Yup! Your belly is your worst master! People don't plan to fail, they fail to plan.....then expect others to bail them out of the mess. but for those with discernment, there is adequate food available in the areas around us to sustain us. We've just gotten so used to going to the store & buying it processed & packaged for us, something our Great -Great Grandparents couldn't do!
Great video and information! Thank you! Just a suggestion ... Instead of throwing out the soaking water, down the drain ... Save it to water your plants! They'll love you for it! Plants LOVE those carbs, sugars, and other things that give us gas!
Most of all, plants love the nitrogen that comes from beans. Beans fix their own nitrogen, something few other plants can do. They and other legumes are often used to replenish nitrogen in soil, and they can be good for rotating crops. We, too, need fixed nitrogen in the form of nitrate.
This is such a great suggestion! I’m going to try it. No one ever accused me of having a green thumb before, so it can’t hurt. I wonder if there’s another culinary use for it also, Jacque Pepin Has recipes where he uses the bean juice from canned beans. And that can also be used to whip up as an egg white substitute
Greetings from New Zealand. I think the biggest issue with beans is salt. A lot of people don't realize that even with fairly fresh dried beans, salting the cooking water can prevent them from softening properly - especially if one tends to be heavy-handed with the salt.
My grandmother who always made salted pork and beans would add salt in the beginning of her beans , as well as my mother- and simmered them all day long- hours. It was a chef that explained to me the best time to add the salt. It really is a huge difference.
Many recent experiments have shown the common salt myth to be false. In fact, salting softens the skins so that they don't burst as easily while cooking.
The rumor is that beans left in unprotected storage will become had to soften. Your beans appeared to be vacuum packed with an oxygen absorber pack. THAT is the recommended way of storing beans for the long run so they will be usable. I’ve tried to cook beans that were old and had problems.
James Payne: it’s more than just a rumor. You’re absolutely right. Unprotected means, they can become very hard to soften by boiling. So the trick is, you have to soak your package of beans in a water containing a teaspoon of baking soda. They soften up beautifully then. Change the water after the first major soak, and maybe rinse that too. Then, cook it in unsalted water for an hour or so, until it reaches the desired softness. Then you can salt it all you like, or add salt-cured meat. :)
Another echo here, sealed in airtight cans is key! I've tried cooking beans bought in the grocery store in standard plastic bags that were around 3 years old after getting lost behind large items, and no amount of remedies or cooking time would render them remotely edible! They might as well have been a bag of rocks!!!
Beans were found in king tut's tomb. There were some that were still able to sprout after being in hermetically sealed containers for thousands of years. Or so I was told.
Phil Smith... Are you perhaps talking about King Tut's peas, which look like beans? These were claimed to be from the tomb and were found to be viable when brought back to England. Alas, that is a myth, the variety is only about 100 years old. They were first developed in England, and the story was invented to make them popular.
@@oldbatwit5102 These were black beans with a white strip on one side. A friend my mine's grandmother supposedly knew someone who was in the carter expedition or so I was told.
This is Erick's wife, Tabitha. We share a RUclips account. I love this video. My favorite way to cook pinto beans is in a crock pot. I peel an onion and cut it in half, and add a stalk of celery whole and a whole carrot and 3 bay leaves. Chili powder and cumin. I set it on low and forget about it all day long and over cook them on purpose. Recently I cooked them on high but I had to stir them and add water every few hours. At the end they become mushy and I pull the celery and carrot and bay leaf out but usually leave the onion in because it will fall apart with the beans anyway, then I use a hand masher and mash the beans. Good way to take out frustration! I add salt and one stick of real butter. It can't be any other kind of butter. Mash more. Best ever refried beans.
Thank you for the recipe, Tabitha. I have been dutifully stocking beans, but I have no clue what to do with them other than minestrone. My favorite recipe comes from Laurel's Kitchen, a cook book I received in the 80". Unfortunately, my copy has hidden itself behind a piece of furniture. I have many other recipes in my cookbook collection, but none quite as good. Slow cooker minestrone is my project for today
My parents were simple country folks & raised me on greens with most every meal, & I still love pinto beans & cornpone as a meal! Throw in a hamhock & some scallions & you've got a little slice of heaven! Mmmmm good! Thanks for the video!
BS rumor. I've cooked with old beans myself! Same goes for peas, lentils and other kinds. And you don't need baking soda, just a longer soak. (like 24 hours or more) Beans are a great staple for storage! =)
😎 Soak over night, change the water, place in a slow cocker. That simple. Use the soaking water to benefit a plant. 😎 Old beans that where just in a bag, get hard over time, because they keep drying out. ❤ You can make cream of beans, place some cooked beans in a good blender with enough liquid. Saute onion in a little bacon grease. Add the contents of that blender. Bring to a simmer, and serve with a spoon of white rice. A spoonful of sour cream also is good, absolutely delicious, and older babies love it too. ❤ Something else that can be done with really old beans, is bean flour, to enrich your baking. There used to be a book out there, called FULL OF BEANS . Hopefully you can find it somehow.
@@TheProvidentPrepper .. I know that was a lot of work from beginning to end. Soak, cook the beans various ways, taste test, and make a different meal from each one, plus the video. Now that's a hands on approach ☺️.
Such a timely video! I made small red beans in the slow cooker this morning. I start early, so they've been cooking about 7 hours. I drained the soaking water off of them, put beans in crockpot, covered with fresh water. Added two tablespoons of sofrito, some chopped onions, about 4 oz. of tomato sauce and two packs Sazon seasoning. Tasted just before they were done and added salt. It may not be necessary to add salt..just depends on your tastes. They are so delicious!
Pressure cooker - never had a problem...except they can get too soft if you pressure cook them more than a few minutes. I add salt before cooking to maintain some firmness/texture. I might ask my neighbors if they've heard that old beans never soften up and take them off their hands. I'm glad to help and it's the neighborly thing to do. :-)
I opened a mylar pouch of dried broad beans I had packaged way back in 1999, I'd even included a tablet of baking soda in the pouch 😆 an awful lot of people nowadays have no idea how to cook unless following a recipe on RUclips etc I made tuna and butter bean casserole using canned tuna which "expired" in December 2018 😊 it was delicious imo
The myth comes from the reality that most people don't use beans that are in an air tight container. Most people leave their beans in the bags that they get from the grocery store. That's why you are putting them in air tight containers that and to keep bugs out.
@@freedomspromise8519 Yes, you could do that. People don't usually even do that. Until recently people just kept there beans in the bags then used them within a year.
Peggy, beans can definitely get weevils. The eggs are sometimes present from the store, especially if they have low turnover of their dried beans. Freezing them for 24-48 hours when you get them home kills the eggs. A low-oxygen environment also kills the eggs.
@@JM.5387 ok. I have been prepping for 17 years and I've never gotten bugs in my beans. Now you wanna talk about moths! I've had terrible trouble with moths. Take care!
I’ve never had problems with our stored beans being hard, we liked to use our instapot to cook dry pintos they turn out perfect every time and you can’t go wrong with a big cast iron pan of buttermilk aunt jemima cornbread that’s how we do it in the south.
In Europe during WWII, most people didn't have enough fuel to cook much. In the morning, they cut up whatever they had to eat and brought it to a boil. They then took the pot off the stove and put it in a wooden box that was lined with lots of old newspapers, blankets, hay, and whatever else they had for insulation. They heaped some more material on top and let it sit all day. At supper time, it was done. A poor man's slow cooker. This also works in peace time.
I'm relatively new at this so please excuse my ignorance. What size bucket? Were they still in plastic bags inside the bucket? If not, did you use the little packets that remove oxygen? How was the bucket sealed? Thank you.
Tricia C most people store in Mylar bags sealed with an appropriate size oxygen absorber and if in a very humid area some use a moisture absorbing packet too but not necessarily necessary. Then store in your plastic tote or bucket. Many actually get bags the size of a five gallon bucket and fit it in the bucket then fill it and seal it. I do believe that this is convenient and a fast way to store up the bulk bag of food you bought but no one is going to consume that much at once. So I think it’s better to seal smaller bags and store them in your bucket or tote. The Mylar and oxygen absorber is protecting your food from most elements the bucket or tote is keeping it further protected from vermin and rodents. However, some small animals and rodents are able to chew through plastic. Hopefully your bags are sealed good enough that there is no indication of food being in it. Some people store in mason jars then put those in the box the jars came in then store in a cool dark location or in a dark colored bin hidden away. Remember not to have all your eggs in one basket. So if someone finds one basket you’ve got another. Also on some items you will want to rotate through them. So if your main pantry is in need of rice and you store rice in case of an emergency or hurricane or something then get the rice you need from your emergency supplies. When you go to the store next restock your emergency supplies. This way you’re using the items too and nothing will be getting too old or past prime dates. It’s why they say only store what you like. So you’ll actually eat it. Yes, you’ll eat things in some situations you might not every day but creature comforts help people cope better with the stress of emergency situations. Having to eat something you normally would not is only going to make it more stressful for everyone. Learn to cook on your grill or propane stove or whatever you plan to use. Learn to create meals from your stored food. If you buy emergency type food try some of it before you invest in a lot of it. Make sure y’all like it. Watch RUclips videos. What our grand parents did by gardening and canning food was saving up that food for harder times or winter when they couldn’t garden. It’s the same principles. Canned food is said to last forever. Even some commercially canned foods? Spam was said to last forever during world war 2 but now they put dates on it so people will buy more. BPA lined cans of today might not last too long or be healthy. Not like a glass canning jar. Use your best judgment on some things.
@@lisaraper8053 I've been prepping for 17 years. Pasta lasts FOREVER. Cans of acid fruits and veggies go bad the quickest. Canned spinach tastes awful just past the expiration date.
I just used my Instant-Pot to cook beans last night--first time! It's amazing! I had read that anything dry canned is good for at least 20 years. I wasn't surprised the beans turned out great. And that's why I watched this video. Thanks for posting it.
What a great video -- so very informative!! I appreciated the comparisons w/ the cooking methods, and also the trailer section showing how storage really does affect the food product. Thank you for busting that tired myth of "old hard beans." Just last week, I made a large batch of baked beans using the Great Northerns, cooked in a crock pot. Once cooked, I added in my sauce ingredients and cooked them further. Delicious! Pressure-canning beans for shelf-ready foods are such an easy canning task and I always keep a few shelves to use at any time. I also store dehydrated refried pinto beans, and have a container for everyday use.
