Beans talk: To salt or soak?

Is it true that you shouldn't add salt to beans when they are cooking because it will make them tough? Do you need to soak beans before cooking?

No and no. Adding salt to cooking beans will have no adverse effect on the texture of the beans. Soaking them may speed up cooking, but only marginally.

I've been wondering about these bean-cooking recommendations for a long time, so I recently did an experiment in my kitchen, testing the results of salting and soaking. I made four batches of red kidney beans with and without kosher salt.

Batch 1: Soaked for 6 hours in unsalted water, then cooked

Batch 2: Soaked for 6 hours in salted water (11/3 teaspoons a quart), then cooked

Batch 3: Not soaked, cooked in unsalted water

Batch 4: Not soaked, cooked in salted water (2 teaspoons a quart)

First, soaking: I found that my soaked beans were done about 30 minutes before the unsoaked beans; for this batch of kidney beans, soaking was clearly a waste of time. In general, older and larger beans take longer to cook and might benefit from a soak - but never shy away from cooking beans because you haven't had time to soak them. And I would never bother to soak small beans and legumes such as split peas and lentils.

As for salting, I could discern no textural difference among any of the four batches of beans. However, the beans soaked in salted water had the best flavor, followed by the beans cooked in salted water, followed (a long way behind) by the completely saltless beans.

Nor could the flavorlessness of the unsalted beans be rectified by a late addition of salt. The earlier I salted the beans, the less salt they needed. That's because the "late salt" just coated the surface of the beans, while the "early salt" was absorbed.

Bottom line: Don't bother soaking beans, but when you cook them, add 1teaspoon of kosher salt (or 1/2 teaspoon table salt) for each quart of water.

Some folks contend that soaking beans can reduce their, er, gas-producing ability. Others say that you should add a little baking soda to the soaking water - or to the cooking water. None of these methods have been proven effective.

What's the difference between green, red, yellow and orange bell peppers?

Well, there are the colors, but you probably knew that. All bell peppers start out green, but then they ripen into either red, yellow or orange. Compared to red, yellow and orange peppers, green ones have a bitter, unripe taste. And that's because they are ... unripe. Green peppers are picked when they have reached their full size and shape, but before they have achieved their ultimate color and sweetness. Leave them on the vine and, depending on the variety, you'll wind up with red, yellow or orange. There are peppers that ripen to green but they are few and far between.