Posted: 12/7/2025 1:38:52 PM EDT
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Folks, I’ve got some jars of “scotch broth/stew” rice and beans that are years old. Like 10-15 plus years old. Stored in glass jars dry with oxygen absorbers. Rice(unbleached), pintos, lentils and black-eyed peas. No bugs seen, and they look normal to me. Have not opened and done a sniff test. Still good to go? Prob soak them for a few hours, rinse and cook with some broth. Looking for cooking advice and any cautions I should be aware of with these old mixes. If they’re no good I will pitch them. Just don’t want to poison us or waste them if they’re fine. |
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| I don’t think they go bad but they get harder to rehydrate I believe the older they get. I’d do the stove top hot water soak and then turn off and lid them and let them soak over night. Test the done-ness of the beans before moving forward on a recipe. I’ve had some slow to cook red kidney beans. |
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| The beans will take a bit longer to cook, soaking them overnight will help. Some people put a little baking soda in the water to help the beans soften. The rice will cook as it should. None of it is harmful in any way other than flatulence, and my young boys consider that a bonus. |
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The pintos are going to be a problem and will likely never soften no matter what you do to them- rocks. When replacing, try lentils instead. |
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Originally Posted By mvmm: Do pressure cookers help with old beans? asking for a friend We soaked for days, we pressure cooked, we did the "add some baking soda to the water" thing, all that. Most of our older pintos were rocks. Lentils on the other hand stored better, cooked quicker, require no pre-soaking and have higher protein. Less cooking time = less fuel used. |
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Originally Posted By Lowdown3: We soaked for days, we pressure cooked, we did the "add some baking soda to the water" thing, all that. Most of our older pintos were rocks. Lentils on the other hand stored better, cooked quicker, require no pre-soaking and have higher protein. Less cooking time = less fuel used. Had a different experience with some that were around 8 years old mixed with some right from the store. Rinsed but no presoak or baking soda. One 45 min round in the instant pot along with a ham hock got the fresher beans soft but the old were still a bit firm. Not rock hard but not fully cooked either. Another 45 min round got the old beans soft but the new were mush. That ended up being ok since it gave the juice a thicker consistency. Wouldn't work well at all if you had rice premixed in. That long under pressure would probably completely dissolve the rice. |
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I have new storage and will soon be rotating and purging some dry foods. Dry pinto among them. Already know most of these no longer soften very good, even when pressure cooker is used. My understanding is that the oils in the beans undergo plasticization of some kind, making them hard no matter what. Have considered a grinder / food mill of some sort but beans are cheap in comparison. My question - do beans lose nutritional value when they get hard? Be a shame to waste a bunch of time and fuel trying to soften beans that have lost most of their food value in the first place. |
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Rotate that stock. I'd feed the rice to the chickens and make refried beans with the rest. Also, do not salt your pintos before cooking. It slows the hydration of the beans. I do at least three soak/rinse cycles of dry pintos with baking soda. Leaches the farts out of them.  If you want thicker bean broth, put a whole small and peeled raw potato into the pot then toss it when done. |