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If you're using hard water or beans damaged by age or storage, add 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda per pound of dried beans to the soaking water. If you empty the soaking water and use fresh water to cook the beans, replace the baking soda.

The tenderness that baking soda offers comes with a cost, a sacrifice of both taste and nutrition, according to the Culinary Institute of America. If too much baking soda is used, the beans can taste of soap, so measure carefully. Baking soda also damages thiamine, a B complex vitamin.

Instead of adding baking soda to the beans, try boiling then freezing them.