Dried beans never softened for me, so I'm done with that budget tip

I followed all the steps to cook dried beans to save money. They stayed hard and ruined my planned stew for the week. Has anyone else found that canned beans are more reliable for tight budgets?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_alice1mo ago

Totally get the hard water thing, it's wild how one little detail wrecks the whole plan. I've seen this happen with so much stuff where people follow all the steps but miss that one basic fix, like with old baking soda or phone updates.

jade_lane25d ago

Actually, the minerals in hard water can slow beans down, but they don't usually stop them completely if you cook them long enough. The real culprit is often old beans. If those dried beans have been sitting in your pantry or on the store shelf for years, they might just never get soft no matter what you do. Fresh dried beans from a store with good turnover are way more likely to work. It's a frustrating thing to figure out after you've already cooked them.

morgan.abby1mo ago

Oh man, I read something about that... hard water with lots of minerals can actually stop beans from getting soft. My cousin had the same issue and tried it with a bottle of plain drinking water once as a test, and it worked... maybe your water is just too hard? Kind of a pain to deal with though.