Tender Beans, Without Soaking

[elleng]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/03/dining/03appe.html?_r=1&hpw

[flamin lib]

1. I gave up soaking a long time ago.

Slow cookers work great too.

Cover beans with 2 inches of water, season water with salt until it tastes just a little too salty, add cumin, bay leaves and aromatics. Bring to boil and reduce heat to low for 3 hours or so. I use the five bean test method; taste five beans to make sure they're all done.

Perfect temp is one or two bubbles a second. Boil them too hard and they break apart.

[hippywife]

2. Same here, except

I don't season with anything until much later in the process. :hi:

[whyverne]

3. I'm surprised that the article writer thought that soaking beans

had to be refrigerated. That seems strange to me.

[japple]

4. Several years ago, on her PBS show, I heard Diana Kennedy say

that she never soaks her beans and, since then, I haven't either. Of course, if you live at high altitudes, you probably have to do it. I live at about 640 ft., but I didn't have any problem when I lived at 4000 ft.

[Arkansas Granny]

5. I don't soak beans overnight and mine turn out fine. I wash them,

put them in the pan with seasonings and water, bring to a boil and simmer slowly until they are tender. I don't find that adding salt at the beginning makes any difference in cooking time or tenderness, but by adding salt at the start, I'm sure that the beans absorb the flavor all the way through.