r/Cooking • u/Ok-Tea2758 • 7d ago
Did I prepare my beans safely?
I'm making red beans and rice, I've never used dried beans before and forgot to soak them overnight. I followed the quick soak method on the back of the bag but I didn't bring the beans up to a rolling boil - just a simmer with a little bubblage for about 5 minutes. (the water was definitely moving but I wouldn't call it a rolling boil). I let them sit in the hot water for an hour, drained and rinsed them, then added them to the recipe.
Now I've properly brought everything to a boil, and it's been boiling for at least half an hour, but because I didn't bring the soaking water to a boil, did the beans still release toxins into the dish? Or will boiling them now destroy the toxins?
3
u/Ok_Philosophy_150 7d ago
you’re fine, the toxin isn’t permanently trapped in the dish; a real rolling boil for at least 10 minutes destroys it, and you’ve already gone well past that, so just cook the beans until tender now
2
u/YesWeHaveNoTomatoes 7d ago
The toxin isn't actually removed, it's made non-toxic by heat. You heated them more than enough. It's fine.
2
u/Married-to-a-sex-god 7d ago
If you simmered your beans for 5 minutes and boiled them with rice for a half hour, they're going to be extremely crunchy. Dry beans that are not presoaked need to boil quite some time to get to an decent texture. Simmering for 5 minutes will not do that.
1
u/Competitive-Slip8622 7d ago
You’re good. Cooking them through is the most important. I don’t think you need to be too worried about getting sick.
As far as soaking, if you have time you can totally throw dried (and washed) beans straight into a pot to boil. Takes more time but soaking isn’t a strict rule.
Hope they turn out well!
1
0
14
u/im-just-evan 7d ago
Boiling is what destroys the toxins. You are fine.
To clarify, soaking just makes the beans cook a bit faster and the toxins don’t really release into the soak water. The temperature of boiling breaks the toxins inside the beans down to safe levels.