Basic Bean Preparation

Basic Bean Preparation

1. Bean quality matters. Know your supplier. You will pay more at Rancho Gordo for a pound of beans than you would at a supermarket but it's still about the cost of a drive-through burger.
2. Don't let beans sit in the pantry for months. Cook them fresh.
3. Soak the beans for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight. This may make them easier to digest by rinsing away lectins, but there's a lot of nonsense around about lectins these days. (All I know is that clients stencil them.)
4. Don't salt the bean water. Folklore has it this will lengthen the cooking time and while I have no objective evidence for this position, I never salt bean water and my bean cooking times are well-bounded.
5. Start by bringing the beans and their water (however much you want to use, usually covering the beans an inch deep although this may vary with the pot geometry) to a boil over very high heat.
6. Boil for 15 minutes over high heat, as high as you can go without boiling over.
7. After 15 minutes, turn down the heat to a simmer and cook for another 45 minutes. You should see some amount of bubbling with the water mostly still.
8. You may need to adjust the cooking time for the size of the bean and perhaps the soak time. Small beans like lentils may cook very fast.
9. Check the beans for doneness and keep cooking if they need it.
10. If your recipe doesn't call for bean water, pour it on plants instead of down the drain.