Cooking Preserved Beans

New Zealand Listener, Volume 6, Issue 156, 19 June 1942, Page 25

Cooking Preserved Beans

Dear Aunt Daisy, I wonder if you can give me any information about cooking preserved beans. I put some down according to your directions-a layer of beans and a layer of salt,-and so on. Well, yesterday I put some on to cook. They were not a bit salty or anything wrong in that way, but after being on the stove for threequarters of an hour they were still hard and not cooked at all. I would be very grateful to you if you could tell me what to do about them. They were young and fresh straight from my garden and I have also done some with your sugar and salt method.-" Constant Listener" (Ponsonby). You will probably find that the beans preserved with the sugar and salt will cook more quickly; but still, these others should certainly be quite satisfactory. Did you thoroughly wash them in cold water before cooking, to remove as much salt as possible? Try putting them (in a colander) under the cold tap, and letting the water run fast over them for some minutes, turning them about so that all get thoroughly washed. Then cook them in boiling water without any salt, adding a little sugar. A "Link" from ~ Marton reminded me that it is a great help to add a tablespoon of good dripping to the water, too, as this helps to soften them. Be prepared for them to take a long time-put them on early. Has any other Link in the Daisy Chain any suggestions to make? The method of preserving beans in layers of salt is very oldestablished and well-known, and was

almost universally used by the older generation of housewives, so that it must be possible for the beans to be palatable when cooked. Here is an extract from a letter from Moera: "This morning you spoke about the. lady who said her preserved beans would not cook soft in three-quarters of an hour. I have done them for years, and usually take them out of the jar and run the cold water tap on them for a while, then soak all night. Cook them next day -just bring to the boil and pour that water off; put on in fresh water, and I usually find that they are cooked in about half to three-quarter hour. No salt is needed as they are salt enough. Perhaps she used iodised salt when preserving

them. They say iodised salt makes them go hard." This Link soaks them all night, you see, which may be the secret.of making them cook quicker; and it also appears from the wording of her letter. that she puts them on in cold water instead of boiling.