Did y’all have the whole neighborhood come over for a bean dinner?! Lol that’s a hecka lot of beans. What a test! You guys are heroes. BTW, as I write this I am picturing the campfire scene in Blazing Saddles 🥴💨
It’s best to soak beans overnight (12 hours), discard the water and use fresh water to cook with. Dried beans are among foods that contain anti-nutrients (naturally-occurring phytate, protease inhibitors, lectins, tannins and calcium oxalate) that can limit the body’s absorption of nutrients like magnesium, calcium, iron, phosphorus, and zinc.
Phytates can be easily mitigated or destroyed entirely by eating rye along with your meal. Rye contains very large amounts of phytase which breaks down phytic acid. Rye is a part of every meal in some form. Just sprinkling a small amount of rye flour on your food will do the trick. I've often wondered if the vigor and heartiness of the Northern European tribes was helped by the rye in their diet making more of what they ate available for assimilation.
Lectin and oxalate both cause arthritis and permeable gut disease if eaten in excess or without balancing nutrients. I wonder if rye helps those issues, too?
What good information! Very helpful. Like your sister's, I too, must store in a warmer space. Some pintos turned dark and were awful. I didn't try the baking soda trick though. I tossed them in the compost pile.... and they didn't rot there or sprout... and not one animal ate them. I eventually buried them and assumed in time some microbiology would turn them into soil. I concluded that I should target a 5 year rotation to avoid losing the beans in my warm desert conditions, but I never toss stuff until it's been tested. Thank you for sharing such thorough information.
@@Notanothercrayon Just recently read a post in which a woman made the mistake of not cooking some home made refried beans created by grinding up some raw pinto beans the 11 minutes needed to be safe. They looked done and both she and her husband indulged and got seriously sick. You are trying to be smart but in fact you are just showing you didn't know jack.
@@dwightehowell8179 Really dude? Does a bit of light discourse hurt your feelings that much? Thanks for the interesting info but believe it or not, it's possible to further argue your point without being an asshole about it ;)
I first heard this last night on a different channel. If you think your phone isn’t listening to you wake up. This type of thing has been happening waaaay more often lately. I’ll mention something to someone then I get an ad or video pop up on Facebook or RUclips within a day.
Thanks for the video, very informative and practical. For those of us that have been prepping/stock piling food for years, this helps give peace of mind knowing that our preps could out last us.
On covid deaths. Off subject. Did hospitals isolate the virus load by serology in their post mortems? That should be a normal response. Has the coroner been asked? If not done, why not? As for the ICU patients. What are their symptoms and co morbidity? Are they intubated and on mechanical ventilators? (Who owns the ventilator company and who profits from the trading? U.S. Representatives?) Does your hospital have a hyperbaric chamber and has it ever been used for the respiratory distress or cytokine storm? What are the ICU patient’s chances if they follow a pandemic normal course of treatment vs. getting hyperbaric oxygen immediately? I read that in Mineola, NY, the Winthrop hospital did a randomized trial and was successful, in treating those symptoms that normally kill you, in 90% of the trial patients. Do we have such treatment available? If not, why not? Why has the FDA dragged its feet on this? Who is funding alternative treatments? Where’s the patient choice that the private insurance industry always tells you they are so in favor of? Well? Where is it? My hospital got rid of it's chamber for Hyperbaric oxygen therapy in 2016. 2016.
@@brmicmatthews8398 you would be amazed at the stonewalling I get on this subject. Been doing the research and on covid sites I immediately get shadow banned. I saved lives for a living (Park Ranger, scuba diver, expedition mountaineering leader). Today I believe the status quo is placing profit before people.
I think the people who said they had trouble getting their beans to soften were using older beans that had not been stored properly. We also had this problem with dry beans we got from a food pantry. The beans were in their usual packaging and were most likely old. We cooked them the same way we always cooked dry beans but these were unusually hard after hours of cooking.
Informative! A quick search revealed that the current price of a number 10 can of dry beans is anywhere from $20 to $30. Crazy! This is around 5X the price you mentioned 18 months ago. A video on drying and canning beans would be of interest.
I love to slow cook pinto beans. Garlic, chilies, and a little bacon grease. I keep them cooking all night long and when I wake up in the morning, the house smells amazing. We like them really well cooked with almost a gravy since the liquid thickens nicely.
That thick gravy is awesome,,,throw in spinach,,, purslane,,,to make beans in it juice,, after there cooked,,a little,bacon,,diced meat, diced fresh tomatoes,onion, cilantro,and eat..
Wow! Great demonstration with the beans! I love all the ways you showed to cook them. The best way to store beans is in a cool, dark, dry room. I store most of my dry beans in mason jars. My son uses a vacuum pump, and he heats the lids in the oven first. His system he built is much stronger than the store bought sealers, so I know my beans will last for years, and they are stored in a cool dark room with a towel over them to keep out the light. I just canned beans that I stored in 2005. They taste great! I do soak my beans after washed over night, pour off water and rinse. I too love the instant pot the best, and I cook mine like you do. Even when I pressure can my beans I soak them over night in warm water to get rid of the gas part that isn't good for us.
I had a large pail of beans for over 20 yrs, we ate them all the time. Did find it took a little longer to soften. I always poured hot water over them to soak
I have never had to use baking soda to soften beans. They have always been soft after soaking overnight, rinsing them off, filling the pot of the rinsed beans with water, then cooking them covered for several hours slowly on a regular kitchen stove burner. And I have always put salt or bullion in the water while boiling them along with garlic and onion and bacon bits and butter. Then I serve it with homemade biscuits or cornbread. It’s always been a big hit in my family. My mom and her mom used to cook beans the same way as a kind of thick soup. However, they were never 18 year old or older beans. Many times they were over five years old, give or take a couple of years, but never stored outside or anywhere with light just in the pantry though not at all stored with oxygen absorbers. But thank you so much for the tips on how to cook them should they ever get to that point of staying hard after cooking them. May I make a respectful suggestion though regarding baking soda? Red Mill baking soda has no aluminum in it. Perhaps using that kind of baking soda instead may be a bit more beneficial to one’s health. And baking soda and powder both do not have long storage lives. Just a thought.
The baking soda is more for the 'effect' some people get after eating the beans.....my mother-in-law always put the beans in b.soda.....said it took out the 'gassy' effect!
Watching this video gave me the motivation (and courage!) to open some of my old #10 cans. I was surprised that my dry milk from 31 years ago still tasted great! In fact, we decided to use it up and haven't purchased any milk from the store for the past 2 months. You guys inspire us!
Thank you! We have a lot of beans in our storage. Making a food storage care package for my daughter,for her move to Utah, and of course beans are a big part. 💜🙋🏻
Excellent video, nicely done. Last year we found some packaged pintos in their original bags from the late 90s, still in the plastic tubs, in one of our connexes. We live in SC … famously hot. I’d be willing to bet it hit 140 degrees in those connexes out behind the barn on more than one occasion over the years. They cooked-up medium dark not quite like the ones you pictured for your sister. But we cooked ours and they were fine. The wife actually just reminded me that we canned some of those (Ball/Mason jars) using our ham hock recipe and they turned-out more than fine. But you’re right, I’ve seen that myth perpetrated 1000 times about seven year old beans being too tough …. that nonsense needed dispelling. BTW, we love our instapots too.
This is so good to know! I have about 50 pounds of pinto beans stored in mylar bags with oxygen absorbers, then the mylar bag was sealed shut with an iron and packed in a food grade bucket with lid… They are currently about 16 years old. I hope I’ll be able to get the same results as you folks did. Great video…
We soak them for several days, changing the water once or twice a day till they start to sprout. Beans like pinto were bred for flour. It's gluten free, but use no more than 50%. Mesquite beans can be 40 years old and still considered fresh.
Mar Schlosser: I did not know that about Pinto beans, although I knew they could be used for flour. If you sprout them and dry them before making flour at it, there’s something like 50% more nutrition in them. A teaspoon of baking soda in the original soak water makes a really big difference to how they soak and soften in the cooking process. It’s really good to know, if you find a package of beans at the back of the cupboard that you’d like to use, but have been there a long time. Another nice little thing that you probably already know but I’ll say just in case, is that if you cook your beans, just plain cook them in water, and then dehydrate them and store them in a sealed bottle, in a power outage already time like that, when you want to cook but energy is at a premium, beans cook up in 10 minutes or so, with all the trimmings, if you’ve taken the time to pre-cook and dehydrate them. Another bonus to this is that if you’re a person that likes to go hiking or camping, You don’t have to gather up nearly as many sticks or cotton early as much wood to cook that kind of food, and it weighs pretty much nothing in your backpack. Win-win.
@@daphneraven6745 We make dried frijoles to take. Pintos were bred for flour but are great in most ways. Here, south Arizona, they dry in a snap. Terapy beans are the best for a dry garden, tho. Chia i the best non-meat food to take. In Mexico, Indians took a few pounds and lived on 2-4 tablespoons a day of it and water when on campaign. Mizx a spoon of chia with water, let it set overnite, and it sprouts before dawn. You can live for weeks on that but too much and you get fat.
@@marschlosser4540 : thank you very much! This is some pretty impressive information. I got a bag of pintos, I have no clue how they’re gonna be, but I’m gonna go online find me a recipe for them. I’ll have to figure out what frijoles are, and give those a shot too. And I really didn’t know that about Chia seeds. That’s some seriously quick sprouting, and would result in a lot of intense nutrition. Perhaps I’ll put those on tonight as well, just to see what breakfast will be like in the morning. :-) Do you have a blog or website, where you talk about this stuff? Because that would be something that I would definitely want to take in.
@@daphneraven6745 Frijoles, refried beans. Pintos are the favorite for them. They make a good ham soup, too. We like them in American Indian baked beans. 2 lbs pintos, soaked and cooked till tender. Drain. Put in roasting pan. Add 3-5 lbs beef roast. cover with 2 quarts cooking salsa (strong onion taste). Cover that with ripe seeded chilis or sweet peppers (ripe!) skin side up. Cover and slow cook in oven (300 F, several hours) till meat is tender. Uncover, turn up heat to scorch peppers to release sugars.
@@marschlosser4540 : I can almost taste that recipe! Thank you very much. I think I might be able to slip it in the next weeks menu. It’ll be awesome. :-) I hope you don’t mind my suggestion that somebody with your skills it should have a blog. At the very least. Thanks again. :D
Sore spot for me. We had to toss 30 lbs of VERY old dry pinto beans out, probably upwards of 20 years old or more. Twenty pounds of those were in a burlap bag and the rest were in plastic storage containers. The ones in the burlap bags were less gross than the others, but all of them smelled musty, didn't look great, just not a good situation. We did a small test batch and they never cooked up well or smelled appetizing. So, out they went into the pasture! Just canned up several bags that we bought within the last three years and purchased more fresh to replace those in the food storage bucket.
