Cook 1 cup of beans (presoaked or unsoaked) with 4 cups of water plus
1 tb of oil. Add 3 cups of water and 1 tb of oil for each additional
cup of beans.
Beans with the same cooking times may be cooked together, but be
prepared for their colors and flavors to mingle.
Do not fill the cooker above the halfway mark.
For firm-cooked beans, check for doneness after minimum time
indicated. For soft-cooked (mushy) beans, add 2 extra minutes under
high pressure.
When cooking time is up, use a quick release method to reduce pressure.
Drain immediately.
Optional Presoak:
Some people avoid eating beans because their feast is followed by an
uncomfortable bout of flatulence. This discomfort is caused by the
complex sugars in beans that are not digestible resulting in the
production of intenstinal gas.
Since the troublesome sugars are water soluble, the flatulence
problem can be reduced or eliminated by presoaking the beans and
discarding the soaking water. Presoaking also dramatically cuts down
cooking time.
To produce evenly cooked beans with smooth skins, I prefer to presoak
the beans overnight in enough cold water to cover. If you've
forgotten to presoak the beans, you can cook them under high pressure
for 1 minute, using 4 cups of water per cup of dried beans.
Quick-release the pressure, drain, and rinse the beans. Then cook as
directed in the chart. This technique can be rough on the bean skins,
which tend to wrinkle or get yanked off during the rapid
depressurization. Always discard any loos or free-floating bean skins
before futher cooking.
Cooking Beans:
For enhanced flavor, cook beans with a smoked ham hock, a few bay
leaves, or peeled, crushed garlic cloves. Adding a cinnamon stick or
1/2 ts of whole cloves to the cooking liquid is also fun.
Never add salt or acidic ingredients (such as tomatoes or molasses)
to beans before they are almost entirely cooked. Salt and acids cause
the beans' skins to harden, and they won't beocme tender no matter
how long you cook them. (An exception to this general rule can be
made when pressure cooking soups: Adding a small amount of tomatoes
or using a lightly salted stock may lengthen cooking time slightly,
but does not prevent the beans from softening.)
Beans are considered "forbidden foods" by some cooker manufacturers
since foaming action can push a bean or loose skin into the vent and
clog it. Use 4 cups of water and 1 tb of oil (which controls the
foaming) for each cup of dried beans and you won't experience any
difficulty. When the cooking time is up, quick-release the pressure
cooker under cold water to avoid foaminr or sputtering at the vent.
In the unlikely event that you hear loud sputtering while cooking
beans, place the cooker under cold running water to bring down the
pressure. Remove and clean the lid, vent, and rubber gasket. Lock the
lid back in place and prroceed with cooking.
Always clean the lid and vent thoroughly after cooking beans.
Cooking Time:
Beans are like snowflakes: No two are alike, and it's impossible to
give precise cooking times. It's just a fact of life (and beans) that
even within a single batch, some will be perfectly cooked while
others remain a bit crunchy. This is because of the variations in age
and dryness within any given handful.
The good news is that cooking times for most beans are not quite as
critical as they are with fresh vegetables. An extra minute is
unlikely to turn them to mush. For firm-cooked beans to be used in
salads or to cooked more in soups or stews, check for doneness after
the minimum time indicated in the chart. For soft beans that will be
pureed or used in refried beans, the longer cooking time works best.
