Quick Soak Beans' title='Quick Soak Beans' />Forget Soaking. Use Your Pressure Cooker for Perfect Black Beans in Under an Hour. Photographs J. Kenji Lpez AltFor a good 1. I had a mini panic attack every time I entered the gas station because I couldnt remember which side the gas tank was on. Oh crap, am I going to be that jerk who pulls in, then has to pull out and swing around the pump while everyone watches me because I pulled up on the wrong side again Id think to myself. Then one day, someone told me that the gas display on your dashboard has a little arrow indicating which side the tank is on. This was one of those simultaneously frustrating and liberating experiences in which I learned that Id been doing things the hard way my entire life. I had a similar experience a couple of years ago when I discovered that not only do you not have to soak dried black beans prior to cooking, but they actually come out tastier when you dont soak them. Its not new news. Russ Parsons wrote about it way back in 1. L. A. Times. But, just like the gas tank arrow, it simply never entered my brain. Some beans do need to be soaked in order to cook evenly without blowing outbut not black beans. And since I made this discovery, black beans have become my bean staple. How much easier does it get than Maxs lazy black bean recipeAll it takes is a little planning ahead for a time to soak the beans and a time to cook them. The following directions, adapted from information provided by the. Are you still soaking dried beans Why For years Ive been telling people that you dont need to soak most beans. Now the cool kids are agreeing. Yesterday my. Throw beans in a pot, add a couple of aromatics, and boil them until finished. Done. The answer is that it doesnt really get any easier than that. But it does get faster. Green beans grow best in full soil and warm soil that has reached between 65F and 70F. You can soak most green bean seeds overnight in a small dish of warm water. Did you forget to prep them last night It happens to everyone and youre in luck because you can also do a rapid, quick soak. Heres how Sort through the beans and. With the help of a good pressure cooker, you can cut your total cooking time down from a few hours to under an hour, and the process is just as simple. In this recipe, I start with a little bit of chorizo, which I saut in oil until it starts to crisp up and render its fat. You can very easily use any other firm, cured sausageandouille, kielbasa, or pepperoni would all be delicious. I then add the dried beans and the rest of the aromatics, and I dont even bother sweating or sauting them first Im that lazy. An onion split in half, some whole cloves of garlic, an orange split in half, and some bay leaves. Cover the whole thing with chicken stock, season it with salt contrary to popular belief, salt does not cause beans to turn toughquite the opposite, in fact, then cook at high pressure for about 4. Thats it. What you do during that 4. I suggest putting on a pair of wrist sweatbands, going for a jog, and realizing that those sweat bands are not for your sweaty wrists, but for wiping sweat off your face. Id been doing that wrong my whole life, too. Dont soak your dried beans Now even the cool kids agree. Are you still soaking dried beansWhy For years Ive been telling people that you dont need to soak most beans. Now the cool kids are agreeing. Yesterday my old e friend, J. Kenji Lopez Alt, published on Serious Eats his findings on cooking black beans. The headline So you like flavorDont soak your black beansHes a nice young man, so he very generously mentioned a piece Id done many years ago on soaking versus not soaking dried beans. This prompted me to fire up the L. A. Times Way. Back Machine and retrieve that story. Its a funny thing about cooking Im always changing my opinions as I learn new things. But I have to say that this holds up almost entirely. The only change is that I now cook the beans at 3. It saves time with no damage to flavor or texture. Here is my story from 1. And just for fun, I included a sidebar I wrote on beans and flatulence. Because, well, Beans and Flatulence Beans To Soak or Not to Soak, Its No Longer a QuestionAlmost every recipe in every cookbook youve ever read says you must soak dried beans before you cook them. In almost every case that advice is wrong. Letting dried beans sit overnight in a bowl of cold water does nothing to improve their flavor or their texture. In fact, it does quite the opposite. While soaking shortens the unattended cooking time of beans somewhat, the time saved is marginal and there are no other labor saving benefits. Finally, soaking does absolutely nothing to reduce the gas producing properties of beans. These may be difficult ideas to get used to, flying as they do in the face of everything most of us have been taught about cooking beans. One friend, an Arizonan, dismissed the idea out of hand, attributing it to my New Mexican background. What do they know about beans she said. But cooking unsoaked beans is not new. No less an authority than noted Mexican cookbook writer Diana Kennedy has advocated it for years. If you want the best flavored beans, dont soak them overnight, but start cooking in hot water, she says in The Cuisines of Mexico Harper Row 1. In fact, the more I asked around, the more people I found who cooked beans this way mostly, it seemed, people from Mexican or Central American families although at least one prominent New American chef and another well