I had a bad experience with old, stored beans but I think it was because they were stored incorrectly, probably without a vacuum seal and in 1/2 gallon glass canning jars. They were hard and unpleasant, probably 10 years old. The key is good storage technique. Also on retained heat cooking, I've done this for a couple of decades following the book Fireless Cookery by Heidi Kirschner - but it is out of print now - hard to find. I used a large wicker laundry basket full of clean straw with a nest lined with a clean towel for the pot and topped with a pillow. It worked very well - no special equipment.
I think that’s likely the source of the rumor, someone that found a really old bag of beans in the back of their cupboard, just in the plastic bag they were sold in.
B Gray: Storage conditions to make Difference, but if you sold them very well with baking soda in the water, even if they weren’t stored optimally, you’ll still have good food. I’ve known about retained heat cooking, But my understanding is that you had to put heat in it to retain. Like maybe 10 minutes on the burner, with a good lid before putting it in your hay box. If this new idea, I’ve been cooking without using any of energy, just wrapping up putting hey, is a thing, then this could be a game changer. When they were power outages for extended periods of time, there is a way to treat the day so that it generates a lot of heat, and will keep the large room warm for quite an extended period of time. This might be one way to generate enough heat from hay without putting it on the hob first. If you live in a warm country, or a hot one, hay alone could be enough, especially the solar on.
I like fresh beans straight from the combine because they cook better and taste better. Storage is critical to keeping them, so thanks for your information on storage. Also, great to get warning about salt. Salt will make the beans tough and hard to soften, so good information for you to share. I cook my beans in small pressure cooker on my camp stove or home stove.
Thanks for this great video! I must say though that I’m one of those who couldn’t get old beans to soften. My sister gave me a 5 gallon bucket of pinto beans that she had in her indoor closet for many years - the bucket was not sealed and did not have oxygen absorbers. I tried everything to get those beans to cook up (soaked with baking soda, cooked, recooked and recooked again) but they remained crunchy and never softened enough to eat. Finally gave the rest away for making beanbags! I think the way beans are stored can make a difference in how they cook and if they soften. Also, I absolutely love the instant pot for cooking dry beans! It’s the only way I can safely eat them. I used to cook dried beans in my crockpot, after soaking them overnight, but had a very bad gastric reaction and discovered I’m now sensitive to lectins, which are greatly reduced by cooking at high temperature. All beans (and many other foods) have lectins but red beans such as scarlet runner and kidney are very high, almost toxic. It’s possible to become very ill (poisoned) by eating undercooked kidney beans, so please be careful!
I too am one of those who had no luck cooking 6/7 year old white navy beans. I vacuum packed them in mason jars.. and the seal was fine. They were stored in a cool, dry, dark basement. Basically... it *seems* I did everything correctly. I soaked them.. over night (no salt added), changed the water... and cooked and cooked them.. and they NEVER softened. So.. for me the mystery continues.
@@faithrada if they are old it is better to soak them 24h or more. I always do it that way. I soaked them in the morning to cook them next afternoon. I changec the soaking water at least 3 times. Cooked them with just water, bring them to boil, remove foam in case they produce some, (bc the linger the soaking the less foam) and then put them on the smallest burner at the minimum heat for over one hour. They become tender like butter! After that i season and add other ingredients. And this long soaking start the sprouting that desactivate the lectines, so they produce less digestive problems. Give it a try!
Thank you for this video. I am sad to say that I had some difficulty cooking some black beans that were stored in a gallon jar in my pantry for about 10 years. I paid a premium for them because they're organic and I did not have success cooking them in a pressure cooker. I followed all the steps you outlined except for the addition of baking soda during the soaking phase. No matter how long I cooked them, they were hard. So the baking soda must be the key. Also, I normally sprout my beans before cooking them because I believe the nutritional value is increased and it reduces cooking time. I found that garbanzo beans I had that were about 4 years old no longer sprouted. They did soften up normally but if you could comment on the viability of beans over time, I be intrested to see your thoughts. This is indeed the 1st video I've seen that encourages us to keep our older beans and cook them! I threw out a lot of beans that I'd had in my pantry for some time, but this gives me hope for the future! Thanks again and I look forward to your comments.
Now, I'm encouraged to try some of my older beans. I'm curious to see how it will work out. 🤔 I'll cook since this week. I'll start with the ones that are stored in their original packaging in the kitchen.
You’re right about the soaking in baking soda. A teaspoon of baking soda in the soak water works a right treat. Be prepared to give them a good long soak overnight, and maybe to change the water a couple of times and give it another day’s soak. Then, when you go to cook it, do the boiling before you add any salt or salty meat. Herbs and spices and other vegetables can go in. But the actual salt salty Ingredients should go in after the initial softening is done.
WOW! You guys are like the Bill Nye of bean storage and prep. I learned a lot from watching your video. I have stored various dry beans in two different ways. I dry canned some in mason jars. I also vacuum sealed some with my food saver and placed into food grade buckets. Like you, I'm fortunate to have a basement area that's cool, dry and dark for storage. Thanks to your video, I now know how to properly rehydrate and prepare my stored beans. I'm looking forward to more videos to help me learn and understand...I'm relatively new to long term food storage.
Thanks for the information. I just received my mylar bags and Oxygen absorbers. Instead of buckets I've got some other things to put them in so the rodents don't chew through the bags. Today I start with beans and rice. Then I'll move to other foods. I'm still trying to find a good location for wheat though. I want to store that and grind it as needed.
This is one thing I miss about winter. In the morning before I go to work, I will load up a pot of Presoaked pinto beans and put it on the woodstove. I let them slowly cook until I come home from work. The house smells so good with a good hot meal going.
So glad your video came up on my scroll . Now I will watch more of your videos to learn more . Don't want my food preps spoiling if I "can" avoid it .God bless you both .
@@TheProvidentPrepper Thank you , I mentioned your video today to the clerk at the CVS checkout as I was making additions to my food preps . Lots of sympathetic ears out there so there's hope .
I agree with blh, it seems the way the beans are stored makes a big difference. Just one more reason to take your time and do things correctly when you are prepping food for storage.
I keep watching your videos, decided to subscribe. I learn so much from your videos without all the chatter. Thank you for posting; you know what you are talking about. p.s. I de-shell them after soaking and I get perfect digestion and it cooks so fast, just 90 minutes in my Dutchy.
I know through personal experience that dried beans and split green peas both will not cook to be tasty or tender IF they are kept in the original plastic bags/packaging (you had images of them in this video) in a kitchen cabinet, you'll be lucky if they're good after 1-2 years has been my consistent experience. That would mean that what they are stored IN makes all the difference... get them outta those plastic bags and into old 2-liter soda bottles or into Mylar bags in lidded plastic buckets and out of the kitchen and into a cooler location! Of course unless you get them in #10 cans that are sealed from oxygen and light.
The main issue with the varying results with cooking beans, aside from the salt, is the hardness (mineral content, especially calcium) of the water. Soft water makes it easy to cook beans. Hard water makes it nearly impossible to get good results. Baking soda softens the water and guarantees consistent results.
@Rolf I've discovered the same thing with hard water: If one doesn't have the bicarb on hand, distilled water works quite well! Even filtered water is more effective at softening than straight from a tap or well.
excellent info. real research. sad for folks who threw older beans away. i have kept food storage since the 70's. when the staples were deemed old, we used them, in part, to raise hogs. no loss.
I can confirm the "no acid" advice. Cook the beans first, and no problems. Toss all ingredients together at the same time, and you will definitely get crunchy beans.... still edible, but not great. (Tomatoes are an acid food).
Liking and posting for that catchy Al Gore Rhythm! Staying for the great, intelligent commentary! Just found you and think you did a great THOROUGH job testing this. You definitely have a new subscriber!
Thank you for dispelling this myth! I am somewhat relieved...however...basements are not available in all parts of the country. Where my home is in Texas, limestone is perhaps 18 inches under the topsoil. It makes foundations very secure...but you would have to use blasting caps to get through the limestone in order to dig a basement...but then, because of the rain, they would fill with water every time it rains. We have LOTS of flash-flooding. (Lyman Wight brought a bunch of early saints to Texas and they settled 70 miles from my front doorstep. It was great...a very idyllic spot...until the first flash-flood washed them out.) Soooo...most homes in Texas are not equipped with basements nor ideal conditions for food storage. Even the condo I live in in Provo doesn't have a basement--nor AC, for that matter--so basements are not universal. I will have to check my food storage next time I'm home and see the conditions of my beans. I'm not worried about the grains so much--wheat, white and yellow dent corn--but the other things I need to check. They might be like your sister's. However...as far as beans...every meal had some sort of beans as an accompaniment to a meal. It was never any one kind...it could be pinto, navy, purple-hull, blackeyed peas, cream peas...you name it. One of my newer favorites is Anazazi beans that you can get in the Dove Creek, Colorado area. They are very tender, and I quite like them!
You know the little packets that come with your over the counter meds,,,and other things you buy,,I save them,,,and use them to.store food,,for long term,,,making sure of course you remove them to get your dried food storage,,,just put the packet on the very top of closed can
@@margaretmartinez1398 Those are desiccant packets that absorb moisture...not oxygen. You need to have actual oxygen absorbers to store dry goods in an oxygen-free environment.
Thanks for posting this, I just threw out a couple of one pound bags that were four to five years past expiration date because of another RUclips video which said three years max to use.
My favorite way of cooking dry beans is to soak them overnight with baking soda--the amount depending on the amount of beans. Next day, pour off the soaking water, fill pint jars half full of beans, add boiling water, put on the flat and ring and pressure--10 lbs. for my location--for 75 minutes and there you are... beans ready to turn into whatever you want. Somebody tells me at 3 pm that they want chili for supper--no problem. Brown the burger or open a jar of beef cubes, add the pintos or, even better, take a jar of home canned chicken, add a jar of mayacoba beans and a half pint jar of tomatoes and green chiles. Of course, all the spices and herbs you like. Add some cornbread--or-----fritos--and dinner is served. All other accompaniments are negotiable.
The lds preppier had a video on 8 year old beans that he did a procedure to soften beans left out. I tried it on some beans given to me that were five yes, not stored correctly, just left if half closed bag. I tried his method and it worked so the previous cooked beans that didn’t soften , did soften after using his methods . Thanks for your showing the importance of storing correctly.
The issue is with dried beans that have not been stored properly, for instance if you just keep them in the bag or in a jar on the shelf. Your beans were canned and protected from oxygen.
I think a similar issue is how quickly your store goes through their stock. I've seen bags of beans on grocery shelves that look like they've been sitting there for a long time. Of course those beans are going to be in worse shape when you get them than something harvested recently and stored properly at home.
