Vent: my $2.50 dried bean experiment turned into a 3 hour mess

I tried making a big pot of pinto beans from dry to save money instead of buying the $1 cans, and I forgot they needed to soak overnight, so I tried the quick soak method and rushed it at 7pm on a Tuesday in my tiny Denver kitchen. What I thought would be a cheap dinner turned into three hours of watching a pot and scrubbing burned beans off the bottom because I cranked the heat too high. Your mileage may vary but I learned that cheap ingredients still need real time, not just a lower price tag. How do you all handle the time part of cheap cooking, or am I the only one who thinks saving money on beans costs me my whole evening?

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sam_anderson3d ago

Did you learn the hard way too that a "quick" soak is never actually quick? I did the same thing with black beans last month and ended up scraping the bottom of my pot at 10pm while my kid asked why dinner was taking forever. Now I just soak them in the morning before work, or honestly I buy the cans when I'm short on time and call it a fair trade.

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