Using Beans
Soaking and cooking beans before mixing with other recipe ingredients helps to get the right tenderness and can minimize final cooking time.
Overnight Soaking
For each 1 pound of beans, dissolve 2 tsp. salt in 6 cups of water. Wash beans, add to salted water and soak overnight. Before cooking drain and rinse.
Quick Soaking
For each 1 pound of beans, bring 8 cups of water to boiling. Wash beans, add to boiling water, boil for 1-2 minutes. Remove from heat, cover and soak for 1 hour.
To Cook Soaked Beans
For each 1 pound of beans, dissolve 2 tsp. salt in 6 cups hot water; bring to boiling. Add soaked beans; boil gently, uncovered, adding BOILING water if needed to keep beans covered with water, cooking until tender. Yield: 6-7 cups
To Cook Old, Hard, Beans
Wash and sort to remove any discolored beans or foreign material. For each cup of dry beans, add 2 ½ cups hot tap water and 2 tsp. baking soda and soak overnight. Drain and rinse two times, then add water to cover beans and cook until tender and soft, about two hours, adding more BOILING water as needed. Note: if you add water to cooking beans that is not BOILING, your beans will be tough. This holds true for all dried beans.
Adding a tablespoon of oil will cut down on foam as beans cook. Stored beans should be rotated regularly.
They continue to lose moisture and will not reconstitute if kept too long.
Pressure cook old beans for 20 minutes, and they will be soft. (I have not personally tried this)
From the PL Bean class 2/28/2012
