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After soaking dry beans, I place beans on heat, so they boil for couple of hours, and they cook pretty well. But if I add just one cup of cold water (at room temperature) during boiling, temperature of the mixture would drops for some minutes. But then the cooking time of the beans would increase significantly, and it seems they wouldn't cook well ever.

For most of the beans I experienced this process, but I can't figure out why?

2i3r
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  • It may be worth adding some details on the general cooking method and why you're adding the cold water? I'd guess it's simply taking them off the boil so the temperature doesn't remain high enough to cook them. – PeterJ May 06 '15 at 16:55
  • I added more details, I hope that it is clear enough. – 2i3r May 06 '15 at 17:26
  • There is no logical reason for me to add cold water, just when water level getting low, it's easier to add cold water (at room temperature) to the mixture in pot in comparison with boiling the water first. – 2i3r May 06 '15 at 17:33
  • I've never experienced this myself. I've cooked a lot of beans using a lot of techniques, and I've occasionally had to add water when they would start to dry out. Yes, it can increase cooking time, but the beans should eventually soften. (It is possible to have beans that will never soften even with long cooking, but those were just grown under bad conditions. To my knowledge, you can't turn good beans into hard ones that won't cook just by adding cool water.) Anyhow, what type of beans are you using? Have you tried cooking them for a *very* long time? – Athanasius May 07 '15 at 18:25
  • Also, the obvious question -- why not just start cooking them with more water at the beginning? – Athanasius May 07 '15 at 18:26
  • I'm looking for why. I'm not sure about good beans, those are regular beans here in Iran and almost this is known as a fact here between traditional chefs that they should never add cool water to beans during cooking them, otherwise they would never cook well. – 2i3r May 07 '15 at 18:35
  • After adding cold water I just cooked them for 4-5 hours more than usual, and they didn't cooked (I mean soft enough) as they would with regular process and with shorter time. – 2i3r May 07 '15 at 18:48
  • Beans that I tried are: lentils, chickpea, pinto bean, kidney bean – 2i3r May 07 '15 at 18:57
  • Do you mean that the inside of the bean doesn't get soft, or that the skin doesn't get soft? I've experienced the latter, and I like the texture that way, But the insides do get soft eventually. – user6591 May 08 '15 at 01:24
  • Yes mostly it happens on the skin of beans, but even inside of the beans getting soft in much more time. And yes for some food and situations it may be better :) – 2i3r May 08 '15 at 06:52
  • I don't have an answer for "why," but [this link](http://www.usdrybeans.com/recipes/recipe-facts/) from the U.S. Dry Bean Council does mention the following: "**The cold water tip:** For the beans to end up tender but intact, the best advice is to add cold water during the cooking process. Another technique is to change the water for fresh once they have come to the boil." I think I've seen this effect, but I can't recall it being significant, and I've never found that it produced unacceptably tough or hard skins. – Athanasius May 18 '15 at 16:24
  • I'm going to conclude that beans we have in Iran are a bit different from beans used on the other side of world. – 2i3r May 22 '15 at 06:27

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If you want to speed up the cooking time and need to add more water, heat it on stovetop or in microwave till steaming, then add. Cook at lower heat just at or below simmer to keep beans more intact and with a cover on to avoid water loss in the first place. NEVER add salt at the beginning of the cooking process, only once desired doneness has been reached. If they just won't get soft (really hard water), add a tablespoon of baking soda to the cooking water, but then they will get soft really fast so watch carefully.

Fireflower
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Because the "cook time" begins when the temperature is high enough for the pot to "simmer". By adding lower temp water you are dropping the pot temp to under "simmer" in effect "pausing" the cooking time until the pot reaches "simmer" again. Once the pot reaches a high enough temp to simmer again the cook time picks back up again. The pause in the middle adds minutes to the over all time it takes to cook your beans.

Kates Place
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We cook beans a lot at home; and I just learned from my mother that we don't add cold water to simmering beans, we also don't add any sauces earlier on during the cooking; or the beans would harden. You can always top up your beans with boiling water, and only add the sauce once they are done.

Glorfindel
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Marie
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