Old dried beans - how long to cook, when to toss?

[Opti]

Wondering how long the frugal smart spenders would cook dried beans and

when do you decide to just toss them? Reading a few online sources the basic

gist is while they last indefinitely, cook times increase and if they are old enough

they might remain umm crunchy.

So what's the longest you would cook them? What's a reasonable point to decide they

are too old? FWIW I don't have a crockpot so I cook on low heat on the stove.

[Peace Of Mind]

The secret is soaking them first.  The longer you soak them the softer/tender they'll be.  I'm not sure if they'll taste stale or not but I've used beans that were years old for a bean soup and they were fine.  I soaked them overnight and then slow cooked them in a ham soup. 

[haapai]

I think that the "umm crunchy" problem and subsequent problems can be solved by increasing the soak time.  Soaking them in the fridge pretty much eliminates the risk of fermentation or rot setting in. 

I'm not sure that you can ever throw out dried beans that are not infested with weevils or show signs of fungal infection.  This might be why the bean bag was invented. 

[andi9899]

Soak the overnight. What kind of beans are they? I soak mine and then boil them on high for a few hours. Be sure to add water every now and the so they don't boil dry!

[thyme4change]

I will fourth the suggestion to soak them overnight.

Dried beans last forever-ish.

[Opti]

Thanks for the replies. I think what I will try is soaking them longer and

never doing a quick soak and long boil for anything past the expire

date on the package.

The bag of beans I plan to try next is Roman beans and the bag has

been in the freezer unopened. I also have a bag of tiny lentils that

I should check the date on.

Is boiling on high better than boiling on a low simmer?

[Deleted]

Forever-ish....     

[Opti]

Jan 14, 2015 19:39:32 GMT -5 oped said:

Forever-ish....     

And so does the cooking when they are older!

[kittensaver]

I fourth-fifth-sixth was others have said here. Beans will last "forever" unless they get contaminated in some way. Even old (shriveled) beans can be revived - it just takes time. Expiration dates are really sell-by dates, and beans (but clearly not all food products!) have a safe, useful life well beyond the sell date. Not only do I soak beans overnight, but after draining them and putting them in fresh water, I bring them to a boil on the stove before transferring them to the slow cooker. This really helps to shorten the cooking time because the slow cooker takes a long time to come up to temperature.

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

It really does depend on the age.

a few years ago, I was at TD's and decided to make a pot of bean soup.  I soaked the beans overnight, and put them on the stove, brought to a boils, backed off to a simmer the next morning.  10 hours later, the beans were still crunchy and inedible.

I didn't buy the beans, so have no idea how old they were.  However, I do know that they were in the pantry when I first came out here, so they were at least 8 years old.....they could have been as old as 12 years old.  They were still in their original, unopened bag.

We went out for pizza and the soup went into the trash

[mroped]

If the package was sealed or they were stored in a dried spot, they will last forever.
If when you open the bag/package they smell like dirt then just trow them away. 
I don't think is a good idea to keep dried beans in the freezer!

To cook them you don't necessarily have to soak them but it helps.
I used to cook them for about three hours on medium to high. After about an hour they typicaly start softening at which point you wash/rinse them, refill and it back on stove for the next couple of hours or so.

[Artemis Windsong]

A friend told me to soak the beans in soda water 4 times to remove the gas causing stuff.  Then cook them as usual.  I haven't done any in a while.

[kadee79]

First, I don't store dried beans in the freezer. They are either in zip bags or jars in the pantry where they won't come into contact with moisture.

I have never thrown out a dried bean. I've never had any that came out "crunchy" so I guess I cook them long enough.

I don't time how long I cook them, I look at them, taste them...to determine if they need to cook longer or not. Mine would likely never be the same times any way since I mix several kinds of beans and never in the exact same quantities!

I spent 30+ years in retail...so ONE MORE TIME ABOUT DATES ON PRODUCTS!!!

Those dates serve several purposes..."if" it states "best used by", that means it will have it's best taste/consistency up to that date. If it is just an expiration date, that is the last date by which it is to be sold...YOU STILL HAVE NORMAL HOME USE TIME PAST THAT DATE!!!

Something like milk you would be more concerned that it is used or stored (frozen) quickly. Something like dried beans can last for years. Other items fall inbetween.

Main thing is to rotate you pantry when you buy new of anything you keep in there!

BTW, I seldom soak beans....just never think about it. And I've had beans that were several years old cause I bought a BUNCH when one store was closing and they had been marked down to 25 cents....per 2 lb. bag!

[cronewitch]

I cook beans all the time and had one huge jar for years just added more as it went down. This last time I bought huge bags like 25# or 10# bags so had about 150# of beans so mixed together in big totes and put some back in the bags. I will never toss them, I have a large plastic container of mixed split peas and lentils too.

I like a hot soak I bring mixed beans to a boil and cook a couple of hours, then rinse when they are about done cooking not mushy. Rinsing takes away all the gas and dark water color. I give them new water, add flavors like minced garlic, this batch I added split peas and lentils at this point and boiled another hour or two until the split peas were soft then I add veggies and spices. A few times I tried a microwave soak where you put them in the microwave bring to a boil and leave with a lid on for a long time then rinse.

All those sorts of things will last forever if they aren't damp or anything never have a problem eating them years and years later but we don't have bugs here either like I have never seen a weevil or cockroach just spiders and ants.