What did I do wrong? Split peas never got soft.

I make split pea soup all the time but this time something went seriously wrong. I'm hoping one of you food scientists can explain it.

It starts, of course, with me screwing up. I made my ham broth over the weekend and thought I was going to start the soup then, so I put my peas in a bowl to soak. What with the usual one thing and another they were still sitting out on the counter soaking two days later and I was afraid they'd start spouting. So I rinsed them off and left them in the strainer to dry out. The next day I finally started the soup.

So by now the soup's probably had at least six hours on the stove (and a couple of nights in the fridge between simmers) and the peas are still hard. I must have somehow managed to petrify them. Anyone know how I did that?

Ann Fisher wrote:It starts, of course, with me screwing up. I made my ham broth over the weekend and thought I was going to start the soup then, so I put my peas in a bowl to soak. What with the usual one thing and another they were still sitting out on the counter soaking two days later and I was afraid they'd start spouting. So I rinsed them off and left them in the strainer to dry out. The next day I finally started the soup.

So by now the soup's probably had at least six hours on the stove (and a couple of nights in the fridge between simmers) and the peas are still hard. I must have somehow managed to petrify them. Anyone know how I did that?

You probably got some OLD peas.

I had the same thing happen to me with a bag of black-eye peas last year. I soaked the beans and cooked in a slow cooker for 36 hours and they were still hard.

My recommendation would be to try a pressure cooker.

I've done a bit of research on this before and it seems as though the most likely cause is old peas/beans. Nothing you can do now. Best bet is to buy soon before use from a place that has quick turnover.

I could be wrong but don't they tell you not to add salt to beans before they soften? Was there too much salt in the ham broth maybe?

I could be wrong but don't they tell you not to add salt to beans before they soften?

I've heard the salt has more to do with making the skins tough rather than keeping the beans from softening

Pie Lady wrote:I could be wrong but don't they tell you not to add salt to beans before they soften? Was there too much salt in the ham broth maybe?

I always put the ham or smoked neckbones in before the peas, maybe as much as an hour earlier. After 90 minutes of cooking, the split peas are MUSH without using the boat motor.

Old beans it probably is. Thank you. I've tossed them out (they were with the bone from an Aldi's ham, not one of my precious Wettstein ham hocks).

Pie Lady wrote:I could be wrong but don't they tell you not to add salt to beans before they soften? Was there too much salt in the ham broth maybe?

Actually, this is a common kitchen myth. Salting the presoak water or the cooking water does nothing to hamper the cooking of the beans. Many sources (including America's Test Kitchen/Cooks Illustrated) find it has a positive effect on the final taste and texture of the beans.

Ah. Found the text of ATK's findings:

After testing a variety of soaking times, we settled on soaking the beans overnight, a method that consistently produced the most tender and evenly cooked beans. But none of the methods we tested properly softened the skins. The answer was to soak the beans in salted water. Brining the beans, rather than the conventional approach of soaking them in plain water and then cooking them in saltwater, allowed the salt to soften the skins but kept it from penetrating inside, where it could make the beans mealy. Tests showed that gently cooking the beans in a 250-degree oven produced perfectly cooked beans that stayed intact.