— Ellen Speranzo

So a little troubleshooting here. Um, and, and we, you know, when we troubleshoot, we start from sort of the, the easiest fixes, maybe the most obvious possible concerns. So, uh, bear with me. But, uh, the first question would be, uh, was the water quantity adequate? And if the answer was, uh, no, um, as I go through this mental flow chart, uh, you add more water, and that should take care of it. If the answer was yes, then we go down this other path, or my next question, and, and probably, um, you know, my last question would be, did you add, uh, acidic ingredients into the pot with the beans and acidic items? Could be brown sugar, it could be, uh, certain tomato products, uh, could be vinegar. Those are the most common items that come to mind for me. Um, and I ask this because, uh, acid will tighten up the fibers, uh, that, that we find in plants. And, uh, so the skin will be toughened, um, by that acid. And, uh, it is, uh, it can be difficult to break through that, um, you know, unless you have a pressure cooker, okay? That's what comes to mind in terms of a possible fix. Now, uh, if you go this route to put everything into a pressure cooker and try to, uh, soften up, uh, you know, that, that bean the rest of the way, uh, it may affect the, the, the texture of, of other items in the pot. You might get some, um, some overcooked components, okay? So please be aware of that. But you, you know, would certainly be able to, uh, enjoy the food. You don't wanna be eating, uh, undercooked beans. That's not gonna be fun to eat, nor is it gonna be good for your body, okay? So do find a way forward where you can avoid eating the undercooked beans, all right? Um, but otherwise, um, you know, consider, uh, also, um, uh, well, the, the acidity, uh, as being the issue, I was just rereading the question, you soak the beans overnight, which is a good way to prep the beans. So you, you know, we can check that off the list as well. So, uh, give that a try and, um, I wish you success.