New on FineCooking.com: Beans and Salt Water

Another Thursday, another mystery solved. This week, I answer a question from twitter about a common bit of advice in cookbooks: should you avoid putting salt in the cooking water for beans?

Although I love writing these, I need more questions from readers. Please comment, tweet, or send me feedback to let me know what questions you may have about food or cooking. I can't do it without you.

Comments

[Solar Panels]

I think we should avoid putting salt in the cooking water.

[kitchen aid part]

With this combination, can it make a delicious recipe?

[Danica]

Thanks for this-- I have another question about beans. I recently was soaking a pot of giant beans (also known as gigantes), and many of the beans started warping and splitting in half within minutes of contact with the water--they were ruffled and curly and many looked like open clams. This didn't seem right and I threw those beans away, particularly because I was looking to make the greek-style recipe which requires beautiful whole beans. What could cause this--were the beans too old? These beans certainly were never going to sprout, particularly in that condition!

Lastly when I cooked the beans, simmering them until they were soft, a few of the beans developed a dark purple edge along one side. I threw those out as well. Do you have any idea what that is?

Thanks!

[jaampool]

Hi there I encourage all of you to leave comment here in Disqus…