since beans in a can have been soaking for ever there's even more dissolved sugars, so even more reason to discard the liquid. I've never seen anything proving this but it's not an unreasonable extrapolation. I don't think "there's bubbles in the liquid" quite confirms this.

And then we could talk about all the flavor you're washing away. Hence why people are generally in one camp or the other on this one.

 

[karadekoolaid]

I keep tinned beans around for emergencies, or when I have no time to soak . Otherwise, it's dry beans all the time - soak for at least 8 hours, rinse , then cook for the required time ( they all vary) in water WITHOUT salt. Occasionally you'll find some tough old beans, but dried beans, peas and lentils are a staple over here so the produce moves a lot on the supermarket shelves. Flavour-wise, there probably is a difference because the tinned beans often have preservatives or acids added to conserve them longer.

As for the flatulence issue - oh so true! The more you eat, the more your body gets used to the legumes. Indian cookery uses a wonderful spice called asafoetida or hing. ( Actually it's a dried resin). A pinch of hing added to the beans seems to make them more easily digestible.