The Great (Northern) Bean Experiment

After my confusion over the three different, contradictory sets of directions for cooking beans, which were in the recipe book I used for the soup I made a few days ago, I decided to do an experiment. I soaked a handful of beans in cold water overnight and then simmered them for 13 minutes, which was the most straightforward interpretation of the recipe.

Now that I know the proper meaning of the word "simmer" I first allowed the water to come to a boil before reducing the temperature slightly, leaving the water just below boiling point. (As opposed to just cooking the beans at low heat, which is what I did when I made the soup.)

At the end of that the beans were edible but still mealy. I let them simmer for an additional 15 minutes, after which they were soft and tender.

The beans I'm using are Great Northern white beans, which are almost twice as large as white navy beans, which is probably what the recipe had intended. It didn't say explicitly, it just said "white beans". So it's just barely possible that the 13 minutes of simmering called for in the recipe would have sufficed had I used navy beans.

Now to be fair to the recipe's author, he did say to test the beans for tenderness after the first 8 minutes of cooking, though I don't know that I would have been willing to keep the soup simmering for over twice the time stated in the recipe: I'm a follower of recipes, not an innovator.

Regardless, the next time I have to deal with dried beans I think I shall be much better prepared for it.