Salt Your Beans

Hi Guys,

Grandma Pat here! Yes! And old enough to have cooked quite a few beans. . .

This is one of the best articles that I have ever read regarding cooking beans!!!

Congratulations on a job well done. !

One error is all I spotted. . the thing about salt making the beans tough.  Where did you get that piece of info??  Not so, Friends!. .   If the beans are very old and have been dried a very long time (years) they will take a long time to cook period!. . Another problem that stops beans from cooking is acid. . such as tomatoes. 

Suggestion. .   Cook two pots of beans. In one pot, put the salt at the beginning of the cooking;  In another pot put tomatoes or tomato sauce, lemon, lime, vinegar. . .whatever acid you have will do.  You will find the beans cooked in salt taste wonderful and are fully cooked.  Try it without salt and they are more flat, and don’t absorb the salt even when added at the last.  Only the liquid is salty. . The acid, however, most definitely affects their ability to soften. They will almost never cook through, but will remain hard forever.

There is a lot of mis-information out there and this salt myth is one of the oldest old wives tales. .  

Here’s how I cook my beans. . 
pintos, actually: 2 Cups Pintos, washed but not soaked, (not necessary)
6 cups of  Water (or to cover above bean level about four inches is good.)
1 TB salt
1 TB lard, yes the good old fashioned kind, yum yum!

Cook from there. according to your two hours and a half or the way I do it is to put it all in the “pressure cooker at 15 pounds pressure for 10 minutes. Yep! That’s how I do it Everyone comments on “how good” they are. . . (modern pressure cookers are great for this. . .I still use the old fashioned one)

Thanks again for your wonderful newsletter. . .love it!

Best Regards,