mush The Cooking Liquid The quality of cooked beans and the time it takes to cook them depend on the cooking liquid In vegetable cooking, large volumes of vigorously boiling water minimize enzyme damage to vitamins and pigments by keeping the temperature high when the vegetables are added Long-cooked legumes are a different story The greater the volume of cooking water, the more color, flavor, and nutrients are leached out of the beans, and the more they’re diluted So these seeds are best cooked in just enough water for them to soak up and to cook in And though boiling temperatures speed cooking, the turbulence of boiling water can damage the seed coats and cause the beans to disintegrate; lower temperatures (180–200ºF/80–93ºC) are slower but gentler The cooking water’s content of dissolved substances also affects cooking times and textures Hard water with high levels of calcium or magnesium actually reinforces the bean cell walls (p 282) It can therefore slow the softening of the beans or even prevent them from softening fully Acidic cooking liquids slow the dissolving of cell-wall hemicelluloses and therefore the softening process, while alkaline cooking water has the reverse effect Finally, many cooks and cookbooks say that adding salt to the cooking water prevents beans from softening It does slow the rate at which they absorb water, but they do eventually absorb it and soften And when beans are pre-soaked in salted water, they actually cook much faster (below) Maintaining the Texture of Cooked Beans Three substances slow the softening of beans and therefore make it possible for the cook to simmer beans for hours or reheat them without disintegrating them Acids make the cell-wall hemicelluloses more stable and less ... Hard water with high levels of calcium or magnesium actually reinforces the bean cell walls (p 282) It can therefore slow the softening of the beans or even prevent them from softening fully Acidic cooking... Maintaining the Texture of Cooked Beans Three substances slow the softening of beans and therefore make it possible for the cook to simmer beans for hours or reheat them without disintegrating them... water prevents beans from softening It does slow the rate at which they absorb water, but they do eventually absorb it and soften And when beans are pre-soaked in salted water, they actually cook much faster (below)