Very nice video! I've had dry beans in glass containers for over 20 years and no problem cooking them. However, I know nothing about the quality or nutrition loss. Thank you!👵😊🎶
This was a great video. We absolutely love our Instant Pot so much that we bought the larger one as well. Throw in some diced ham and honey with the beans and cook in the instant pot for a delicious side dish.
Lol...I was just talking about this yesterday with a lady in Walmart...I've been "testing" beans stored in plastic soda bottles for over 8 years. They seemed to be the same as beans bought recently.
I almost clicked out of this video early because I know something about pintos.. lol Ha-so I thought. It seems I learn something from every video y'all post ! I never knew about retained heat cooking. Also learned about storage methods today. We love pintos in this small family, good for everything from soups, stews and side dish, as well as bean dip and refried beans with Spanish rice. We put them on nachos, tortillas or poured on cornbread. The list goes on. My friends from Mexico eat beans for breakfast, lunch and supper. They say you must have beans with every meal or you won't get full. Think I'll go soak some right now. Thanks for another great video !
I bought a tub of beans at an estate sale that was 8 years old. I cooked them for hours & hours & they never got done. I always soak my beans over night. I also do not add salt till they are soft & almost done.
THE NON-COOKING STATEMENT REFERS TO AIR-STORED ( OR STORE BOUGHT PLASTIC BAG ) LEFT ON A SHELF FORGOTTEN FOR YEARS..... IT IS ONLY 1/2 CORRECT..... KEEP SIMMERING AND YOU WILL HAVE SOFT BEANS...KEEP COOKING UNTIL SOFT.
Sorry but this was NOT my experience. I cooked the 'begeesus' out of those babies, trust me.. they NEVER softened. 😤🤔🙄 I was always told that dry beans keep like forever... no one ever pointed out that they may well need *special* handling. If I ever run into older beans again I'll try the baking soda and pressure cooker approach... now that I know there are caveats. The devil's in the details 😹
you guys absolutely rock...myth busted and it now only reinforces the importance of storing beans/rice as a foundation for prepper food stores...that was a lightning fast response to my humble inquiry too... you covered all the bases, slow cooker, pressure cooker, dutch oven on open flame, et al...VERY informative, beyond what i could hope to expect from such a video...also, i couldn't have found a better choice of folks to ask than an lds prepper couple who just happened to have an18 year old store of pinto beans hangin' around...i actually thought that finding a can or two of any dry beans that are 10 years old or so would be the toughest challenge haha...not only did you just have such in storage, they were the pinto beans rumored to be the toughest of all AND nearly twice that age, perfect...thank you so much kylene and jonathan, much obliged...i think a pressure cooker might be on my short list of stuff to purchase, once i'm done saving up for and buy a comprehensive solar setup for charging my aa and 18650 batteries and a laptop... God bless, hugs all around - jerzy... ;)))
@@TheProvidentPrepper kylene, you were of immense help, and yes inspiration as well, to me when the covid first hit the u.s. and i found you guys and asked all the newb questions about long term food storage...i would've gone down an incorrect route with storage if i didn't find you...and you continue to provide some of the best video content on this and related subject, very good quality of production/editing btw, no fluff but all to the point yet still entertaining...you guys truly rock and i bet most folks don't realize how much of a super-mom you are... perhaps you'll do a video someday on all the kids and their kids, it is not easy to - properly - raise such a number of offspring...you both [and kids probably too] are already an inspiration to many and could definitely be to many more families just on the merit of properly raising so many children...i have a suggestion, please don't rotate/replace ALL of your oldest food stores with fresh ones...put some of those oldest somewhere else to separate it from regular rotation...it's very uncommon and actually difficult to find properly [or even improperly] stored food stores which date back 10 years or more...most folks' history of prepping simply doesn't go back that far [this btw proves you are truly experienced and have practiced what you preached way back when most people have never even heard the word prepping]...to have actual food preps which are pretty close to and eventually will reach the supposed shelf limit of 25-30 years is gold... you can't purchase time and even the government uses various accelerated aging techniques on various products, meds and food included, to try and guesstimate their shelf life because it simply doesn't have enough of the long expired reserve of meds, food, etc., in ready supply...however, no simulation can take place of reality... these old stores can be nearly as important [for knowledge/research base] as the actual freshly rotated supply... :) - [edit - i just noticed a major inadvertent gaffe in my initial comment above so i quickly changed it to read correctly...i originally mistyped a phrase which read 'lsd prepper couple'...yeah, that creates a completely different neo-hippy meaning than intended haha]...
@@TheProvidentPrepper unreal, 29 year old food stores are incredible to still have intact... super, i'll be on a lookout for that one when you get around to making it...jus please save part of this cache for later tests as well...
In the South, we eat black eyed peas on New Years day for good luck in the new year. They represent coins. I soaked and cooked mine according to directions. 2 hrs. I was warned to not soak them overnight. They turned out crunchy. Maybe thats why 2020 has been a bear?
I'm a northerner who didn't try blackeyed peas until I had them down south in my 20's. Love at first bite! I don't soak mine. I sort through them and wash them good and set aside. I fry some bacon cut into small pieces (6-8 slices or so) and while the bacon is frying I dice a medium onion. I remove the bacon when it's done and saute the onion in the bacon grease and when the onion is transparent I add the blackeyed peas and water to cover them. Simmer on low, adding water if needed, until beans are tender. Salt and pepper to taste and top with bacon before serving.
@@bethlahti5155 every vegetable in the South is fried, sauteed, boiled, or otherwise cooked with bacon. Glad u liked them. I had bad beans this year and look, the lying Fed now says that there is a COIN SHORTAGE !!! LOL
@@bettye444 they were hard, even after 2 hours according to directions, and even after trying again further then next day. I dumped them. I am quite certain that his is why the Fed has a.coin shortage this year. Lol
Well, I soak my beans for 24 hrs. but I do give them a quick flush about 12 hrs. through. I tried the baking soda trick but heard it reduces the B - Vitamins in the Beans. So I prefer to soak them. I use a standard pressure cooker for at least 60 min but may go to 90 if the beans are old. I like adding a couple of smoked Turkey Legs to mine and a couple of cans of Rotel Red & Green Chili's and some Garlic. Salt at the end to taste.
The Provident Prepper it is a tedious process for sure. I dry them completely than crumble the shells off, sift than winnow off the shells. It's not a perfect process but it works fairly well. I've missed catching up with you and watching your videos! I'm glad I finally found some time to catch up👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 we have been burning the candle at both ends lately. Winter is coming!😱 there is always so much to do!
I heard that rumour from a survivalist who should have known. He said they won't soften unless you pressure cook them! When you pulled out the instant pot I thought he was right, and then you tested various means of cooking. I'm glad it worked because I've got quite a few stored beans.
I've been poking around the internet since watching this video and reading the comments. Some of us were wondering about recipes for interesting dishes using beans. I've found some videos describing how to experiment with using lentils. I'm betting that many of the recipes ca be used with beans, too. The videos don't give you a written recipe for each dish. However, you can go to lentils.org for some recipes. Clicking on the link to Chef Michael Smith will bring you to more recipes paired with instructional videos.
Hard beans taste better than grubs and bugs.
yuck, too much work trying to rescue old beans
Lol! Best commit on here! 🦟🐌🐛vs beans.
hahaha!....I'll take your word for it and avoid doing my own taste test!.....hahaha....
Yup! Your belly is your worst master! People don't plan to fail, they fail to plan.....then expect others to bail them out of the mess. but for those with discernment, there is adequate food available in the areas around us to sustain us. We've just gotten so used to going to the store & buying it processed & packaged for us, something our Great -Great Grandparents couldn't do!
Have you tried🕷🦋🐜🦟 & 🐛’s LOL
Great video and information! Thank you!
Just a suggestion ... Instead of throwing out the soaking water, down the drain ... Save it to water your plants! They'll love you for it! Plants LOVE those carbs, sugars, and other things that give us gas!
Or compost pile, if you don’t have plants.
Most of all, plants love the nitrogen that comes from beans. Beans fix their own nitrogen, something few other plants can do. They and other legumes are often used to replenish nitrogen in soil, and they can be good for rotating crops.
We, too, need fixed nitrogen in the form of nitrate.
This is such a great suggestion! I’m going to try it. No one ever accused me of having a green thumb before, so it can’t hurt. I wonder if there’s another culinary use for it also, Jacque Pepin Has recipes where he uses the bean juice from canned beans. And that can also be used to whip up as an egg white substitute
Wonderful idea 👍🏻‼️😁
Greetings from New Zealand. I think the biggest issue with beans is salt. A lot of people don't realize that even with fairly fresh dried beans, salting the cooking water can prevent them from softening properly - especially if one tends to be heavy-handed with the salt.
My grandmother who always made salted pork and beans would add salt in the beginning of her beans , as well as my mother- and simmered them all day long- hours. It was a chef that explained to me the best time to add the salt. It really is a huge difference.
Many recent experiments have shown the common salt myth to be false. In fact, salting softens the skins so that they don't burst as easily while cooking.
@@lizardas Americas Test Kitchen shows this.
@@djokicmetamora As does Helen Rennie, who probably got her information, at least in part, from them.
This is true
The rumor is that beans left in unprotected storage will become had to soften. Your beans appeared to be vacuum packed with an oxygen absorber pack. THAT is the recommended way of storing beans for the long run so they will be usable. I’ve tried to cook beans that were old and had problems.
Agree 100 percent.
James Payne: it’s more than just a rumor. You’re absolutely right. Unprotected means, they can become very hard to soften by boiling.
So the trick is, you have to soak your package of beans in a water containing a teaspoon of baking soda. They soften up beautifully then. Change the water after the first major soak, and maybe rinse that too. Then, cook it in unsalted water for an hour or so, until it reaches the desired softness. Then you can salt it all you like, or add salt-cured meat. :)
@@daphneraven6745
Grateful 4 that 👍
I was going to say the same thing.
Another echo here, sealed in airtight cans is key! I've tried cooking beans bought in the grocery store in standard plastic bags that were around 3 years old after getting lost behind large items, and no amount of remedies or cooking time would render them remotely edible! They might as well have been a bag of rocks!!!
Wow! I cannot believe all the trouble you went thru just to help everyone out....THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!
What an amazing gift of your time and energy to explain this to us in such clear language so carefully. You are very giving people
I have used up my od 30 year old beans stored in mylar bags. Used them all.
Beans were found in king tut's tomb. There were some that were still able to sprout after being in hermetically sealed containers for thousands of years. Or so I was told.
Gas was probably found
in King Tut's tomb....
