regarding the beans that took forever to soften: i have great luck using a crock pot on low overnight.

I had a similar problem making “Super-Lemony Kidney Beans” from Mark Bittman’s Food Matters Cookbook in the oven. They were very uneven--some crunchy, some soft. My suspicion is that while on the stovetop I would stir them occasionally, so that the beans spent some time in the bottom of the pot and some on top and get evenly cooked, beans in the oven sit too still. Maybe my (ancient and tiny) gas oven’s heat source is too uneven ...

Not entirely sure what happened to your beans, but I’ve tried a number of ways of cooking mine and here’s what seems to work best:

rinse dried beans and pick out ‘dead’ ones. add to dutch oven. cover with an inch or more of water. add some salt. add lid. add to cold oven. turn oven on to about 300ºF. check in about an hour, then judge from there. small beans like cannellini seem to take about 1.5–2hrs for me; large beans seem to take about 3, maybe a little more.

This is pulled from this Culinate article, and seems to work every time. The only problem I’ve had is occasionally overcooking smaller beans, which really doesn’t bother me. The pot liquor is great in soups, pasta sauces, even bread. Yum.

The element that has the most to do with how quickly beans cook is also the element that the cook usually has the least idea about - and that is the age of the beans. Most beans one buys are of substantial age - having been stored not only at the place where they were grown but also trucked to packaging facilities, packaged and stored there, then sent to warehouses and from there on to grocery stores.
For anyone who has a little dirt and sunshine they will find the difference in texture and cooking speed to be well worth the effort to grow your own dried beans. Otherwise - a good local supplier is the next best bet. Good luck!
Spring Warren - thequarteracrefarm.com

Having developed many bean recipes for many of my cookbooks, including The Pressure Cooker Gourmet,I have learned that the age of the dried beans makes a large difference: the older, the longer it takes to soften them. Equally important is the cooking method. I have come to use pressure cooking as first choice. You don’t have to presoak the beans. Just put them in the cooker with plenty of water to cover, lock on the lid, bring to pressure, and cook for 40 minutes. If they are not quite done at the end of that time, you can repeat the process for as many minutes as needed, meaning,10,20,30,in increments, depending on the age of the beans. (Of course, if they’re from an archaeological dig of the paleolithic period, they might not be cooked before you are long gone.) The point is, in my experience, pressure cooking is the most energy-efficient and hassle-free way to cook dried beans. And salt should not be added until they’re done.

Thanks, everyone! I guess I assumed that because I bought this season’s locally grown beans at the farmers’ market that they would be less dry than beans from the grocery store; looks as if that’s not a safe assumption. Also, a pressure cooker is something I haven’t invested in — mostly because of storage space issues. But I love beans, and I can see how useful one would be.

Cooking them in any kind of acid (like tomato or lemon) will significantly slow or stop the cooking. A bit of baking soda might help.

I would advise that you sell your crockpot and buy a pressure cooker. The aren’t called “fast slow cookers” for no reason. You can easily find one the same size as the crockpot, especially if you “Google” it

My wife has a crockpot & I have a pressure cooker. For my money, the food in the pressure cooker tastes better.

Cooking time depends on the type of pressure cooker so I wouldn’t say a time. However, with dried beans I have been caught out several times so I like to take precautions. I soak them overnight. Then I put them in about 3 cm cold water in the pressure cooker, and cook them for a couple of minutes more than the book recommendation. Remember, a minute or two in a pressure cooker is equivalent to a much longer time in anything else.

Don’t even consider a microwave for dried beans. Incidentally, articles I have read indicate that pressure cookers retain more of the nourishment than do other cooking methods.

Thanks for a great column,

David

I live at an altitude of 4000 ft. Dried beans take forever to cook at this altitude unless they are very, very fresh. I do not have a pressure cooker and a crockpot does not do the trick, so I always do them at least a day ahead!

Kim,

I have noticed the most important variable in bean cooking time, besides bean size, is how long they have been in storage and what the storage temperature is. I’ve had troubles with beans that had been out of the field for only a handful of months. But they had been stored somewhere quite warm. They were literally drying out even more. I always try to buy beans that seem like this year’s crop. That’s impossible to tell at a grocery store, but I’ve noticed that the pinto beans in New Seasons bulk section always cook up nice, and don’t take long. I think they have good turnover.

I, too, had a bean disaster recently. I ALWAYS cook them in a crock pot--no fuss, no muss. But recently, I thought I’d cook them on the stove top. They cooked all day and were still so firm that they weren’t edible. A few days later, I took beans from the same batch (bought at a high-end market) and made them in a crock pot. They were soft and delicious by dinner time, as usual. No difference other than pots and cooking method. Not sure--but I think I’ll stick with the crock pot since it’s easy and seems to be fail proof.

I have always believed that baked beans were cooked to doneness first on top of the stove, slo cooker or whatever. It would seem that simmering in an oven would be the same as on top of the stove, but it doesn’t seem to work that way.

I don’t think salt or whatever had anything to do with it.

Orinda

When beans are slow to cook, sometimes the problem is the cooking water. Because my well water is hard--it has a high level of calcium--I now buy distilled water for cooking chickpeas, lentils, and split peas. But I have no problem cooking New World beans in tap water.
Regarding the old-bean problem, it’s wise to look for a “best by” date. Even more helpful would be a harvest date, but apparently not even a “best by” date is required by law. Perhaps we should work to change this.

As per Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone, p.297, under Acids: “tomatoes, wine, vingear and other acidic foods inhibit the tenderizing process and shouldn’t be added until after the beans are tender. Once acid is introduced, it’s difficult to cook the beans to full tenderness.” I had the same experience with a recipe and now I never make that mistake again!

Age matters, Old beans won’t cook well.

What elevation are you cooking at? At sea level I rarely have trouble, but at 7000 feet I have to use a pressure cooker or they might never (literally, never) be done. A pressure cooker would probably do the trick regardless of other variables!