Soaking Your Beans….Discard the Water or Re-Use It?

[texastweeter]

I do what Grammy said, dump the water.

[jfmorris]

I'm with Kathryn on reasons to DISCARD soak water if it is kidney or pinto beans. I don't soak my beans overnight though, and just follow the Rancho Gordo advice to bring them to a hard boil for 15 minutes to drive off the toxins, then I simmer for several hours, until tender. No changing of water with that method.

[CaptainMike]

I think there's a Seinfeld episode in this thread, a poll about nothing...

[mrteddyprincess]

I like Malcom Reed when he says, "I'm using Killer Hogs rub, but you can use whatever BBQ rub you like."

I think the same concept applies to cooking beans. "I like to rinse my beans and dump the water, but you use whatever method you like best." :-)

It's all about the result and feeding people to make connections. The best BBQ is cooked by someone who loves you.

[Old Glory]

Kenji's Take

Here's the take-away: Skip the soak on thin-skinned beans like black-eyed peas, black beans, and lentils. For other beans, it's best to soak unless you know for sure that you're dealing with high quality, freshly dried beans, in which case you can skip it.

Step 3: Soak, If Desired, Then Drain
If you are using thin-skinned beans like black beans, black-eyed peas, split peas, or lentils, you can skip this step.
If you are using most other beans, it's best to soak them unless you know for sure that the beans are of a high quality and are relatively fresh (i.e., that they haven't been in storage for more than six months since they were dried); usually there's no good way to know this, so soaking should be the default. Drain the beans, then proceed immediately to the cooking step.

This seems to line up with the Rancho Gordo bean instructions since they are fresh high quality beans.