How long can I keep soaked beans?
May 20, 2009 6:29 PM   Subscribe

I soaked some beans, and then put them in a tupperware in the fridge. How long will they hold this way?
posted by TigerCrane to Food & Drink (10 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
What kind of beans? How long did you soak them? Is the tupperware sealed?
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 6:32 PM on May 20, 2009


A few days at least -- maybe five or ten. They're still live (if you haven't boiled them) so they'll sprout after a while -- a long while, in the fridge. DON'T keep them airtight or they may spoil.
posted by anadem at 6:33 PM on May 20, 2009


I've had soaking beans go weird in five days. Two or three days seems to be fine though.
posted by lekvar at 6:56 PM on May 20, 2009


If they are beans like black beans etc, make sure they are pretty dry before you put them in and as anadem said, dont seal them in an airtight container. Also, putting a layer of paper towel down in the container will help with the moisture and prevent spoiling. I'd say you have about 4-5 days. Or, you could cook them, and then freeze them, and they'll last much much longer.
posted by elendil71 at 6:58 PM on May 20, 2009


Once they're fully soaked and cooked, you can freeze them in small portions.
Throw them in the crockpot tomorrow if you haven't boiled them yet.

(Reply w/ more info! I love a good dried bean question.)
posted by Mrs_Eep at 7:55 PM on May 20, 2009


Eh, don't overthink this plate of beans.

Use the same litmus test as other food - visible bacterial growth? Odd smell? My guess is that it'll be good for a week or so.
posted by chrisamiller at 8:25 PM on May 20, 2009


you really shouldn't soak beans more than a day or two; 8-10 hour is all that's necessary for most beans. After a while in the soak, they start to get mealy-tasting when cooked, and their skin is more likely to crack or fall off.
posted by Jon_Evil at 8:47 PM on May 20, 2009


I make my own soymilk. Part of the process is soaking the beans. I will sometimes store the soaked beans in a tupperware container in the refrigerator for a week/2 weeks. The *critical* part of soaked bean storage? Draining them before you put them in the storage container. They will keep much, much longer drained. When they have gone bad, it is unmistakable. You will have no problem recognizing when they are past the point of viability.

The only time I've had them sprout is when I've left them at room temperature, in water, for +48 hours. And the sprouted soybeans actually made an absolutely excellent batch of soymilk. As long as you keep them cold you won't have to worry about sprouting.
posted by hecho de la basura at 6:02 AM on May 21, 2009


Yeah, totally freeze them. In my experience, if they're drained well, you don't even need to freeze them in small portions -- you can just open the tupperware out of the freezer and scoop out the amount you need. (On the other hand, covering them with water before freezing would presumably reduce freezer burn.)

Bitten goes on about freezing beans. Always soak more than you need, then freeze the rest, and *boom* you've got a great go-to food in the freezer. I totally agree.
posted by wyzewoman at 6:54 AM on May 21, 2009


Response by poster: They are white beans. The tupperware is sealed, they've been in there a long while. They look fine. They have a slight funy smell, but its just a kind of beany smell. Thanks for th tip on freezing. Maybe I'll tossthis batch out soak some more and freeze.
posted by TigerCrane at 7:07 PM on May 21, 2009


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