Cooking dried beans?

[captaincaed]

I found most slow cooker recipes are better in a pressure cooker. Greater heat and pressure lead to faster, more complete chemical breakdown (esp collagen). Beans from dry to cooked in 40" is hard to beat. Playing with the time in 5" increments helped me find the proper done-ness between undercooked and muddy in my cooker.
https://www.seriouseats.com/2016/10/why-pressure-cookers-are-better-than-slow-cookers.html

 

[DevinT]

Hoss, did you find out what you were doing wrong and find a way to get your beans to not come out muddy?

Yeah, overnight soak w/baking soda, rinse, fresh water +10 minute boil/simmer, rinse, fresh water + finish. I add salt to the last cooking. I don’t add anything acidic until after the beans are tender, or they never get done. The fresher the beans the better.

Hoss

 

[DCcook]

I find the decision to soak or not soak depends on the freshness of the beans. If the beans are new, from a vendor that turns their stock over quickly, I don't find a soak is needed, or adds anything. I buy from rancho gordo and from ethnic markets that sell a lot of beans and so usually I won't soak. For me decision about salting has more to do with flavor than with texture. I find intact beans will always taste under salted if they aren't cooked with salt. Salting at the end results in a salty pot liquor, and then when you bite into the bean itself, it tastes under salted.

I usually buy fresh beans, don't soak, cook a couple onions and cloves of garlic in a dutch oven add beans and cover with water. I cook on a very low simmer for a long time

 

[DevinT]

Growing up, we usually ate pinto beans and home made bread on Thursday. I have 10 brothers and 1 sister, my dad had a good job but the money was gone by Thursday of every week because payday was on Friday.

Beans were cheap so that’s what we ate. Almost every Thursday morning my mother would be sorting beans, and simmer them all day. The homemade bread was always done when we were coming home from school. We would slather the warm bread with butter for an after school snack. The beans we would eat plain with some El Pato hot sauce.

Friday was shopping day and we usually had pizza, chicken, or some other fast food and our parents would go out.

Hoss

 

[Matt Zilliox]

beans are the staple in my diet. how much time o you have? a pressure cooker can go form dried to done in 40 mins or less. they wont be the best, but they will be fast. you can also partly cook them in the pressure cooker then finish them in a pot.

a soak can help them get more tender and not mushy, because you dont have to cook as long, or at least thats why i think. but the more fresh the beans, the less they need to soak, they are just seeds, so fresh one are ready to go.

i add some salt during and some after. agree with what some have said, if no salt, and the bean is big and fresh, you taste no salt in the bean itself, just the broth

cooking in the pot is best, because more control, but takes longer and takes attention.

i use all of these methods on any given day, and probably more. depends on so many factors, but all yield good and edible beans

 

[banzai_burrito]

Growing up, we usually ate pinto beans and home made bread on Thursday. I have 10 brothers and 1 sister, my dad had a good job but the money was gone by Thursday of every week because payday was on Friday.

Beans were cheap so that’s what we ate. Almost every Thursday morning my mother would be sorting beans, and simmer them all day. The homemade bread was always done when we were coming home from school. We would slather the warm bread with butter for an after school snack. The beans we would eat plain with some El Pato hot sauce.

Friday was shopping day and we usually had pizza, chicken, or some other fast food and our parents would go out.

Hoss

Similar childhood here, I remember my mother making the beans with lard.

 

[captaincaed]

I bought a huge bag of red beans for the apocalypse, and haven’t cracked into them. Did the OP ever find a recipe that agreed with him?

 

[DevinT]

I bought a huge bag of red beans for the apocalypse, and haven’t cracked into them. Did the OP ever find a recipe that agreed with him?

Yeah, soak over night with a little baking soda, rinse, bring to a simmer in fresh water, cool. I start with 2 cups dried beans. After the soak rinse, simmer rinse, pressure cook beans in 1 quart salted chicken stock, minced onion, minced garlic and a couple of bay leaves, takes about 20-25 minutes at this point with natural cool down. I sometimes add canned tomatoes and green chilies and a splash of vinegar or hot sauce after cooking. Have been using pinto, black, and anasazi beans mostly.
Hoss

 

[captaincaed]

That's fantastic thank you. I wouldn't have thought of the baking soda in the soak.
My partner thought I was nuts for getting 25lb. Going to give this a try.

 

[rickbern]

Here's a little more science than you need to cook a pot of beans:

https://beaninstitute.com/cooking-w...on of baking soda,to soften much more rapidly.

 

[captaincaed]

Yeah, soak over night with a little baking soda, rinse, bring to a simmer in fresh water, cool. I start with 2 cups dried beans. After the soak rinse, simmer rinse, pressure cook beans in 1 quart salted chicken stock, minced onion, minced garlic and a couple of bay leaves, takes about 20-25 minutes at this point with natural cool down. I sometimes add canned tomatoes and green chilies and a splash of vinegar or hot sauce after cooking. Have been using pinto, black, and anasazi beans mostly.
Hoss

This base recipe came out really nicely. Expected it to taste like soda, but it didn't at all. I think that simmer rinse was the keystone. Best pot I've ever made. Needed a little extra hot sauce and salt and they eat good just like that.

Edit : this got the double thumbs up "ate for two meals in a row" endorsement from the house.