I make some soup that I slow cook for two days lots a small cut pieces beef -and cans of vegetables .

I decided to make some that included red pinto bean -I washed them soaked them overnight -poured the soak water away boiled them according to the directions on the bag. Then put them in with the vegetable soup that had been cooking for a day.
At the end of day two -I tasted it --the pinto beans turned very firm -went to work today -day three cooking -pinto's still hard ?
How is it possible that cooking them three days and they're still hard .
I'm going to cook them until they are soft any idea how many days weeks it will take ?

Did you put salt in the cooking liquid ?

It might be a sacrilege, but I seem to have to cook navy beans in soda, drain, then rinse to get them tender.

Miss Lynn ,

No didn't put anything in the beans -just went by the directions on the bag -put them in the soup -now they are hard been cooking since saturday -monday night still hard .
I have had the stove on 5 setting stirring often -bubbling away .
I would never think beans could do this .

We have high salt levels in our water. Pretty much have to use distilled water to get beans soft.

There are four reasons I know of that would explain them not cooking. Salt in the water, an acid of some kind in the water, someone sold you an OLD package of beans, or humidity got to the beans somewhere along the line.

The pot you used for cooking the beans, what is it made of ? What was the last thing cooked in it ?

Salt, tomato, lemon/lime juice would turn the bean skins to leather.

A pressure cooker is your friend. You can cook 2 cups of pinto beans, in 11 minutes. Run cold water over the cooker to stop to cooking further. Drain beans in colander and go to making your soup. I cook ham and pinto beans in about two hours. Most of that is to simmer it down until they are a little thicker.

You can soak them overnight, and then pressure cook them but then it gets to hard to get them to that perfect state. Not too hard and not mushy

This is what I do as well. ^^^^^^^ I always pressure cook them first.

I'll be feeding the soup to the pigs at my lease , tuesday evening and they haven't changed .

Miss Lynn - you nailed three things for sure [maybe more] -our water is heavily chlorinated here ,-the beans ARE old -was just trying to use them up -bought them after watching 'Preppers' the first time -laf , and they were stored low to the floor next cabinet over from sink -which did have a leak a while back.
Teflon pan -last thing cooked -paste with olive oil SALT and pepper .
Well -live and learn that pressure cooker sounds like the thing to have .
A family I had Christmas dinner with uses a pressure cooker for all kinds of stuff and has told me more than once to try one ,I'm going to get a nice stainless steel unit.
Thanks for the help -guess I'll have a baloney samich now.
Mike

If you buy a pressure cooker , spend enough money to get one with a pressure gage/control valve on it. Sure helps to control it.

Saddlesore ,

The family with the pressure cooker told me the same thing -thanks -Mike.

Once in a while there are bad beans that won't soften no matter what

I just made a pot of pintos yesterday!!! Rinse beans and check for rocks.....Rocks hard on teeth!!!!! Cover beans with several inchs of water, bring to boil for 2 min turn off burner let beans soak for 60 min then add Ham or bacon and cook at med heat covered for 3 hrs, turn beans down to a slow boil for about a hour to thicken up....Make cornbread and eat......I let one continuous fart for the rest of the night.... Wife made me sleep on the couch......

Throw the water out that the beans were initially cooked in and you get rid of that fart.