Boston Baked Beans - Does Salting The Brew Too Soon Yield Tough Beans? Or Is There Another Cause?

Boston Baked Beans -

Does Salting The Brew Too

Soon Yield Tough Beans?

Or Is There Another Cause?





 
http://www.cooksillustrated.com/recipe.asp?recipeids=26&


Boston Baked Beans Tips

“More American Classics” Episode

Cook’s Illustrated, October 1996, Vol. 22, Page 14-15
By Mark Zanger (Reference)

You cannot cook these beans quickly.  It is a long, slow process.  The simpler the recipe, the better the results.

Salt pork: the fatter, the better – not the meatier type!  Remove rind.

Bacon: meaty, smoke flavor - freeze slightly to allow slicing & dicing.

Dice salt pork and bacon, then fry to render fat

Small white beans, not Great Northern, and omit overnight soaking.


Food Science

Beans on Acid -- Legumes and Levels of Ph

Have you ever cooked beans for hours and found they failed to soften? Chalky and tough-skinned, they might as well be raw. A few phone calls to experts and some research pointed me to the prime suspect: acid. Food scientists universally agree that high acidity can interfere with the softening of the cellulose-based bean cells, causing them to remain hard no matter how long they cook.
 
Alkalinity, on the other hand, has the opposite effect on legumes. Alkalines make the bean starches more soluble and thus cause the beans to cook faster. (Older bean recipes often included a pinch of baking soda for its alkalinity, but because baking soda has been shown to destroy valuable nutrients, few contemporary recipes suggest this shortcut.) The effect of acids and alkalines on beans certainly explained the warnings I found in some recipes against the use of too much vinegar. Still, while it all sounded good in theory, it made little practical sense to me. Molasses is acidic, but it didn't seem to affect the cooking of the beans in most of my tests. What I really wanted to know were the following: At what pH level would there be a negative impact on the beans? Could a splash of vinegar spoil the pot, or would it take a whole bottle? How could I relate pH levels to the everyday ingredients I might use to flavor beans?

It was time to put some beans to the acid test. I cooked four batches of small white beans in water altered with vinegar to reach pH levels of 3, 5, 7, and 9. I brought them to a boil, reduced the heat to a low simmer, and tested the beans every 30 minutes for texture and doneness. The beans cooked at a pH of 3 (the most acidic) remained crunchy and tough-skinned despite being allowed to cook 30 minutes longer than the other three batches. The beans cooked at pHs of 5, 7, and 9 showed few differences, although the 9 pH batch finished a few minutes ahead of the 7 pH batch and about 20 minutes ahead of the 5 pH batch.

Acidity, then, must be relatively high to have any significant impact on beans. I had to add a whole cup of vinegar to the pot -- much more than would be reasonable in most recipes -- to reach a pH of 3.

How does my Boston baked beans recipe fit into this scenario? The combined ingredients -- just before baking -- had a pH of 4.8. The beans might cook a little faster with the acidic molasses and mustard reserved until the end, but the flavor would lack the depth developed through slow cooking -- a trade-off I wasn't willing to make. If in making this recipe you are plagued with crunchy beans, you may have extremely hard water or a stale batch of beans. Hard water, recognizable by mineral deposits in pots and plumbing and greenish rings around the drains in porcelain tubs and sinks, contains high levels of calcium and magnesium. Calcium, for reasons not yet fully understood, toughens cellulose. Your safest bet would be to use bottled water.

Stale beans are

impossible to


detect until cooked,

but it's too late by

then -- they will

never soften.



Recap

Molasses = Acidity (+ vinegar, mustard)
The pH level is a measure of acidity vs. alkalinity.
A pH (3) Acidic > undercooked, hard beans.
A pH (9) Alkaline > beans exploded, mushy, overcooked.
Bean cell walls made of cellulose, hemicellulose & pectin.  In presence of acidic element, hemicellulose doesn’t break down as readily as beans cook, leading to hard beans.  In alkaline environment, pectin dissolves weakening cell walls leading to mushy results

Baking soda (alkaline), added to recipe, does significantly decrease cooking time by almost 1/2 > overcooked beans exploded, starchy, lacked flavor.

By omitting acidic ingredients until the end of cooking > beans cooked quickly but beans light in color, have less flavor, not worth time-savings in long run.

Avoid stale beans, if possible, by buying them from a store, which moves their supply and replaces them often.  The recipe, which I have used over the years, turned out hard as a rock beans the last time I cooked it.  I thought it was the salt and began to attempt recipe revision.  The error in my thinking was that I had done that recipe many times successfully so the salt content alone could not possibly be the reason for the failure.  The acidity also could not have been the problem for the same reason.  The problem was, “Stale beans are impossible to detect until cooked, but it's too late by then -- they will never soften.”  So stop blaming the salt; blame the stale beans.  And always start with the freshest beans you can find to prevent this from happening to you.

This would seem to discourage using the pressure cooker to cook beans.  I would still like to try that method.  To date I haven’t.