Yes...my wife cooked some a while ago.......
...as we're the Twinkies. 😆
Phil Smith... Are you perhaps talking about King Tut's peas, which look like beans?
These were claimed to be from the tomb and were found to be viable when brought back to England. Alas, that is a myth, the variety is only about 100 years old. They were first developed in England, and the story was invented to make them popular.
@@oldbatwit5102 These were black beans with a white strip on one side. A friend my mine's grandmother supposedly knew someone who was in the carter expedition or so I was told.
This is Erick's wife, Tabitha. We share a RUclips account. I love this video. My favorite way to cook pinto beans is in a crock pot. I peel an onion and cut it in half, and add a stalk of celery whole and a whole carrot and 3 bay leaves. Chili powder and cumin. I set it on low and forget about it all day long and over cook them on purpose. Recently I cooked them on high but I had to stir them and add water every few hours. At the end they become mushy and I pull the celery and carrot and bay leaf out but usually leave the onion in because it will fall apart with the beans anyway, then I use a hand masher and mash the beans. Good way to take out frustration! I add salt and one stick of real butter. It can't be any other kind of butter. Mash more. Best ever refried beans.
Thank you for the recipe, Tabitha. I have been dutifully stocking beans, but I have no clue what to do with them other than minestrone. My favorite recipe comes from Laurel's Kitchen, a cook book I received in the 80". Unfortunately, my copy has hidden itself behind a piece of furniture. I have many other recipes in my cookbook collection, but none quite as good. Slow cooker minestrone is my project for today
I'm coming to YOUR house!
I like that recipe. I believe I’ll try it. Thanks
My parents were simple country folks & raised me on greens with most every meal, & I still love pinto beans & cornpone as a meal! Throw in a hamhock & some scallions & you've got a little slice of heaven! Mmmmm good! Thanks for the video!
BS rumor. I've cooked with old beans myself! Same goes for peas, lentils and other kinds.
And you don't need baking soda, just a longer soak. (like 24 hours or more)
Beans are a great staple for storage! =)
Right!
you are still dealing with substandard beans, i think the germ or whatever looses its 'life strength" and you get what you get = old nasty beans
Have you tried?
@@camilla74hansen not for quite a while
How were they stored?
Thanks for this! I saw the same info about beans online and assumed it was correct. Really glad you set the record straight.
😎 Soak over night, change the water, place in a slow cocker.
That simple. Use the soaking water to benefit a plant.
😎 Old beans that where just in a bag, get hard over time, because they keep drying out.
❤ You can make cream of beans, place some cooked beans in a good blender with enough liquid. Saute onion in a little bacon grease. Add the contents of that blender. Bring to a simmer, and serve with a spoon of white rice. A spoonful of sour cream also is good, absolutely delicious, and older babies love it too.
❤ Something else that can be done with really old beans, is bean flour, to enrich your baking. There used to be a book out there, called
FULL OF BEANS . Hopefully you can find it somehow.
Amazing video. I love how you tried five different cooking methods. Love you guys!
@@TheProvidentPrepper .. I know that was a lot of work from beginning to end. Soak, cook the beans various ways, taste test, and make a different meal from each one, plus the video. Now that's a hands on approach ☺️.
Thanks for correcting that - I was one of those who thought old beans were hard to soften up.
Such a timely video! I made small red beans in the slow cooker this morning. I start early, so they've been cooking about 7 hours. I drained the soaking water off of them, put beans in crockpot, covered with fresh water. Added two tablespoons of sofrito, some chopped onions, about 4 oz. of tomato sauce and two packs Sazon seasoning. Tasted just before they were done and added salt. It may not be necessary to add salt..just depends on your tastes. They are so delicious!
I will have to try this ! Just bought red beans yesterday . I know they make the best baked beans . My youngest likes spicy so have to try this .
Pressure cooker - never had a problem...except they can get too soft if you pressure cook them more than a few minutes. I add salt before cooking to maintain some firmness/texture.
I might ask my neighbors if they've heard that old beans never soften up and take them off their hands. I'm glad to help and it's the neighborly thing to do. :-)
I opened a mylar pouch of dried broad beans I had packaged way back in 1999, I'd even included a tablet of baking soda in the pouch 😆 an awful lot of people nowadays have no idea how to cook unless following a recipe on RUclips etc I made tuna and butter bean casserole using canned tuna which "expired" in December 2018 😊 it was delicious imo
The myth comes from the reality that most people don't use beans that are in an air tight container. Most people leave their beans in the bags that they get from the grocery store. That's why you are putting them in air tight containers that and to keep bugs out.
A big can, once opened....could they be put in smaller containers with oxygen absorbers and get good results later?
Maybe even vacuum sealed?
@@freedomspromise8519 Yes, you could do that. People don't usually even do that. Until recently people just kept there beans in the bags then used them within a year.
Beans dont get bugs. They can get hard. Pressure canning helps so does adding a bit of baking soda when you cook them.
Peggy, beans can definitely get weevils. The eggs are sometimes present from the store, especially if they have low turnover of their dried beans. Freezing them for 24-48 hours when you get them home kills the eggs. A low-oxygen environment also kills the eggs.
@@JM.5387 ok. I have been prepping for 17 years and I've never gotten bugs in my beans. Now you wanna talk about moths! I've had terrible trouble with moths. Take care!
I’ve never had problems with our stored beans being hard, we liked to use our instapot to cook dry pintos they turn out perfect every time and you can’t go wrong with a big cast iron pan of buttermilk aunt jemima cornbread that’s how we do it in the south.
I always got them to soften up and the can beans were over 20 years. You guys did exactly how my mom taught me
In Europe during WWII, most people didn't have enough fuel to cook much. In the morning, they cut up whatever they had to eat and brought it to a boil. They then took the pot off the stove and put it in a wooden box that was lined with lots of old newspapers, blankets, hay, and whatever else they had for insulation. They heaped some more material on top and let it sit all day. At supper time, it was done. A poor man's slow cooker. This also works in peace time.
I recently heard that myth, so thank you for clearing that up for me!
I have beans over a decade old, opened the bucket last month to start using them. No problem.
I'm relatively new at this so please excuse my ignorance. What size bucket? Were they still in plastic bags inside the bucket? If not, did you use the little packets that remove oxygen? How was the bucket sealed? Thank you.
Tricia C most people store in Mylar bags sealed with an appropriate size oxygen absorber and if in a very humid area some use a moisture absorbing packet too but not necessarily necessary. Then store in your plastic tote or bucket. Many actually get bags the size of a five gallon bucket and fit it in the bucket then fill it and seal it. I do believe that this is convenient and a fast way to store up the bulk bag of food you bought but no one is going to consume that much at once. So I think it’s better to seal smaller bags and store them in your bucket or tote. The Mylar and oxygen absorber is protecting your food from most elements the bucket or tote is keeping it further protected from vermin and rodents. However, some small animals and rodents are able to chew through plastic. Hopefully your bags are sealed good enough that there is no indication of food being in it. Some people store in mason jars then put those in the box the jars came in then store in a cool dark location or in a dark colored bin hidden away. Remember not to have all your eggs in one basket. So if someone finds one basket you’ve got another. Also on some items you will want to rotate through them. So if your main pantry is in need of rice and you store rice in case of an emergency or hurricane or something then get the rice you need from your emergency supplies. When you go to the store next restock your emergency supplies. This way you’re using the items too and nothing will be getting too old or past prime dates. It’s why they say only store what you like. So you’ll actually eat it. Yes, you’ll eat things in some situations you might not every day but creature comforts help people cope better with the stress of emergency situations. Having to eat something you normally would not is only going to make it more stressful for everyone. Learn to cook on your grill or propane stove or whatever you plan to use. Learn to create meals from your stored food. If you buy emergency type food try some of it before you invest in a lot of it. Make sure y’all like it. Watch RUclips videos. What our grand parents did by gardening and canning food was saving up that food for harder times or winter when they couldn’t garden. It’s the same principles. Canned food is said to last forever. Even some commercially canned foods? Spam was said to last forever during world war 2 but now they put dates on it so people will buy more. BPA lined cans of today might not last too long or be healthy. Not like a glass canning jar. Use your best judgment on some things.
Lisa Raper such a helpful response! Thank you
Were they vacuumed sealed or just in a bucket with top ???
@@lisaraper8053 I've been prepping for 17 years. Pasta lasts FOREVER. Cans of acid fruits and veggies go bad the quickest. Canned spinach tastes awful just past the expiration date.
I just used my Instant-Pot to cook beans last night--first time! It's amazing! I had read that anything dry canned is good for at least 20 years. I wasn't surprised the beans turned out great. And that's why I watched this video. Thanks for posting it.
What a great video -- so very informative!! I appreciated the comparisons w/ the cooking methods, and also the trailer section showing how storage really does affect the food product. Thank you for busting that tired myth of "old hard beans."
Just last week, I made a large batch of baked beans using the Great Northerns, cooked in a crock pot. Once cooked, I added in my sauce ingredients and cooked them further. Delicious!
Pressure-canning beans for shelf-ready foods are such an easy canning task and I always keep a few shelves to use at any time. I also store dehydrated refried pinto beans, and have a container for everyday use.
Did y’all have the whole neighborhood come over for a bean dinner?! Lol that’s a hecka lot of beans. What a test! You guys are heroes. BTW, as I write this I am picturing the campfire scene in Blazing Saddles 🥴💨
This is the very best bean tutorial I have ever seen.! Thank you!
Thank you I learned several need to know for dry beans. Please keep up the great work and info. Love it.
Thank you so much for all your hard work and efforts in helping others become food self sufficient
It’s best to soak beans overnight (12 hours), discard the water and use fresh water to cook with. Dried beans are among foods that contain anti-nutrients (naturally-occurring phytate, protease inhibitors, lectins, tannins and calcium oxalate) that can limit the body’s absorption of nutrients like magnesium, calcium, iron, phosphorus, and zinc.
Thanks for the info. We will try soaking them longer now.
Phytates can be easily mitigated or destroyed entirely by eating rye along with your meal. Rye contains very large amounts of phytase which breaks down phytic acid. Rye is a part of every meal in some form. Just sprinkling a small amount of rye flour on your food will do the trick. I've often wondered if the vigor and heartiness of the Northern European tribes was helped by the rye in their diet making more of what they ate available for assimilation.
@@allenemersonn1227 That’s amazing about the rye!
Lectin and oxalate both cause arthritis and permeable gut disease if eaten in excess or without balancing nutrients. I wonder if rye helps those issues, too?
