Does cooking black bengal gram with salt lead to increased cooking time or lack of softening?
I have heard that cooking bengal gram with salt can lead to increased cooking time compared to cooking it without salt.So i used to add salt just before serving the curry.Other pulses like green gram are cooked with salt without any noticeable similar problems of delayed softening. Is this problem about bengal gram or chickpea is true?If so why is it so?
Best Answer
No, this is a common myth. If you want to test it, you don't "try once with salt", you divide the same batch of beans and cook them both, one with salt and one without, under the same conditions, and repeat. This is what a food author did, although he seems to not have repeated the experiment: http://www.seriouseats.com/2016/09/salt-beans-cooking-soaking-water-good-or-bad.html. His salted beans were somewhat better than the unsalted, and he states he now always cooks them in salted water.
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Does salt reduce cooking time?
salt per quart of water greatly reduces cooking time by replacing magnesium in the cell walls with sodium, making the cells dissolve more easily when heated.Can we add salt while boiling Chana?
I used the same water in which the chickpeas were boiled. You can add more water here if you prefer more gravy in your chana masala. Taste test and adjust the salt at this point, I added 1/8 teaspoon more salt here.Will your food cook faster when you add salt?
Therefore, yes, adding salt to water will increase its boiling point. But the question is by how much? Well, if you add one tablespoon of salt to five quarts of boiling water (an amount sufficient to cook some pasta), it will raise the boiling point by seven-hundredths of 1\xb0 F.Does salt soften bean skins?
When you soak dried beans in salted water, they cook up with softer skins. Brining isn't just for meat. When you soak dried beans in salted water, they cook up with softer skins.Authentic Punjabi Rajma Recipe | Punjabi Style Rajma | Chef Sanjyot Keer
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Answer 2
I don't think this is true. If anything, salt would help the bengal gram (chickpea or garbanzo bean) soften sooner because it would absorb moisture more easily and therefore soften sooner.
If you soak the bengal gram overnight (you should for taste/texture/ease of cooking) then salting during the soak would definitely not cause an increase cooking time, as once again they will contain more water and therefore cook faster.
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