Should You Cook Dried Beans in Their Soaking Liquid?

Cooking dried beans is a science we're always trying to perfect. Here's what we learned during our latest investigation.

Soaking dried beans in water overnight helps speed up their cooking. Some sources recommend cooking the beans directly in the soaking liquid in order to retain any flavorful water-soluble compounds and colorful pigments that may leach out during the soak. We thought it was worth investigating.

Experiment

We always brine our beans to soften their skins, which helps them cook more evenly and reduces the number of ruptured beans. Once the beans are brined, we usually cook them in fresh, lightly salted water.

Since our standard brine formula would be too salty to cook the beans in, we used a reduced-salt brine to soak black, pinto, and red kidney beans and then cooked half of each batch in its brine and the other half the usual way in fresh, lightly salted water.

Results

The beans cooked in their soaking liquid were a little darker and more vibrant in color but not significantly so. More important, we didn’t find differences in taste among any of the beans.

Takeaway

The bottom line? There’s no flavor advantage to cooking dried beans in their soaking liquid and only a minor color advantage. We’ll stick to our tried-and-true bean-brining formula and always cook in fresh water (or whatever liquid the recipe calls for).

Our Favorite Recipes Using Dried Beans

Recipe Black Bean Soup

We wanted a soup that had a strong flavor; a rich, dark broth; and perfectly cooked beans.

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Recipe Greek-Style Bean Soup

Desert tepary beans fill in for lentils in this comforting vegan soup.

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Recipe Cooked Dried Beans

Here's a way to add lots of extra flavor when cooking dried beans.

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Recipe French Pork and White Bean Casserole (Cassoulet)

In France, this 700-year-old pork-and-bean casserole is a three-day production. Could we turn it into an afternoon’s work?

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JOHN C.

16 days

Absolutely the best chicken ever, even the breast meat was moist! It's the only way I'll cook a whole chicken again. Simple, easy, quick, no mess - perfect every time. I've used both stainless steel and cast iron pans. great and easy technique for “roasted” chicken. I will say there were no pan juices, just fat in the skillet. Will add to the recipe rotation. Good for family and company dinners too. I've done this using a rimmed sheet pan instead of a skillet and put veggies and potatoes around the chicken for a one-pan meal. Broccoli gets nicely browned and yummy!

MILES D.

JOHN C.

9 days

Amazed this recipe works out as well as it does. Would not have thought that the amount of time under the broiler would have produced a very juicy and favorable chicken with a very crispy crust. Used my 12" Lodge Cast Iron skillet (which can withstand 1000 degree temps to respond to those who wondered if it would work) and it turned out great. A "make again" as my family rates things. This is a great recipe, and I will definitely make it again. My butcher gladly butterflied the chicken for me, therefore I found it to be a fast and easy prep. I used my cast iron skillet- marvellous!

CHARLES M.

11 days

John, wasn't it just amazing chicken? So much better than your typical oven baked chicken and on par if not better than gas or even charcoal grilled. It gets that smokey charcoal tasted and overnight koshering definitely helps, something I do when time permits. First-time I've pierced a whole chicken minus the times I make jerk chicken on the grill. Yup, the cast iron was not an issue.