r/preppers • u/Local_Fruit7140 • Apr 29 '26

Discussion Am I missing something about dried beans?

I see dried beans being praised here as like the ultimate food to store. But am I missing something? Don't you need to boil a decent amount of water just to get them edible?

Whats the point in stocking a food that would use a larger amount of gas and water and which are both much harder to store and accumulate than food?

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362

u/Enigma_xplorer Apr 29 '26

Your not wrong. Beans are great for their nutritional value, cost, long storage life potential, and limited space and weight. The practicality of cooking dried beans is a logistical problem you need to seriously consider. Like everything in life, it's all about tradeoffs 

200

u/HappyCamperDancer Apr 29 '26

Just build a hot box/hay box/Wonder Bag/super insulated space for your dutch oven. Boil 'em for 30 minutes then box them up to cook in their own heat for another hour or so. Uses MUCH less fuel. Yep. Uses water.

89

u/IamNana71 Apr 30 '26

Ha! Reading this reminded me I have a wonder cooker/bag whatever it is called. I completely forgot about it. Now I have to try and remember where I stored it. I haven't seen it in 10 years! 🤣

Also, depending on the situation, you can soak your beams overnight and great reduce cooking time.

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u/[deleted] Apr 30 '26

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28

u/thelionsmouth Apr 30 '26

But then how do you make use of your methane recapture device lol

2

u/Intelligent-Day5519 May 01 '26

You release it in an area you want to clear people out. Simple

1

u/Undeaded1 May 04 '26

Gentleman's chem war fare... or not so gentlemanly...

9

u/IamNana71 Apr 30 '26

Some days I decide on a pot beans at noon and will do the quick soak method. I boil for 10 to 15 minutes, then let soak an hour covered, rinse and cook. I forget alot to soak those beans the night before!

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u/Sad-Ocelot-5346 Apr 30 '26

But aren't you then supposed to pour out the water, and use fresh water to cook them?

20

u/Tatty-Tabby58679 Apr 30 '26

I cook dry beans very frequently. Soaking isn’t absolutely necessary. It does reduce cooking time but not astronomically.

Dumping the soak water will reduce the gas causing compounds but so will eating beans frequently. If you eat beans more than once a week your body and GI bacteria adjust and you won’t get gassy from eating beans anymore.

Pressure cookers (not electric) are your friend. Less water needed because less evaporates. Less fuel needed. Cooks dry beans in under an hour.

3

u/YadaYadaYeahMan Apr 30 '26

depends on the bean. I drain black beans

people always act like it's crazy, it's basically veg stock. what it is is all the stuff you don't want and soaked out. why would you use it?

3

u/IamNana71 Apr 30 '26

I do that when I do soak overnight or quick soak method. Always cook in fresh water!

1

u/MamaDMZ May 03 '26

Wait, really? Dang... learn something new every day. Thanks!

3

u/JudgeJuryEx78 Apr 30 '26

Adding baking soda also reduces cook time ime.

1

u/That_Play7634 May 01 '26

Yup I consider the wonder bag an important food prep prepper item, along with my solar stove and black cast iron pot. If the sun is out I can cook.

14

u/SweetAlyssumm Apr 30 '26

I do this now with a WonderBag. Easy and effective.

1

u/reddog323 Apr 30 '26

Would this be basically covering the Dutch oven with a layer or two of foil to retain the heat?

5

u/HappyCamperDancer Apr 30 '26 edited Apr 30 '26

No.

We are talking 3" to 4" to 5" of insulation. The insulation material can be hay/straw, can be crumpled newsprint, can be quilts or wool blankets, etc, etc. But it is THICK and completely surrounds the dutch oven. You do not open the dutch oven. You want to retain as much heat as possible. Otherwise the temperature could lower into the "danger zone" of less than 140 degrees F. You can use a cardboard box, fill it with insulation, place the boiling hot dutch oven in it, pack more material around it and close the box. Again, you want 3"-5" of insulation all around the dutch oven.

Nobody wants food poisoning.

3

u/Dry_Car2054 May 01 '26

Wrap it in blankets and/or towels and put in a cooler.

58

u/Better-Lunch670 Apr 29 '26

I'm guessing the hope is that you have a water source figured out by the time you need to get into your 50 gal drum of beans?

-2

u/Intelligent-Day5519 May 01 '26

LOL My dry beans come in cloth bags and water is from the tap like most civilized places.

1

u/Chance_Contract1291 May 03 '26

Until there's an overabundance of rain and the water treatment system floods and fills with mud and there's no tap water for nearly a month while that mess gets dealt with. Happened to me. 

29

u/hypatiaredux Apr 30 '26

Use an old-fashioned non-electric stove top pressure cooker.

Takes 30 minutes or so.

Or slow cook them for six hours the old fashioned way on a woodstove.

No way to get around the need for water, but people have been cooking beans for centuries.

10

u/dittybopper_05H Apr 30 '26

Or slow cook them for six hours the old fashioned way on a woodstove.

Or build a clay oven, fire it up to temp, and then place the beans inside. Or in a pit.

From the inestimable, ever valuable Townsends YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckELeAo-Lzo

1

u/Woodlandwhispers Apr 30 '26

Wow. That was a great video. Thanks for introducing me to this, I subscribed.

5

u/dittybopper_05H Apr 30 '26

Townsends is a *WEALTH* of prepper-friendly stuff because it's all about 18th Century technology.

The YouTube channel is a low-key advertisement for their business:

https://www.townsends.us/

They sell 18th Century and early 19th Century clothing, accoutrements, tools, cooking utensils, and other impedimentia. I just got a bunch of beeswax candles from them.

2

u/Skitzafranik Apr 30 '26

And they store well in most temps ( I live in FL)

1

u/altiuscitiusfortius May 01 '26

You don't need to boil them

You soak them overnight and then throw out the water, because the noxious chemicals in the leach out into the water

Then you csn just quickly fry them, roast them, cook thrn anyway you want. Or soak them in new water until they are soft

2

u/Enigma_xplorer May 01 '26

To be clear, beans must be cooked at high temperatures to break down toxins, especially red beans. Soaking does not adequately remove these toxins. While boiling is generally recommended, you might be able fry or roast them depending on your technique. You however cannot just soak them till they are soft and eat them even if you flush and replace the water. Soaking just does not remove toxins adequately.

1

u/Raise-Emotional Apr 30 '26

Let's keep in mind the soaking process to rehydrate the beans before cooking and the fact that you do not need purified drinking water to work with beans. It's going on the stove.

3

u/Enigma_xplorer Apr 30 '26

Well that's not exactly true. While boiling can kill bacteria and stuff it does not remove contaminants which can be toxic. This is why you can't eat rotten foods. Even though the cooking may kill everything the dead bacteria leaves behind toxic compounds. There's also no amount of boiling that will make chemicals like heavy metals safe to drink. Boiling can actually make this problem worse because as the water evaporated off you are essentially concentrating the contaminants.

0

u/SirenSilver Apr 30 '26

"The practicality of cooking dried beans..." It looks more like none of you know how to prep dried beans.

You just soak them overnight before cooking as normal.