Causes of Mushy or Beans That Won't Soften

Dried beans are finicky. You need to soak them to reduce the amount of time they take to cook. You have to cook them at a low simmer so they don't disintegrate. And there are certain factors that change the way they cook.

Causes of Mushy Beans

Overcooking: Cooking beans for too long at too high a temperature can cause them to break down and become mushy, especially if the simmer is too vigorous. Use a gentle simmer rather than a rolling boil and taste them frequently to check for doneness.

For cold beans for salads and such: Turn the heat off when they’re a little firmer than I want and pop the lid on and let them cool completely in the water. This helps some types of beans not to split and lose their skins and also the residual heat makes them a perfect texture once cooled. Or once cooked, cool quickly in an ice bath or spread on a tray to stop cooking.

Control heat: Simmer, don’t boil - Maintain a gentle simmer (small bubbles). Vigorous boiling agitates beans, causing skins to split and interiors to turn mushy.

Stirring aggressively: This can cause the skin of the beans to break, causing mushy beans.

Test for doneness correctly: Taste a few beans; they should be tender through but still intact and hold shape when pressed between a spoon and tongue. Cooking continues slightly during standing.

High starch content: Some varieties, like navy beans or pinto beans, have a high starch content. This is a normal part of their composition and will cause them to become soft, break down, and create a creamy, thick stock during cooking. Certain varieties hold shape better: cranberry/borlotti, cannellini, chickpeas, black beans and kidney beans are generally firmer than navy/pea beans.

Canned beans: Canned beans are often mushy because they are pre-cooked during the canning process to preserve them.

Causes for Beans Not Softening

Acids added too early: Ingredients like tomatoes, wine, vinegar, or citrus juice should be added at the end of cooking after the beans are tender. Adding them too early can prevent the beans from softening properly and can make the skins tough.

Cooking beans with acidic food like tomatoes doesn’t slow down cooking time, but will help keep the skins intact. If your beans start to finish cooking before you want them to? Add some acid! You'll slow down the cooking process so your beans are done right on time.

Old or dry beans: Beans that are old or have been stored for a long time may become harder to cook and break down more easily, though some can be notoriously difficult to soften at all. Just because you bought the dried beans from your store last week doesn’t mean they are new. As dried beans age, the pores through which the water enters tend to close, and the outer coating may change, too. If water can’t get into the bean, they won’t soften no matter how long you cook them. You will want to buy your beans from a store with a high turnover rate of dry goods.

Hardness of the water: The hard water itself doesn't cause issues because of high pH, it's due to chemical reactions between the magnesium and calcium in the water bind to the cell walls of the beans. Salt will prevent that from occurring. The salt ions, especially in black beans, actually replace the magnesium and calcium and the beans’ skins resulting in softer skins. Vinegar would not help because that would react with the pectin to prevent softening.

Adding baking soda to the cooking water will help soften the beans. But the soda destroys some of the thiamine, the vitamin (B1) that helps make the beans more digestible.

Soak & Cook Your Beans With Salt

Also see Brining Beans with Baking Soda (to soften and turn tender)

Interestingly, salt also affects how much water beans absorb. J. Kenji Lopez-Alt did an experiment where he tested batches of beans. He saw two interesting things:

• Beans soaked in salted water absorbed less water than beans soaked in unsalted water. And less water absorption means a more concentrated bean flavor!
• Beans soaked and cooked in salted water had a lower percentage of burst beans! For the unsalted cooking and soaking water, 28% of those beans burst vs only 5% of beans soaked and cooked in salted water.

Here's the takeaway. Salt softens the skins giving you a more tender, creamy texture. It also prevents water absorption, which means you get a more concentrated bean flavor. And lastly, it reduces the chance that your beans burst. So long story short, use salt when soaking and cooking beans!