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Bean Cooking Tip

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civil eggineer
civil eggineer Posts: 1,547
edited November -1 in EggHead Forum
I responded a little late on another thread but thought some may appreciate this information concerning cooking beans. I now use a pressure cooker with 1 cup pinto beans (dry), 3 cups water, and 1/2 cup onions. Cook for 30 minutes once pressure is reached (15 psi), remove from heat and allow to depressurize naturally. Perfectly cooked beans in 1/8 the time.
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  • civil eggineer
    civil eggineer Posts: 1,547
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    Info please!
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  • fishlessman
    fishlessman Posts: 32,758
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    another reason for me to get one of those, beans take me a day and a half :laugh: which model do you have
    fukahwee maine

    you can lead a fish to water but you can not make him drink it
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  • civil eggineer
    civil eggineer Posts: 1,547
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    It is a Fagor (sp?) 6 qt I use for cooking but I also have an All American 25 Qt Pressure Canner that is a tank for canning. I bought my Fagor off of ebay for around $25 and it was un-used.
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  • civil eggineer
    civil eggineer Posts: 1,547
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    Saved your cheesecake recipe and am curious about the creme brulee. Thanks again for the recipe.
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  • 'Q Bruddah
    'Q Bruddah Posts: 739
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    I collect pressure cookers. I have refurbished a lot of WWII vintage cookers and use them without any problems. As for new, Kuhn-Rikon, is a favorite brand of mine. A little spendy but truly a first cless PC.
    Soaking those beans makes cooking them even quicker. Lorna Sass is an excellent author on PC cooking.
    The problem with PC cooking beans is that they are done but the texture may get a little beat up and there is no smoky flavor outside of adding liquid smoke.
    Baking a pot of beans on the egg can take you right back to slow food goodness. I like and appreciate both methods it just depends on mood and the time constraints of dinner.
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  • mkc
    mkc Posts: 544
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    Any issues with foaming? I've heard some folks recommend adding a tablespoon of oil when pressure cooking dried beans to keep the foaming down/prevent clogging the vent.

    -M
    Egging in Crossville, TN
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  • fishlessman
    fishlessman Posts: 32,758
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    how would it work for just softening them a little before going in my bean pot, i mainly cook bigger beans like great northerns, yellow eye, and kidneys.
    fukahwee maine

    you can lead a fish to water but you can not make him drink it
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  • Frank from Houma
    Frank from Houma Posts: 5,755
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    I don't like pressure cookers :(

    Probably because I'm in one every day at work :unsure:
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  • 'Q Bruddah
    'Q Bruddah Posts: 739
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    Fish,
    It would be super simple to take the PC off the heat, run cold water over it or let it cool naturally. Cooling fast with cold water has a tendency to break up the beans so you can consider it "rough handling". But, if time is the issue over perfect beans then by all means cool them fast. If on the other hand you have soaked your beans over night and they are only supposed to cook 6-8 minutes at high pressure you could easily run them up to high pressure cook them say 3 minutes and have them cool naturally and still be ahead of the game, so to speak. Understand that a lot of beans started in a PC with a quart of cold water or more takes awhile to get to high temp, maybe twenty minutes depending on your heat source.
    Reading back over this I believe if it were me and I wanted to save time doing boston baked beans on an Egg I would probably cook them all way with a PC and let them soak up smoke for an hour or more on the Egg and call it good.
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  • thirdeye
    thirdeye Posts: 7,428
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    I use pressure cookers a lot, and do pressure canning too. They area wonderful tool.

    When pressure cooking beans....Something to think about here is soaking. Soaking does break down the indigestible complex sugars from the outer coating of the beans (the stuff that causes some of gas from beans) and it will make them cook quicker and more evenly too. So if you are not soaking and cooking 30 minutes, you will be able to cook soaked beans faster.

    All that said....There is one reason that is more important to soak beans...they are filthy. They have a coating of insect larva, rodent contamination, fertilizer and pesticide residues on them. The growers call this field dust. Other than a shaker to remove most of the rocks, beans don't actually get cleaned before you get them.
    Happy Trails
    ~thirdeye~

    Barbecue is not rocket surgery
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  • 'Q Bruddah
    'Q Bruddah Posts: 739
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    Part of me says it may have been worth it, to learn from Ms Sass.

    I love the "second generation" PC's for their ease and stainless and clean lines. But there is something very nostalgic listening to an old jiggle top cook your dinner. Even more, I get a kick out of making a pot of chili in one of these on a cold November night. The dial gauge ensures accuracy.

    OldTimePC.jpg

    OldPC2.jpg]

    These old girls still turn out a quality meal or pot of stock.
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  • 'Q Bruddah
    'Q Bruddah Posts: 739
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    Actually, once you crank down on the wing nuts or clamp you realize there is nothing coming out of that puppy. More than likely Aunt Wanda had beans on her ceiling because she left the cooker unattended with high heat. A definite No-No.
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  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User] Posts: 0
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    Wow! I bet that thing would throw off some serious shrapnel if it ever exploded... SCHWEET!

    Did it include a flack jacket?
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  • 'Q Bruddah
    'Q Bruddah Posts: 739
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    As a collector and user of old PC's I am sometimes put off by the bad rep these old ones have, which I often see as a thinly veiled attempt to sell NEW cookers and to keep the sponsorship dollars coming in.
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  • Bacchus
    Bacchus Posts: 6,019
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    Very cool. Thanks for sharing the pics.
    The wife of one of our trusted members suffered serious burns from a pressure cooker not long ago. I believe he said it was operator error.
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  • 'Q Bruddah
    'Q Bruddah Posts: 739
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    When I was in the service and living in a basement apartment my landlord who lived upstairs was undoing the wing nuts on a cooker and had some serious hurt because he didn't let all the pressure out first. He was canning seafood. Again, if you are not paying attention, it can get nasty fast.
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  • civil eggineer
    civil eggineer Posts: 1,547
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    I add 1 TBS of bacon fat.
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