# Yellow split peas cooking time **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 31, 2010, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yellow-split-peas-cooking-time/527077 "2010-01-31T01:52:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![JillGat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9fc29f/32.png) [@JillGat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JillGat)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2010, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yellow-split-peas-cooking-time/527077/1 "2010-01-31T01:52:06Z")
Recipes say, “simmer until yellow split peas are tender; about 40 minutes.” Yeah, more like 3 hours. Have other experienced this? Why the incredible misrepresentation of how long it takes yellow split peas to cook? Next time I’ll soak them, but the recipes say I don’t have to. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2010, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yellow-split-peas-cooking-time/527077/2 "2010-01-31T01:54:39Z")
45 minutes sounds about right to me, but it seems to be extremely variable based on how old and dry the peas are. I’ve had certain dried legumes like fava beans never get tender, even after a 12-hour soaking and 4 hours of cooking. Turned out they were way old and just never got to that tender stage you associate with doneness with beans. ---
**Author:** ![\_xiao\_wenti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/_/b782af/32.png) [@\_xiao\_wenti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/_xiao_wenti)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2010, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yellow-split-peas-cooking-time/527077/3 "2010-01-31T03:06:51Z")
My wife is on a diet and to boost nutrition I have started cooking a mix in the rice cooker. 2 parts brown rice: 1 part lentils: 1 part split peas: 1 part barley The are all done when it dings. ---
**Author:** ![panamajack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/47e85d/32.png) [@panamajack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panamajack)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2010, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yellow-split-peas-cooking-time/527077/4 "2010-01-31T03:17:52Z")
Sometimes yellow split peas are confused with _toor dal_ in Indian recipes. Could that be the case here? ---
**Author:** ![cuberdon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/45deac/32.png) [@cuberdon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cuberdon)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2010, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yellow-split-peas-cooking-time/527077/5 "2010-02-01T03:34:49Z")
They take about 40 minutes for me. I always wonder why directions mention simmering for hours and hours. It may have to do with the hardness/softness of your water. ---
**Author:** ![Taomist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/53a042/32.png) [@Taomist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taomist)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2010, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yellow-split-peas-cooking-time/527077/6 "2010-02-01T03:41:05Z")
Here’s a HUGE hint, that I wish I’d learned 20 years ago: DO NOT ADD SALT Do NOT add salt to cooking vegetable proteins \ until the food is almost finished. There’s something about the salt that makes the proteins bind together, instead of loosening up, so that it takes much, much longer for them to soften up. Not sure if you DID add any salt \ **Author:** ![Carlajoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9fc29f/32.png) [@Carlajoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carlajoe)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2013, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yellow-split-peas-cooking-time/527077/7 "2013-07-18T00:03:06Z") > [@JillGat](#): > > Recipes say, “simmer until yellow split peas are tender; about 40 minutes.” Yeah, more like 3 hours. Have other experienced this? Why the incredible misrepresentation of how long it takes yellow split peas to cook? Next time I’ll soak them, but the recipes say I don’t have to. I know this is a late response since i was just doing the research myself- and it does not take 45 minute, i cooked it for an hour and it still wasn’t cooked. I did soak it over night as well, so unfortunately yellow peas does take time to cook ---
**Author:** ![JillGat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9fc29f/32.png) [@JillGat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JillGat)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2013, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yellow-split-peas-cooking-time/527077/8 "2013-07-18T01:21:49Z")
I stopped coming to this message board some time ago, but got an email about your response here. Thank you, Carla (three years later)! ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2013, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yellow-split-peas-cooking-time/527077/9 "2013-07-18T01:25:17Z")
Welcome back. Are the peas done yet? ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lichtman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeff_lichtman/32/1531_2.png) [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2013, 7:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yellow-split-peas-cooking-time/527077/10 "2013-07-18T07:48:56Z")
> [@Taomist](#): > > Do NOT add salt to cooking vegetable proteins \ until the food is almost finished. > There’s something about the salt that makes the proteins bind together, instead of loosening up, so that it takes much, much longer for them to soften up. In my experience, this not true at all, and Harold McGee in [On Food and Cooking](http://www.amazon.com/Food-Cooking-Science-Lore-Kitchen/dp/0684800012/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1374133109&sr=1-1&keywords=on+food+and+cooking+harold+mcgee) agrees: > [@](#): > > Cooking times can be reduced even more by adding various salts to the soaking water. Plain salt at a concentration around 1% (10 g/l, or 2 teaspoons/qt) speeds cooking greatly, apparently because the sodium displaces magnesium from the cell-wall pectins and so makes them more easily dissolved. I have a recipe from America’s Test Kitchen that uses this technique, and the beans soften after only 30 to 40 minutes of cooking. One thing that’s undisputed is that acids increase bean cooking times, and that beans cooked in acidic conditions sometimes never soften. I don’t know whether acid would have the same effect on split peas. There is also a condition known as “hard seed” that prevents some legumes from ever softening. This may be caused by growing conditions. Hard-seed beans are usually smaller than normal beans. And as **pulykamell** says, beans that are old or improperly stored can develop this problem.