[Sca-cooks] My problem cooking lentils

[Heleen Greenwald]

I used a yellow lentil.  I read some time ago that lentils do not  
need to be pre-soaked and only take about 45 minutes to cook. I have  
always had a problem cooking lentils until done enough..... I guess I  
will have to test for water acidity now....It's really annoying.
Phillipa
"My furs are not in storage, or draped across the bed,
they're hanging from the cage door, waiting to be fed."




On Oct 20, 2007, at 7:11 PM, Lilinah wrote:

> Odd... i've cooked really old lentils (hanging around my house for
> well over a year, maybe even over two, and not tightly sealed) and
> i've never had this problem. They were soft enough to eat in... i
> think about 45 min or so... and nice and soft after an hour or 1-1/4
> hours. It certainly didn't take 3 hours!
>
> Soaking them overnight before you cook them ought to help shorten the
> cooking time.
>
> I am assuming you are using the standard lentil in the US, which is
> relatively large, has a sort of olive brown skin. The tiny "French
> lentils" (much smaller and a different shade of green than the
> "usual") have taken much longer to cook in my experience. On the
> other hand, the orange lentils often used in Indian cooking cook even
> more quickly than the "usual", since they are split and skinned.
>
> The orange lentils would not need to be soaked, while the French
> lentils would no doubt cook more quickly if soaked. And i've no idea
> how long the tiny and black "caviar lentils" take to cook as i've
> only bought them already cooked.
> -- 
> Urtatim (that's err-tah-TEEM)
> the persona formerly known as Anahita
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