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To Boil Haricot Beans

A simple boiled bean dish made from dried white haricot beans, water, salt, and optional baking soda.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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To Boil Haricot Beans

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the haricot beans in cold water overnight.

  2. In the morning, discard any beans that are floating.

Cook

  1. Place the soaked beans in a saucepan with 2 quarts of cold water and a pinch of salt.

  2. If using hard water, add a tiny piece of baking soda.

  3. Bring the water to a boil.

  4. Reduce to a gentle simmer.

  5. Simmer the beans for about 3 hours, or until tender.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

What each ingredient does

Dried white haricot beans
Form the main body of the dish, becoming soft and creamy as they cook slowly in water.
Baking soda
Raises the water's pH, which helps beans soften in hard water with mineral content.

The step that matters

Simmer gently until tender. A rolling boil can break the bean skins and leave the centres mushy, while a gentle simmer cooks them evenly. Beans are done only when tender, so timing alone is not enough.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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