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Do you have to soak beans before cooking them? We look into different dry bean soaking methods, and what happens if you don't soak beans before cooking.

4 measuring cups on a wooden table. One of them has black beans, one has kidney beans, one has red beans and one has great northern beans in it.

Welcome to my dry bean cooking series! This started as a simple post about the best way to prepare dry beans. I quickly realized, however, that there was a crazy amount of information to learn and test about this subject. To help you be fully informed (that's a goal here at The Incredible Bulks), I've decided to break this down into a series of posts. There will be posts explaining the different methods of cooking dry beans, as well as posts about the experiments I did to test those methods. By the end, we'll all be bean geniuses. Now that's something you can put on a resume!

How to Cook Dried Beans Series

Part 1: To Soak or Not to Soak (you are here)

Part 2: How to Cook Your Beans Quickly

Part 3: Different Cooking Methods (stove top, instant pot, crock pot, etc)

Part 1: Soaking Dry Beans

It is often suggested that before dry beans are cooked, they need to be soaked in water. Soaking the beans helps to soften them before cooking, which then drastically cuts down on cooking time for the beans. For example, the instructions that came with my Instant Pot say to cook dry beans for 25 minutes, and only 8 minutes for soaked dry beans.

Because the beans are softened when soaking supposedly the beans will cook more evenly, resulting in fewer split shells.

Additionally, it is also often suggested that soaking beans breaks down some of the sugars that can be hard for people to digest. Aka, maybe your husband will be less gassy after dinner if you soak your beans first. (🤞please, please, please, please🤞)!

For this post, I tried out different soaking methods to see what the differences between the cooking processes would be and if I could determine a preferred method.

a glass bowl of black beans soaking in water. — Black Beans soaking in water

Soaking Dry Bean Methods

In my research, I found 3 different methods people use to pre-soak their beans. They are:

Long, Hot Soak

Beans are covered in several inches of water and are boiled together in a large pot for 2-3 mins. The pot is then covered with a lid and left to soak for 4 hours. Beans are then drained and cooked in fresh cooking liquid.

Quick, Hot Soak

Beans and water are boiled together for 2-3 mins, then covered and soaked for only 1 hour. They are then drained and cooked.

Traditional Method

Beans are covered in cold, clean water and soaked for at least 8 hours, often left for an overnight soak. Beans are then drained and then cooked the next day.

Testing the Soaking Methods Out

For the first round of our test, we used dried black beans cooked in the Instant Pot (pressure cooker), all for the same amount of time--6 minutes at high pressure. We tried out 3 different ways of soaking the beans: 8 8-hour cool water soak, 4-hour hot soak, and a 1-hour hot soak. We also did a batch of beans that had not been soaked and cooked them for 22 minutes. The purpose was to see how the different soaking methods affected the appearance, texture, and taste of the dried black beans.

The Results

4 small bowls are filled with cooked black beans. They are labeled "8 hour soak" "no soak" "4 hour hot soak" and "1 hour hot soak" showing the result of different dry bean soaking methods.

Appearance

It may be difficult to tell from the photo, but the beans that were not soaked ended up being a darker color and had less splitting than all of the beans that had been soaked. All of the beans that were soaked had a similar amount of beans that split.

Texture

The beans that had been soaked in hot water were more evenly cooked than the beans that had not been soaked or the beans that had been soaked in cold water. However, there was no detectable difference between the beans that had soaked in hot water for 4 hours versus the beans that had soaked for 1 hour.

The beans that had not soaked, and the beans that had an 8-hour cold soak both had a bit of a chewier skin, while the inside of the bean was very tender. The chewier skin was not significant enough to make the beans unpleasant, however.

Taste

The beans that had not been soaked were very slightly more flavorful than the beans that had been soaked. The difference, however, was not big enough to be significant.

Stove Top Test

Because the results from the Instant Pot were so similar, we decided to try out another cooking method. For the 2nd round of our test, we cooked beans on the stovetop. We tried one pot of beans that had not been soaked, and one pot of beans that had been hot soaked for 4 hours.

The major difference between the two pots was the cooking time. The soaked beans cooked for 1 hour and 13 minutes, while the unsoaked beans took 2 hours and 6 minutes

So, do you have to soak beans before cooking them?

Well, honestly, the answer is no.

From a taste standpoint, soaking dry beans is not necessary. The texture of the beans was basically the same, whether soaked or not. They both result in tender beans. While there is a difference, it is small enough not to matter.

The real benefit of soaking beans comes down to cooking time. Soaked beans cook significantly faster than unsoaked beans.

However, the different soak times and water temperatures seem to result in similar beans, so you can use the soaking method that works best for your time frame.

So if you have a lot of time earlier in the day, and less time later, then soaking is for you! Otherwise, I really wouldn't stress about doing a pre-soak. The results will basically be the same.

Frequently Asked Questions

What happens if you don't soak the beans before cooking?

Short answer: They take longer to cook.

Long answer: Many people claim that soaking beans is not necessary. The argument for this method is while it does take longer to cook, unsoaked beans end up having better flavor. This method is great if you aren't good at remembering to do things ahead of time (me!). You still have hope for eating tasty beans when you want them.
Proponents of this method also often say it's been proven that soaking beans doesn't actually break down those gas-causing sugars (dang it).

Do beans need to be refrigerated while soaking?

Soaking beans do not need to be refrigerated unless it is really hot in your kitchen. It is a good idea to cover the bowl though so that whatever is floating around in the air doesn't land in the soaking water.

How long do you need to soak dry beans?

Based on the results of the trial I did, there isn't a "magic soak time" that beans need. I found that the quick-soak method got very similar results to soaking the beans for a long time.

You can soak them for as much time as you have. The most important thing is the water temperature. I would recommend using hot or warm water if you only have an hour to soak them, and cool if you plan on soaking them all day.

Can you soak beans for too long?

It would be best if you soaked your beans for a maximum of 12 hours. After that point, the beans can become too water-saturated and will be quite mushy and flavorless.

Which varieties of beans can be soaked?

Any type of bean can benefit from being pre-soaked, including pinto beans, black beans, garbanzo beans, black-eyed peas, red kidney beans, navy beans, and cannellini beans.

Can you cook the beans in the water they soaked in?

It's a good idea to toss the water the beans were soaked in and use fresh water as your cooking water. The soaking water has all the debris and enzymes that have been released from the beans while they were soaked. This may result in you having less gas.

Does soaking beans reduce gas?

The closest answer I could find that came from a scientific test was done by Harvard's Science of Cooking. They put 17 different flatulence-reducing methods to the test to see which one actually did anything to reduce gas from eating beans.

According to them, soaking dry beans before cooking them doesn't change the gas factor. The best option to reduce gas is to eat rinsed, canned beans instead of fresh. You can check out the whole story here if you're interested.