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