Basic Food Storage: Beans

"Beans, beans, the magical fruit;  the more you eat, the more you toot."

That's what a lot of people think of beans, even preppers.  It makes me sad.  Because beans are so versatile and can be used in so many ways, they really are magical!  So first off, let's take care of the primary (and legitimate) objection to beans.  "[T]hey make you toot."  Beans make people who are not accustomed to eating beans regularly toot because they lack the proper intestinal flora to digest beans properly.  Once you incorporate beans into your diet, problems with gas should disappear entirely. 

It's recommended that you store sixty pounds of dry beans (not green beans, not commercially canned beans) per person per year.  Beans are an ideal storage food because they are high in protein and low in fat, and are a good source of many trace minerals.  And it does not matter what kinds of beans you store—white, pinto, red, kidney, black, lima, lentils, et cetera. Store what you eat!  The chief cook and bottle washer here is of Mexican descent, so we have a lot of pinto beans. We also store some black beans, some white, and a few pink. I have no idea why I bought pink beans.  I never use them.  Maybe they were cheap.

While most of us think of soup and chili as the main ways of eating beans, they can actually be used in a wide variety of recipes. Beans can be sprouted; mung beans are what's used to produce the beans sprouts used in Asian cooking.  If you have old beans that will not soften no matter what you do, they can be ground into flour using a grain mill.  Use this flour instead of wheat flour or cornstarch for thickening soup.

In the course of your own research into the deep, dark mysteries of food storage and beans, you will find those who advocate using bean puree in baking to substitute for oil or butter and to boost the nutritional value of sweets.  Proceed with caution!  (Just kidding.)

OK, actually, I'm only half joking about that.  I've tried a few of those beans-for-butter recipes and was not impressed.  But using bean puree in baking is worthy of its own post and will be addressed in the future.

Beans are almost as sensitive to heat as oil and milk and should be kept in conditions as cool as possible.  When exposed to higher temperatures beans become tough and require more time for soaking and cooking.  Unfortunately, people occasionally find themselves with beans that won’t soften with cooking. There are several ways to address this problem. First, add acidic foods such as tomatoes, vinegar, and molasses near the end of the cooking time because these ingredients tend to toughen beans. For the same reason, salt also should not be added until just before serving. Second, hard water may result in hard beans. If your cooked beans refuse to soften, try adding ¼ teaspoon baking soda to soften the beans.  (Keep in mind that adding baking soda to beans reduces the nutritional value--the amount of thiamine in the beans.)  If none of those attempts work, there is yet another remedy to try, but it won’t be in time for tonight’s dinner. Try freezing the beans. As the water in the beans freezes, it will break down the cell walls to soften the beans. If that still doesn’t work, pressure cooking or canning the beans almost always will.  Finally, if all else has failed, the beans can still be ground in a mill and the resulting flour used in soups. However, bear in mind that the increasing toughness in the beans suggests a corresponding decrease in nutritional value.

Because dry beans require a long time to cook (and will thus require a lot of fuel in a grid-down situation), I always keep a good supply of beans that I have pressure canned at home. Dry beans are among the easiest foods to can.  In fact, if I were brand new to pressure canning, I would start with canning dry beans.  They're easy, cheap, and almost fool-proof.  Consult your Ball Blue Book  (the exact title has changed over the years, and the current edition is no longer blue, but usually the title includes Ball Blue Book, and that is how it will be referred to here) for exact directions. Basically you soak the beans overnight, rinse in the morning, add the appropriate amount to your jar, add salt and boiling water, and process according to instructions that came with your pressure canner.  In the course of researching the pressure canning of dry beans, you may come across information advocating the canning of beans that have not been presoaked.  (Dry beans are put into the jar, salt and boiling water are added, and then the beans are canned under pressure.) This method is not USDA-approved, which may not matter to you; I have never seen any reasons offered as to why this is the case. However, people, including me, who have experimented with this method have noted a much higher seal failure rate, like about 25%, that we can only attribute to the beans being unsoaked.

The Home Storage Center sells a few varieties of beans (white, pinto, and black) as well as dehydrated refried beans in #10 cans.  The whole beans have a thirty-year shelf life, when stored properly.  The refried beans have a five-year shelf life.  While I know of a few people who have been happy with the dehydrated refried beans, I have not, and therefore I cannot recommend them. Perhaps it is my heritage coming through, and I’m too picky about the consistency, or perhaps my beans were old and tough.  And, to be fair, I haven't tried them in about 20 or 25 years.  Maybe they're better now.

Links to related posts:
Baking with Beans
Refried Beans
Bean Flour
Pinto Bean Fudge  

4 january 2019