The Bean Chronicles: Cannellini

The bean: Cannellini
Amount: 1-pound bag
Method: Soaked for about 12 hours (on counter), drained and rinsed, then on stove with maybe too much water, salted towards the end
Cooking time: About 2 hours
Storing? Half in the freezer; the other half in fridge



Result: Mixed. After the soaking, some of the beans already seemed to be splitting. Hm. After cooking, even more were splitting. Double hm. Nonetheless, the beans were perfectly soft and tasted amazing straight out of the pot. One of the highlights of my bean experiments is learning just how amazing beans can taste.

However, once refrigerated, I felt like the texture of the beans changed and became a little too grainy and hard. Perhaps I should have used them right away (but it was already 11 pm!). Instead, I used them later, in a modified version of this simple creamy bean soup, but it didn't turn out that creamy because I either a) did not puree it enough, or b) should have heated the beans up for much longer? Perhaps refrigeration is the culprit. I'm not sure but I'll keep trying.