That’s one reason to pressure cook your beans because the anti nutrients are destroyed at a high temperature.😄
What good information! Very helpful. Like your sister's, I too, must store in a warmer space. Some pintos turned dark and were awful. I didn't try the baking soda trick though. I tossed them in the compost pile.... and they didn't rot there or sprout... and not one animal ate them. I eventually buried them and assumed in time some microbiology would turn them into soil. I concluded that I should target a 5 year rotation to avoid losing the beans in my warm desert conditions, but I never toss stuff until it's been tested. Thank you for sharing such thorough information.
Great information guys. Glad you put it to the test
THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH for using all your beans and resources to show us and educate us on beans! I loved your video. God Bless you both!
If beans are too hard to cook then grind them up and use them for flour.
Now that's an interesting idea! Never thought about that.
If they aren't properly cooked they will make you sick.
@@dwightehowell8179 ah yes, because flour is often eaten raw...
@@Notanothercrayon Just recently read a post in which a woman made the mistake of not cooking some home made refried beans created by grinding up some raw pinto beans the 11 minutes needed to be safe. They looked done and both she and her husband indulged and got seriously sick. You are trying to be smart but in fact you are just showing you didn't know jack.
@@dwightehowell8179 Really dude? Does a bit of light discourse hurt your feelings that much? Thanks for the interesting info but believe it or not, it's possible to further argue your point without being an asshole about it ;)
I first heard this last night on a different channel. If you think your phone isn’t listening to you wake up. This type of thing has been happening waaaay more often lately. I’ll mention something to someone then I get an ad or video pop up on Facebook or RUclips within a day.
Thanks for the video, very informative and practical. For those of us that have been prepping/stock piling food for years, this helps give peace of mind knowing that our preps could out last us.
On covid deaths. Off subject. Did hospitals isolate the virus load by serology in their post mortems? That should be a normal response. Has the coroner been asked? If not done, why not?
As for the ICU patients. What are their symptoms and co morbidity? Are they intubated and on mechanical ventilators? (Who owns the ventilator company and who profits from the trading? U.S. Representatives?) Does your hospital have a hyperbaric chamber and has it ever been used for the respiratory distress or cytokine storm? What are the ICU patient’s chances if they follow a pandemic normal course of treatment vs. getting hyperbaric oxygen immediately? I read that in Mineola, NY, the Winthrop hospital did a randomized trial and was successful, in treating those symptoms that normally kill you, in 90% of the trial patients.
Do we have such treatment available? If not, why not? Why has the FDA dragged its feet on this? Who is funding alternative treatments? Where’s the patient choice that the private insurance industry always tells you they are so in favor of?
Well? Where is it? My hospital got rid of it's chamber for Hyperbaric oxygen therapy in 2016. 2016.
Stephen Verchinski wow ok lol not off subject at all
@@brmicmatthews8398 you would be amazed at the stonewalling I get on this subject. Been doing the research and on covid sites I immediately get shadow banned. I saved lives for a living (Park Ranger, scuba diver, expedition mountaineering leader). Today I believe the status quo is placing profit before people.
No biggy if they don't soften bean flour has a Lot of uses.
I also made a kind of 'tea cozy' for my thermal/retained heat cooker.😉
@@TheProvidentPrepper .. good information. I too have a thermal cooker and I never thought about adding extra coverings. Even a towel would be extra.
I think the people who said they had trouble getting their beans to soften were using older beans that had not been stored properly. We also had this problem with dry beans we got from a food pantry. The beans were in their usual packaging and were most likely old. We cooked them the same way we always cooked dry beans but these were unusually hard after hours of cooking.
Informative! A quick search revealed that the current price of a number 10 can of dry beans is anywhere from $20 to $30. Crazy! This is around 5X the price you mentioned 18 months ago. A video on drying and canning beans would be of interest.
I love to slow cook pinto beans. Garlic, chilies, and a little bacon grease. I keep them cooking all night long and when I wake up in the morning, the house smells amazing. We like them really well cooked with almost a gravy since the liquid thickens nicely.
That thick gravy is awesome,,,throw in spinach,,, purslane,,,to make beans in it juice,, after there cooked,,a little,bacon,,diced meat, diced fresh tomatoes,onion, cilantro,and eat..
Wow! Great demonstration with the beans! I love all the ways you showed to cook them.
The best way to store beans is in a cool, dark, dry room.
I store most of my dry beans in mason jars. My son uses a vacuum pump, and he heats the lids in the oven first. His system he built is much stronger than the store bought sealers, so I know my beans will last for years, and they are stored in a cool dark room with a towel over them to keep out the light. I just canned beans that I stored in 2005. They taste great! I do soak my beans after washed over night, pour off water and rinse. I too love the instant pot the best, and I cook mine like you do. Even when I pressure can my beans I soak them over night in warm water to get rid of the gas part that isn't good for us.
I had a large pail of beans for over 20 yrs, we ate them all the time. Did find it took a little longer to soften. I always poured hot water over them to soak
I haven’t got much past the opening of the cans. I LOVE you two for this! None of my peeps are that old ... but this is GREAT!!!! Thank you very much.
I have never had to use baking soda to soften beans. They have always been soft after soaking overnight, rinsing them off, filling the pot of the rinsed beans with water, then cooking them covered for several hours slowly on a regular kitchen stove burner. And I have always put salt or bullion in the water while boiling them along with garlic and onion and bacon bits and butter. Then I serve it with homemade biscuits or cornbread. It’s always been a big hit in my family. My mom and her mom used to cook beans the same way as a kind of thick soup.
However, they were never 18 year old or older beans. Many times they were over five years old, give or take a couple of years, but never stored outside or anywhere with light just in the pantry though not at all stored with oxygen absorbers. But thank you so much for the tips on how to cook them should they ever get to that point of staying hard after cooking them.
May I make a respectful suggestion though regarding baking soda? Red Mill baking soda has no aluminum in it. Perhaps using that kind of baking soda instead may be a bit more beneficial to one’s health. And baking soda and powder both do not have long storage lives. Just a thought.
The baking soda is more for the 'effect' some people get after eating the beans.....my mother-in-law always put the beans in b.soda.....said it took out the 'gassy' effect!
I am using baking powder I keep in a pickle jar for 23 years
Mylar bags with oxygen absorbers
Watching this video gave me the motivation (and courage!) to open some of my old #10 cans. I was surprised that my dry milk from 31 years ago still tasted great! In fact, we decided to use it up and haven't purchased any milk from the store for the past 2 months. You guys inspire us!
Thank you! We have a lot of beans in our storage. Making a food storage care package for my daughter,for her move to Utah, and of course beans are a big part. 💜🙋🏻
Excellent video, nicely done. Last year we found some packaged pintos in their original bags from the late 90s, still in the plastic tubs, in one of our connexes. We live in SC … famously hot. I’d be willing to bet it hit 140 degrees in those connexes out behind the barn on more than one occasion over the years. They cooked-up medium dark not quite like the ones you pictured for your sister. But we cooked ours and they were fine. The wife actually just reminded me that we canned some of those (Ball/Mason jars) using our ham hock recipe and they turned-out more than fine. But you’re right, I’ve seen that myth perpetrated 1000 times about seven year old beans being too tough …. that nonsense needed dispelling. BTW, we love our instapots too.
Twinkies last forever. Some were found in the Great Pyramids at Cheops which were evidently left behind by the burial crew.
😂 no doubt!
Or the tourist group, hmmmm
Rotfl!!
And the buried were found to contain large traces of the yellow sponge cakes and cream filling was the reason no embalming was needed
I worked for hostess and Twinkies do go bad.
This is so good to know! I have about 50 pounds of pinto beans stored in mylar bags with oxygen absorbers, then the mylar bag was sealed shut with an iron and packed in a food grade bucket with lid… They are currently about 16 years old. I hope I’ll be able to get the same results as you folks did. Great video…
A pressure cooker can soften a bucket of ball bearings.
@@billburgess9100 lol
We soak them for several days, changing the water once or twice a day till they start to sprout.
Beans like pinto were bred for flour. It's gluten free, but use no more than 50%. Mesquite beans can be 40 years old and still considered fresh.
Mar Schlosser: I did not know that about Pinto beans, although I knew they could be used for flour.
If you sprout them and dry them before making flour at it, there’s something like 50% more nutrition in them.
A teaspoon of baking soda in the original soak water makes a really big difference to how they soak and soften in the cooking process. It’s really good to know, if you find a package of beans at the back of the cupboard that you’d like to use, but have been there a long time.
Another nice little thing that you probably already know but I’ll say just in case, is that if you cook your beans, just plain cook them in water, and then dehydrate them and store them in a sealed bottle, in a power outage already time like that, when you want to cook but energy is at a premium, beans cook up in 10 minutes or so, with all the trimmings, if you’ve taken the time to pre-cook and dehydrate them.
Another bonus to this is that if you’re a person that likes to go hiking or camping, You don’t have to gather up nearly as many sticks or cotton early as much wood to cook that kind of food, and it weighs pretty much nothing in your backpack. Win-win.
@@daphneraven6745 We make dried frijoles to take. Pintos were bred for flour but are great in most ways. Here, south Arizona, they dry in a snap. Terapy beans are the best for a dry garden, tho. Chia i the best non-meat food to take. In Mexico, Indians took a few pounds and lived on 2-4 tablespoons a day of it and water when on campaign. Mizx a spoon of chia with water, let it set overnite, and it sprouts before dawn. You can live for weeks on that but too much and you get fat.
@@marschlosser4540 : thank you very much! This is some pretty impressive information. I got a bag of pintos, I have no clue how they’re gonna be, but I’m gonna go online find me a recipe for them. I’ll have to figure out what frijoles are, and give those a shot too.
And I really didn’t know that about Chia seeds. That’s some seriously quick sprouting, and would result in a lot of intense nutrition. Perhaps I’ll put those on tonight as well, just to see what breakfast will be like in the morning. :-)
Do you have a blog or website, where you talk about this stuff? Because that would be something that I would definitely want to take in.
@@daphneraven6745 Frijoles, refried beans. Pintos are the favorite for them. They make a good ham soup, too. We like them in American Indian baked beans. 2 lbs pintos, soaked and cooked till tender. Drain. Put in roasting pan. Add 3-5 lbs beef roast. cover with 2 quarts cooking salsa (strong onion taste). Cover that with ripe seeded chilis or sweet peppers (ripe!) skin side up. Cover and slow cook in oven (300 F, several hours) till meat is tender. Uncover, turn up heat to scorch peppers to release sugars.
@@marschlosser4540 : I can almost taste that recipe! Thank you very much. I think I might be able to slip it in the next weeks menu. It’ll be awesome. :-)
I hope you don’t mind my suggestion that somebody with your skills it should have a blog. At the very least.