known French chef agreed. Whats more, few commercial canners soak dried beans before cooking. In fact, in a way they dont cook the beans at all. The heat and pressure of the canning process called the retort is enough to cook perhaps even overcook the beans right in the can. Still, I wanted to see for myself. Call it trial by frijoles. Betcha cant resist 7. First, I cooked three pots of beans one soaked overnight, one quick soaked brought to a boil and left to sit, covered for one hour, and one simply covered with boiling water. To each pot I added a hunk of salt pork, some sliced onion and a bit of garlic. I simmered them slowly on top of the stove, covered. The two soaked beans did cook more quickly than the unsoaked they were finished in about 1 hour and 1. But when I sampled them, the extra 4. The two pots of soaked beans were pallid compared to the unsoaked though the long soaked were better than the quick soaked. The unsoaked beans had a noticeably deeper flavor they were firmer to the bite, and they did not break up as much in cooking. Then came the ultimate test. Foster Sauce. I sat down with a big bowl of the cooked unsoaked beans after a little refrying with bacon and a handful of grated Monterey Jack cheese and ate lunch. I waited, half expecting to blow up like a balloon as a precaution, I did this test at home, alone. Nothing untoward happened. That experiment was far from scientific, but after talking to a couple of researchers who confirmed my results, I moved on to more phone calls and other tests. All of us, it seems, have our own set of folk tales about cooking beans. And most rules are followed simply because thats the way someone told us to do it, rather than as a result of any kind of testing. Some people told me quite firmly that beans should never be salted before cooking that this keeps them from softening during cooking. In fact, Kennedy herself makes this claim. So I cooked beans with salt added 1 teaspoon per pound of beans turns out to be about the right ratio and without. They cooked to exactly the same degree of softness in almost exactly the same time. Interestingly, though, to get the same level of saltiness in the unsalted batch of beans, I had to add more than twice as much salt. And even then, it was more a case of the broth being salty than the beans. Other people said that the type of pot in which beans are cooked is the most important thing only earthenware will do. I cooked beans in three different pots earthenware, stainless steel and unlined aluminum. There was some difference in the rate at which the beans soaked up water or, probably more accurately, the pans soaked up water. The earthenware needed more water early but then seemed to maintain a steady level a little better. I could find little difference in flavor between the earthenware and the stainless steel, but the unlined aluminum lent a distinctly metallic flavor to the beans. One chef told me he never allowed his beans to be cooked on top of the stove. Only by cooking them in the oven is it possible to get the slow, steady pace they need, he claimed. Delicious vegetarian recipes from barley bowls to pizza I cooked beans both on top of the stove and in the oven. With constant attention and a ready flame tamer, I could manipulate the temperature well enough to keep the beans at a sufficiently slow simmer. But, covered, in a 2. All I had to do was check every half hour or so to make sure there was sufficient water. The effect of the cover was particularly amazing. Cooking beans in one test without a cover took six hours. The same quantity of beans, cooked at the same temperature with a lid, was done in about 1 hour, 1. All of these tests were done with commonly available varieties pinto and white northern that had been purchased from stores that seem to sell a lot of beans. In fact, the age of the bean may be the most important factor. Dried beans continue to lose moisture as they sit. With very recently picked beans say, the Scarlet Runners I pick and shell in the summer in my back yard a quick simmer is all that is necessary. Actually they are quite good even raw when doused with a little olive oil, mint or basil and salt. On the other hand, those dried flageolet beans you bought on a whim a couple of years ago that have been sitting in the back of the pantry ever since may be quite dry. In fact, with these beans, soaking may be necessary to bring the cooking time down to a matter of hours, rather than days. Finally, it was time to put the beans to the final test cooking them in recipes. What good is science, after all, if it is not in the service of mankind So test we did, adapting old favorite bean recipes to this new way of cooking. The results were gratifying In every case, the dishes were done in almost the same amount of time as the originals. And the textures and flavors of the beans were much improved. Progress is great when it tastes so good. And now for the fun stuff. Clearing the AirThere is no getting around it beans cause flatulence. The degree to which different beans affect different people varies, but the truth is inescapable. And there seems to be little a cook can do about it. Whether to soak beans prior to cooking or not is simply a culinary question. It may shorten the cooking time, but other than that, theres no effect on flatulence. Gregory Gray, U. S. Department of AgricultureWhether to soak beans prior to cooking or not is simply a culinary question, says Gregory Gray, who has been studying beans for 1.