I have always soaked dry beans overnight in water. I am going to prepare a smoked ham shank and black beans.
I have a quart of store bought vegetable broth. Any problems with soaking the dry beans in the broth?
Thanks for your replies.
Salt will make the skins tough, I have heard. It needs to be added last. But you really do not need to soak the beans if you can cook them long enough (in enough water for them to expand).
Traditionally, the soaking liquid is discarded - is that what you usually do? Are you planning on doing so now?
Seems like the makings of an experiment, for sure.
I like speaking then, first, because i think discarding the soaking water makes the beans less gas-inducing. I wouldn’t want to toss out the vegetable broth. And I’ve heard the same about adding salt last.
Salt actually makes the beans more tender. This is an old cooking myth.
ETA, oh, since it’s the Dope, citation:
I never discard the soaking liquid. It has flavor. And keeps the beans black.
There is a thing called “aquafaba”, which is the water that beans are cooked in (e.g., from a can of unflavored beans). It can be turned into meringue, although, obviously, not if there is other stuff in it.
Agreed, plus by discarding the soaking liquid, you lose nutrition.
Also, agreed.
Supposedly it leaches out things like raffinose (a complex sugar) that we don’t metabolize, but our gut bacteria do with relish, producing a lot of gas in the process.
The jury’s out though, as to whether this is actually true- some studies say yes, others say no.
I don’t personally care if my noxious gas emissions reach critical levels. I rather enjoy the solitude.