Thanks again. :D
Thank you for sharing such important information!
Sore spot for me. We had to toss 30 lbs of VERY old dry pinto beans out, probably upwards of 20 years old or more. Twenty pounds of those were in a burlap bag and the rest were in plastic storage containers. The ones in the burlap bags were less gross than the others, but all of them smelled musty, didn't look great, just not a good situation. We did a small test batch and they never cooked up well or smelled appetizing. So, out they went into the pasture! Just canned up several bags that we bought within the last three years and purchased more fresh to replace those in the food storage bucket.
did the pasture beans grow at all?....did your animals eat them and get colicky?
Great video. You covered storage, prep and cooking. Plus you are a great couple !
@@TheProvidentPrepper Sweet. You better keep him then. :)
I had a bad experience with old, stored beans but I think it was because they were stored incorrectly, probably without a vacuum seal and in 1/2 gallon glass canning jars. They were hard and unpleasant, probably 10 years old. The key is good storage technique. Also on retained heat cooking, I've done this for a couple of decades following the book Fireless Cookery by Heidi Kirschner - but it is out of print now - hard to find. I used a large wicker laundry basket full of clean straw with a nest lined with a clean towel for the pot and topped with a pillow. It worked very well - no special equipment.
I think that’s likely the source of the rumor, someone that found a really old bag of beans in the back of their cupboard, just in the plastic bag they were sold in.
@@KellyS_77 In my case I had stored the beans in glass canning jars but I don't believe they were vacuum sealed and they were at least 10 years old.
Did you use baking soda during the soak of your beans? Just curious.
B Gray: Storage conditions to make Difference, but if you sold them very well with baking soda in the water, even if they weren’t stored optimally, you’ll still have good food.
I’ve known about retained heat cooking, But my understanding is that you had to put heat in it to retain. Like maybe 10 minutes on the burner, with a good lid before putting it in your hay box.
If this new idea, I’ve been cooking without using any of energy, just wrapping up putting hey, is a thing, then this could be a game changer.
When they were power outages for extended periods of time, there is a way to treat the day so that it generates a lot of heat, and will keep the large room warm for quite an extended period of time. This might be one way to generate enough heat from hay without putting it on the hob first.
If you live in a warm country, or a hot one, hay alone could be enough, especially the solar on.
I like fresh beans straight from the combine because they cook better and taste better. Storage is critical to keeping them, so thanks for your information on storage. Also, great to get warning about salt. Salt will make the beans tough and hard to soften, so good information for you to share. I cook my beans in small pressure cooker on my camp stove or home stove.
Thanks for this great video! I must say though that I’m one of those who couldn’t get old beans to soften.
My sister gave me a 5 gallon bucket of pinto beans that she had in her indoor closet for many years - the bucket was not sealed and did not have oxygen absorbers. I tried everything to get those beans to cook up (soaked with baking soda, cooked, recooked and recooked again) but they remained crunchy and never softened enough to eat. Finally gave the rest away for making beanbags!
I think the way beans are stored can make a difference in how they cook and if they soften.
Also, I absolutely love the instant pot for cooking dry beans! It’s the only way I can safely eat them. I used to cook dried beans in my crockpot, after soaking them overnight, but had a very bad gastric reaction and discovered I’m now sensitive to lectins, which are greatly reduced by cooking at high temperature.
All beans (and many other foods) have lectins but red beans such as scarlet runner and kidney are very high, almost toxic. It’s possible to become very ill (poisoned) by eating undercooked kidney beans, so please be careful!
Try pressure cooking them with the baking soda. I do agree, tho, that the way they are stored matters a lot.
Thank you for the information on reducing lectins. That’s going to improve the quality of life for a couple of family members!
I too am one of those who had no luck cooking 6/7 year old white navy beans. I vacuum packed them in mason jars.. and the seal was fine.
They were stored in a cool, dry, dark basement. Basically... it *seems* I did everything correctly.
I soaked them.. over night (no salt added), changed the water... and cooked and cooked them.. and they NEVER softened.
So.. for me the mystery continues.
Faith Rada I had a hard time soften up fresh dry beans in the store.
@@faithrada if they are old it is better to soak them 24h or more. I always do it that way. I soaked them in the morning to cook them next afternoon. I changec the soaking water at least 3 times. Cooked them with just water, bring them to boil, remove foam in case they produce some, (bc the linger the soaking the less foam) and then put them on the smallest burner at the minimum heat for over one hour. They become tender like butter! After that i season and add other ingredients. And this long soaking start the sprouting that desactivate the lectines, so they produce less digestive problems. Give it a try!
Thank you so much. This is the first I've heard how to cook the beans. Storing then I've been ok.
Thanks so much for your great information
Thank you for this video. I am sad to say that I had some difficulty cooking some black beans that were stored in a gallon jar in my pantry for about 10 years. I paid a premium for them because they're organic and I did not have success cooking them in a pressure cooker. I followed all the steps you outlined except for the addition of baking soda during the soaking phase. No matter how long I cooked them, they were hard. So the baking soda must be the key.
Also, I normally sprout my beans before cooking them because I believe the nutritional value is increased and it reduces cooking time. I found that garbanzo beans I had that were about 4 years old no longer sprouted. They did soften up normally but if you could comment on the viability of beans over time, I be intrested to see your thoughts.
This is indeed the 1st video I've seen that encourages us to keep our older beans and cook them! I threw out a lot of beans that I'd had in my pantry for some time, but this gives me hope for the future! Thanks again and I look forward to your comments.
Now, I'm encouraged to try some of my older beans. I'm curious to see how it will work out. 🤔 I'll cook since this week. I'll start with the ones that are stored in their original packaging in the kitchen.
You’re right about the soaking in baking soda. A teaspoon of baking soda in the soak water works a right treat. Be prepared to give them a good long soak overnight, and maybe to change the water a couple of times and give it another day’s soak.
Then, when you go to cook it, do the boiling before you add any salt or salty meat. Herbs and spices and other vegetables can go in. But the actual salt salty Ingredients should go in after the initial softening is done.
WOW! You guys are like the Bill Nye of bean storage and prep. I learned a lot from watching your video. I have stored various dry beans in two different ways. I dry canned some in mason jars. I also vacuum sealed some with my food saver and placed into food grade buckets. Like you, I'm fortunate to have a basement area that's cool, dry and dark for storage. Thanks to your video, I now know how to properly rehydrate and prepare my stored beans. I'm looking forward to more videos to help me learn and understand...I'm relatively new to long term food storage.
Thanks for the information. I just received my mylar bags and Oxygen absorbers. Instead of buckets I've got some other things to put them in so the rodents don't chew through the bags.
Today I start with beans and rice. Then I'll move to other foods.
I'm still trying to find a good location for wheat though. I want to store that and grind it as needed.
This is one thing I miss about winter. In the morning before I go to work, I will load up a pot of Presoaked pinto beans and put it on the woodstove. I let them slowly cook until I come home from work. The house smells so good with a good hot meal going.
Soaking and the pressure cooker, that's how I learned gto cook beans and peas and lentils from my mother.
So glad your video came up on my scroll . Now I will watch more of your videos to learn more . Don't want my food preps spoiling if I "can" avoid it .God bless you both .
@@TheProvidentPrepper
Thank you , I mentioned your video today to the clerk at the CVS checkout as I was making additions to my food preps . Lots of sympathetic ears out there so there's hope .
I found a stash of some in my parents goat house and they was over 20 years old and was fine lol
Thank you
were they canned?
@@bootangyyes #10 cans
Results vary
Could being sealed in the can make the difference?
I agree with blh, it seems the way the beans are stored makes a big difference. Just one more reason to take your time and do things correctly when you are prepping food for storage.
I love all this info! Thank you~
I keep watching your videos, decided to subscribe. I learn so much from your videos without all the chatter. Thank you for posting; you know what you are talking about. p.s. I de-shell them after soaking and I get perfect digestion and it cooks so fast, just 90 minutes in my Dutchy.
I know through personal experience that dried beans and split green peas both will not cook to be tasty or tender IF they are kept in the original plastic bags/packaging (you had images of them in this video) in a kitchen cabinet, you'll be lucky if they're good after 1-2 years has been my consistent experience. That would mean that what they are stored IN makes all the difference... get them outta those plastic bags and into old 2-liter soda bottles or into Mylar bags in lidded plastic buckets and out of the kitchen and into a cooler location! Of course unless you get them in #10 cans that are sealed from oxygen and light.
The main issue with the varying results with cooking beans, aside from the salt, is the hardness (mineral content, especially calcium) of the water. Soft water makes it easy to cook beans. Hard water makes it nearly impossible to get good results. Baking soda softens the water and guarantees consistent results.
@Rolf I've discovered the same thing with hard water: If one doesn't have the bicarb on hand, distilled water works quite well! Even filtered water is more effective at softening than straight from a tap or well.
Good stuff! Thanks for sharing.
Thank you so much, I was putting all my ingredient together in the pressure cooker. Now I'll wait
It depends on how they're stored, I'm sure.
excellent info. real research. sad for folks who threw older beans away. i have kept food storage since the 70's. when the staples were deemed old, we used them, in part, to raise hogs. no loss.
I can confirm the "no acid" advice. Cook the beans first, and no problems. Toss all ingredients together at the same time, and you will definitely get crunchy beans.... still edible, but not great. (Tomatoes are an acid food).
Liking and posting for that catchy Al Gore Rhythm! Staying for the great, intelligent commentary!
Just found you and think you did a great THOROUGH job testing this. You definitely have a new subscriber!
Thank you for dispelling this myth! I am somewhat relieved...however...basements are not available in all parts of the country. Where my home is in Texas, limestone is perhaps 18 inches under the topsoil. It makes foundations very secure...but you would have to use blasting caps to get through the limestone in order to dig a basement...but then, because of the rain, they would fill with water every time it rains. We have LOTS of flash-flooding. (Lyman Wight brought a bunch of early saints to Texas and they settled 70 miles from my front doorstep. It was great...a very idyllic spot...until the first flash-flood washed them out.) Soooo...most homes in Texas are not equipped with basements nor ideal conditions for food storage.
Even the condo I live in in Provo doesn't have a basement--nor AC, for that matter--so basements are not universal.
I will have to check my food storage next time I'm home and see the conditions of my beans. I'm not worried about the grains so much--wheat, white and yellow dent corn--but the other things I need to check. They might be like your sister's.
However...as far as beans...every meal had some sort of beans as an accompaniment to a meal. It was never any one kind...it could be pinto, navy, purple-hull, blackeyed peas, cream peas...you name it.
One of my newer favorites is Anazazi beans that you can get in the Dove Creek, Colorado area. They are very tender, and I quite like them!