Boston Baked Beans Recipe

http://www.cooksillustrated.com/recipe.asp?recipeids=26&


The beans can be made ahead.  After cooking, cool them to room temperature and refrigerate in an airtight container for up to 4 days.

Recipe Serves 4 to 6:

Ingredients

4 ounces salt pork, trimmed of rind and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
2 ounces bacon (2 slices), cut into 1/4-inch pieces (partially-frozen bacon cuts easily)
1 medium onion, chopped fine
1/2-cup mild molasses**
1 tablespoon mild molasses**
1 1/2 tablespoons brown mustard
1 pound dried small white beans (about 2-cups), picked over & rinsed
   table salt
1 teaspoon cider vinegar
   ground black pepper


Procedure

Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position; heat oven to 300 degrees.

Add salt pork and bacon to 8-quart Dutch oven; cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned and most fat is rendered, about 7 minutes.

Add onion and continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until onion is softened, about 8 minutes.

Add 1/2 cup molasses, mustard, beans, 1 1/4 teaspoons salt, and 9 cups water; increase heat to medium-high and bring to boil.

Cover pot and set in oven.

Bake until beans are tender, about 4 hours, stirring once after 2 hours.

Remove lid and continue to bake until liquid has thickened to syrupy consistency, 1 to 1 1/2 hours longer.

Remove beans from oven; stir in remaining tablespoon of molasses, vinegar, and additional salt and pepper to taste. Serve.




Tips & Techniques

Sorting Dried Beans with Ease

It is important to rinse and pick over dried beans to remove any stones or debris before cooking. To make the task easier, Julia Grimaldi of Jamaica Plain, Mass., sorts dried beans on a large white plate or on a white, rimmed cutting board. The neutral background makes any unwanted matter a cinch to spot and discard.






Testing Lab

Molasses**

With molasses, it's simply a matter of taste

Molasses is a byproduct of the sugar-refining process, the liquid that remains after cane juice has been boiled and the sugar crystallized. There are three different types of molasses, each produced from successive boilings of the cane sugar. As more sugar is drawn from the juice, the resulting molasses gets stronger, darker, and more bitter. Light, or mild, molasses comes from the first boiling, dark from the second, and blackstrap from the third. There's no question that each type of molasses has a very distinctive flavor; the question is, which molasses is best?

To find out, we scoured the aisles of our local supermarkets and found that there isn't exactly a plethora of options out there. The most common offering is Grandma's Molasses, which offers "mild" and "robust" versions. Well-stocked supermarkets may carry Brer Rabbit, which is also available in two strengths: "mild" and "full." Natural food markets and health food stores often carry Plantation Blackstrap molasses.

We tasted all three brands plain and in our Soft and Chewy Molasses Spice Cookies, only to find that personal preferences carried the day. Fans of Grandma's Mild Flavor liked the warm brown color, "potent, but not off-putting" flavor, and slight "bitter finish," while Grandma's Robust Flavor won kudos for being "sweet and strong of spirit," with a deep, almost chocolate hue. A minority of tasters liked the strong flavor of the blackstrap molasses, but most found it too overpowering. The bottom line: Choose light or dark (or even blackstrap) molasses based upon your own preference for a mellow or intense (or really intense) molasses flavor.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

GRANDMA'S MILD FLAVOR: "Nicely balanced," "medium rich flavor."

GRANDMA'S ROBUST FLAVOR: "Peppery edges," "fruity finish."

BRER RABBIT MILD FLAVOR: "Good spicy richness."

BRER RABBIT FULL FLAVOR: "Best color," "very strong flavor."

RECOMMENDED WITH RESERVATIONS

PLANTATION BLACKSTRAP: "Potent," "overwhelming." User discretion advised.


Granulated Brown Sugar

Infrequent bakers often find a hard, sugary brick in their pantry when they reach for brown sugar. A new product aims to alleviate this problem. Domino Brownulated is a granulated, pourable light brown sugar with a light, dry texture. Readers wondered if it could be used interchangeably with traditional light brown sugar.

To find out, we made two batches of Thin, Crispy Chocolate Chip Cookies (March/April 2001), the first with traditional light brown sugar and the second with Brownulated. The first batch of cookies was sweeter and crisper than the second, which were drier, cakier, and less sweet. We quickly figured out why the two batches were so different. We had measured by volume, and the lighter, airier Brownulated sugar was taking up more room in the measuring cup than the damp traditional light brown sugar, which we packed as we measured it.

It turns out that 1 cup of Brownulated sugar weighs just 5 ounces; whereas 1 cup of packed regular brown sugar weighs 7 ounces. Once we used equal amounts of the sugars by weight, the cookies were similar. Use this equivalency to determine how much Brownulated sugar is needed in any given recipe.


 


T.A.B.A.C.C.O.  (Truth About Business And Congressional Crimes Organization)

tags: legumes  culinary  brown sugar  nutrition  salt  gastronomy  food  acid  cooking  cuisine  eat  gourmet  recipe  boston baked beans  beans  cook  molasses