Tried those dried bean bulk bins at Aldi and ended up with a massive mess

I figured I'd save a few bucks by buying pinto beans from the bulk bins instead of canned. Paid $1.50 for a pound, felt good about it until I soaked them overnight and they nearly doubled in size. Then I cooked them for like 2 hours and the skins all split open, turned into bean mush. Turns out old beans from bulk bins don't cook right, they just fall apart. Lesson learned, I'm sticking with bagged beans from now on. Anyone else get burned by bulk bin dry goods?

3 comments

3 Comments

simoncarr5d ago

Yeah my buddy Tom had the exact same thing happen with lentils from a bulk bin at a co-op. He soaked them planned a big lentil soup and ended up with a weird grey sludge that tasted like dirt. The shop wouldn't even take the rest back because they said it was "customer error." Now he buys everything canned or in proper sealed bags from the normal grocery store. And the kicker is once he did the math the bagged beans were only like 20 cents more so the savings weren't even real.

jessel355d ago

Honestly @simoncarr, that story about your buddy Tom hits close to home. My sister tried the same thing with a 5-pound bag of brown lentils from a bulk bin at our local health food store, and it turned into this weird watery mess that smelled like wet cardboard. She ended up throwing the whole batch in the trash because it just never softened right even after cooking it forever. The worst part is the co-op acted like she was crazy for complaining, so now she sticks to the same canned beans from the regular store too. It's wild how those tiny savings just aren't worth the headache when you factor in all the wasted time and ruined meals.

mitchell.wade5d ago

Wet cardboard" is the perfect way to describe it, @jessel35. My mom bought a huge bag of dried chickpeas from one of those bulk sections and after soaking overnight they still cooked up hard as rocks, totally ruined a batch of curry. Ended up in the trash too, and just like you said the canned stuff is always reliable for barely any more money.