You know the little packets that come with your over the counter meds,,,and other things you buy,,I save them,,,and use them to.store food,,for long term,,,making sure of course you remove them to get your dried food storage,,,just put the packet on the very top of closed can
@@margaretmartinez1398 Those are desiccant packets that absorb moisture...not oxygen. You need to have actual oxygen absorbers to store dry goods in an oxygen-free environment.
Thanks for posting this, I just threw out a couple of one pound bags that were four to five years past expiration date because of another RUclips video which said three years max to use.
My favorite way of cooking dry beans is to soak them overnight with baking soda--the amount depending on the amount of beans. Next day, pour off the soaking water, fill pint jars half full of beans, add boiling water, put on the flat and ring and pressure--10 lbs. for my location--for 75 minutes and there you are... beans ready to turn into whatever you want. Somebody tells me at 3 pm that they want chili for supper--no problem. Brown the burger or open a jar of beef cubes, add the pintos or, even better, take a jar of home canned chicken, add a jar of mayacoba beans and a half pint jar of tomatoes and green chiles. Of course, all the spices and herbs you like. Add some cornbread--or-----fritos--and dinner is served. All other accompaniments are negotiable.
Would love to see this method of canning beans demonstrated on YT.
The lds preppier had a video on 8 year old beans that he did a procedure to soften beans left out. I tried it on some beans given to me that were five yes, not stored correctly, just left if half closed bag. I tried his method and it worked so the previous cooked beans that didn’t soften , did soften after using his methods . Thanks for your showing the importance of storing correctly.
So you get our interests up by telling us there is a method but then you decide not to tell anyone?!
The issue is with dried beans that have not been stored properly, for instance if you just keep them in the bag or in a jar on the shelf. Your beans were canned and protected from oxygen.
I think a similar issue is how quickly your store goes through their stock. I've seen bags of beans on grocery shelves that look like they've been sitting there for a long time. Of course those beans are going to be in worse shape when you get them than something harvested recently and stored properly at home.
I cook my beans then dehydrate them and put them in mylar bags with oxygen absorbers good for 25 yrs
Very nice video! I've had dry beans in glass containers for over 20 years and no problem cooking them. However, I know nothing about the quality or nutrition loss. Thank you!👵😊🎶
Best make sure your pressure cooker is steel, not aluminum over fires.
This was a great video. We absolutely love our Instant Pot so much that we bought the larger one as well. Throw in some diced ham and honey with the beans and cook in the instant pot for a delicious side dish.
Lol...I was just talking about this yesterday with a lady in Walmart...I've been "testing" beans stored in plastic soda bottles for over 8 years. They seemed to be the same as beans bought recently.
I wish I had seen this video before I tried cooking my food storage beans. Thanks so much and I'll be using this method from now on.
We used bacon grease to season our ears as they cooked when I was growing up
I almost clicked out of this video early because I know something about pintos.. lol Ha-so I thought. It seems I learn something from every video y'all post ! I never knew about retained heat cooking. Also learned about storage methods today. We love pintos in this small family, good for everything from soups, stews and side dish, as well as bean dip and refried beans with Spanish rice. We put them on nachos, tortillas or poured on cornbread. The list goes on. My friends from Mexico eat beans for breakfast, lunch and supper. They say you must have beans with every meal or you won't get full. Think I'll go soak some right now. Thanks for another great video !
If you cook and eat beans every day the old bean's taste and texture are inferior. They are edible, but not very good. The newest crop is the best.
I bought a tub of beans at an estate sale that was 8 years old. I cooked them for hours & hours & they never got done. I always soak my beans over night. I also do not add salt till they are soft & almost done.
THE NON-COOKING STATEMENT REFERS TO AIR-STORED ( OR STORE BOUGHT PLASTIC BAG ) LEFT ON A SHELF FORGOTTEN FOR YEARS..... IT IS ONLY 1/2 CORRECT..... KEEP SIMMERING AND YOU WILL HAVE SOFT BEANS...KEEP COOKING UNTIL SOFT.
Sorry but this was NOT my experience. I cooked the 'begeesus' out of those babies, trust me.. they NEVER softened. 😤🤔🙄
I was always told that dry beans keep like forever... no one ever pointed out that they may well need *special* handling. If I ever run into older beans again I'll try the baking soda and pressure cooker approach... now that I know there are caveats.
The devil's in the details 😹
@@faithrada Just curious, how long had they been stored?
@@faithrada lol special handling is not oh you dont know how to cook beans
@@robp9696 At least 7 years.. possibly longer.
you guys absolutely rock...myth busted and it now only reinforces the importance of storing beans/rice as a foundation for prepper food stores...that was a lightning fast response to my humble inquiry too... you covered all the bases, slow cooker, pressure cooker, dutch oven on open flame, et al...VERY informative, beyond what i could hope to expect from such a video...also, i couldn't have found a better choice of folks to ask than an lds prepper couple who just happened to have an18 year old store of pinto beans hangin' around...i actually thought that finding a can or two of any dry beans that are 10 years old or so would be the toughest challenge haha...not only did you just have such in storage, they were the pinto beans rumored to be the toughest of all AND nearly twice that age, perfect...thank you so much kylene and jonathan, much obliged...i think a pressure cooker might be on my short list of stuff to purchase, once i'm done saving up for and buy a comprehensive solar setup for charging my aa and 18650 batteries and a laptop... God bless, hugs all around - jerzy... ;)))
@@TheProvidentPrepper kylene, you were of immense help, and yes inspiration as well, to me when the covid first hit the u.s. and i found you guys and asked all the newb questions about long term food storage...i would've gone down an incorrect route with storage if i didn't find you...and you continue to provide some of the best video content on this and related subject, very good quality of production/editing btw, no fluff but all to the point yet still entertaining...you guys truly rock and i bet most folks don't realize how much of a super-mom you are... perhaps you'll do a video someday on all the kids and their kids, it is not easy to - properly - raise such a number of offspring...you both [and kids probably too] are already an inspiration to many and could definitely be to many more families just on the merit of properly raising so many children...i have a suggestion, please don't rotate/replace ALL of your oldest food stores with fresh ones...put some of those oldest somewhere else to separate it from regular rotation...it's very uncommon and actually difficult to find properly [or even improperly] stored food stores which date back 10 years or more...most folks' history of prepping simply doesn't go back that far [this btw proves you are truly experienced and have practiced what you preached way back when most people have never even heard the word prepping]...to have actual food preps which are pretty close to and eventually will reach the supposed shelf limit of 25-30 years is gold... you can't purchase time and even the government uses various accelerated aging techniques on various products, meds and food included, to try and guesstimate their shelf life because it simply doesn't have enough of the long expired reserve of meds, food, etc., in ready supply...however, no simulation can take place of reality... these old stores can be nearly as important [for knowledge/research base] as the actual freshly rotated supply... :) - [edit - i just noticed a major inadvertent gaffe in my initial comment above so i quickly changed it to read correctly...i originally mistyped a phrase which read 'lsd prepper couple'...yeah, that creates a completely different neo-hippy meaning than intended haha]...
@@TheProvidentPrepper unreal, 29 year old food stores are incredible to still have intact... super, i'll be on a lookout for that one when you get around to making it...jus please save part of this cache for later tests as well...
In the South, we eat black eyed peas on New Years day for good luck in the new year. They represent coins. I soaked and cooked mine according to directions. 2 hrs. I was warned to not soak them overnight. They turned out crunchy. Maybe thats why 2020 has been a bear?
Pinsch Runner that seems odd. Never heard of black eyed peas being crunchy. Even when they have only been cooking a little while.
I'm a northerner who didn't try blackeyed peas until I had them down south in my 20's. Love at first bite! I don't soak mine. I sort through them and wash them good and set aside. I fry some bacon cut into small pieces (6-8 slices or so) and while the bacon is frying I dice a medium onion. I remove the bacon when it's done and saute the onion in the bacon grease and when the onion is transparent I add the blackeyed peas and water to cover them. Simmer on low, adding water if needed, until beans are tender. Salt and pepper to taste and top with bacon before serving.
@@bethlahti5155 every vegetable in the South is fried, sauteed, boiled, or otherwise cooked with bacon. Glad u liked them. I had bad beans this year and look, the lying Fed now says that there is a COIN SHORTAGE !!! LOL
@@bettye444 they were hard, even after 2 hours according to directions, and even after trying again further then next day. I dumped them. I am quite certain that his is why the Fed has a.coin shortage this year. Lol
Well, I soak my beans for 24 hrs. but I do give them a quick flush about 12 hrs. through. I tried the baking soda trick but heard it reduces the B - Vitamins in the Beans. So I prefer to soak them. I use a standard pressure cooker for at least 60 min but may go to 90 if the beans are old. I like adding a couple of smoked Turkey Legs to mine and a couple of cans of Rotel Red & Green Chili's and some Garlic. Salt at the end to taste.
Presoaked and pressure cooked.
Yep. But at my altitude 6000 ft. We have to pressure cook or spend 10 or 12 hours cooking pinto beans.
Great info! I just finished shelling dry beans from my garden. If we don't eat them, I can plant them and multiply the quality again and again.
The Provident Prepper it is a tedious process for sure. I dry them completely than crumble the shells off, sift than winnow off the shells. It's not a perfect process but it works fairly well. I've missed catching up with you and watching your videos! I'm glad I finally found some time to catch up👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 we have been burning the candle at both ends lately. Winter is coming!😱 there is always so much to do!
What did you do with all those beans after they were cooked?
can them or freeze them--dehydrate store in jars,,Vaccum
I heard that rumour from a survivalist who should have known. He said they won't soften unless you pressure cook them! When you pulled out the instant pot I thought he was right, and then you tested various means of cooking. I'm glad it worked because I've got quite a few stored beans.
I've been poking around the internet since watching this video and reading the comments. Some of us were wondering about recipes for interesting dishes using beans. I've found some videos describing how to experiment with using lentils. I'm betting that many of the recipes ca be used with beans, too. The videos don't give you a written recipe for each dish. However, you can go to lentils.org for some recipes. Clicking on the link to Chef Michael Smith will bring you to more recipes paired with instructional videos.
Excellent video. I limited my bean purchases because of that rumor but will be buying more now.
I cook my on the stove with ham hocks
I would love to use ham hocks but the urea smell really turns me off. Is there a solution?
Would really appreciate some help here. Thanks.
@@ewanmee9877 Boil the ham hocks and then pour off that foaming water. Rinse and cover with water and season hocks and return to boil.
@@Vixen781
Thank you very much. I shall do this, outside.
Do I use the second water in the soup/stew? Thanks in anticipation.