SLOW COOKER APPLE CIDER BEANS

By Beefman-2

Ingredients

• 2 LBS NAVY BEANS
• APPLE CIDER TO COVER BEANS
• 2 TSP SALT PER LB
• AROMATICS, BAY LEAF, PEELED GARLIC, MINCED ONION, DRIED HERBS, HAM BONES.

Details

Servings 1
Adapted from thekitchn.com

Preparation

Step 1

One of the best ways to guarantee perfectly cooked beans — ones that emerge creamy and tender instead of crunchy or mushy — is cooking them ever-so gently over low, steady heat. Hmm... low and steady heat, you say? Sounds to me like a job for the slow cooker.

For small batches of beans, a pound or less, I think 3 1/2-quart or smaller slow cooker does the best job. When I use my big 7-quart slow cooker, I usually cook 2 pounds or more and freeze what I don't use right away. Beans freeze beautifully! I freeze them in 2-cup portions, which makes it easy to pull out just what I need for a recipe.

Add any aromatics, like bay leaves or garlic, at the beginning of cooking. Their flavors will gently infuse the beans and their cooking liquid over the long cooking time. I also add a teaspoon of salt at the beginning of cooking — a controversial tactic, I know! This is a trick that I picked up from Cook's Illustrated: a little salt added at the beginning of cooking actually helps keep the beans intact and prevents "blow out" beans. I've tried this for several batches of beans now and have now adopted it as regular practice.

: If you are cooking kidney beans, boil them for 10 minutes before cooking. This neutralizes a toxin called phytohemagglutinin (say that 3 times fast) that can cause acute digestive distress.

Add aromatics:

Place the aromatics on top of the beans.

Pour enough water over the beans to cover them by about 2 inches. Add 1 teaspoon of salt and stir to dissolve.

Cover the pot and cook on low for 6 to 8 hours. If you this is your first time cooking beans or you're cooking an unfamiliar kind of bean, begin checking the beans after 5 hours and then every 30 minutes until they are cooked to your liking. Beans generally finish cooking in 6 to 8 hours. When the beans are soft but still a little more firm than you'd like, add the second teaspoon of salt and continue cooking until done.

• For a quicker cooking time, or if your beans are older than a year, try soaking the beans overnight with a brine solution of 1 1/2 tablespoons of salt mixed into 8 cups of water.

But I thought salt isn't to be added until the end... I assume it is different for this method?

I plan on making some cranberry/borlotti beans on Saturday so I may try this method. Question: at what point would I want to add any savory flavorings such as onions, carrots and other seasonings.

A safety tip: don't do this with kidney beans, as they need to be cooked at a full boil for at least 10 minutes, and a crockpot on low may not reach that temp.

I never add salt to the beans till the end (or till they're as soft as I want them.) Salt can make them tough. I've added other seasonings as soon as I put them in, though.

You could always boil kidney beans on the stove and then transfer them to the slow cooker. But - safety tip, Julie? Please elaborate.

I think you can really add salt at any point. From what I gather from Faith's posts and others I've read, salt helps keep the skins from splitting and also helps the beans remain whole instead of getting mushy. Before, during, or after - you'll still have good beans!

Rosebud, if you're not planning on draining off the liquor, I'd add the seasonings about halfway through. If you want to drain the liquor, you can add some spices during cooking so the beans get seasoned throughout and then combine everything (along with more spices to taste) after draining.

About the kidney beans...They contain a substance called phytohemagglutinin. It's neutralized by boiling, but not by sub-boiling temps. If you eat raw or undercooked red kidney beans, you will be in for serious gastrointestinal trouble for the rest of the day, though it won't kill you. White kidney beans don't have as much phytohemagglutinin, but it's still a good idea to make sure they come to a boil.

Lately I've been fine with soaking my beans for a while then letting them simmer away, but I might have to give this a try. The husband is home all day anyway, so he can monitor the done-ness.

And Mow, yeah, I cook them with a ham hock too, just throw it all in at the beginning. In fact, Successful Launch Beans are tailored to just that, because who has time to add salt halfway through when you've got a shuttle to launch?

I agree with adding the salt towards the end, because salt tends to harden the beans. And usually the beans take forever to get soft, and it sucks.:/ but yeah i usually add like garlic and anything else i want to add at the beginning, but the salt towards the end when there almost ready.

What about mixed beans?

There's 13 different types of beans in Bob's Red Mill's mix.. after overnight soaking, can it be cooked in a crock-pot?

We have a large family(8) and we love to cook our beans -at least three pounds dry- in the Slow Cooker - usually pintos, but also soup beans and multi-bean mixes. Our practice is to soak the beans in the crock of the cooker overnight WITH SALT & SPICES (garlic powder, marjoram, and ground red pepper/cayenne). This helps the beans rehydrate with the flavors permeating the beans - a "self-marinade" for beans. Bean liquor is drained (I reserve up to 4 cups for adding if needed during the cooking) and floaters are discarded next morning.

Add enough fresh water to cover (2 inches over if I won't be home to check), add ham, a little minced onion, and cook! If there is not enough "soup" during cooking, I had a little of the reserved bean liquor.

Special Note: I omit the salt during presoak if I plan to use saltpork instead of ham. Also, make sure to remove the rind & rinse the saltpork well or your beans might be too salty.

I like to have some beans cooked in advance, yet freezer space is limited. So, I pressure cook and can beans at the same time. It's really simple: 3/4 cup of dried beans per pint canning jar, soak overnight, throw out soaking water and top up with boiling water, pressure can at 10 lbs. for 75 minutes.

Regarding the salt early or not question: I have a Cooks Illustrated page taped to my cabinet (Mar/apr 2010) that says: "Dried Beans: Brine 'Em! Forget conventional wisdom warning against salting beans before they're cooked. Our testing revealed that adding salt to the overnight soaking (2 tsp/qt water) - in effect "brining" the beans - yields better-seasoned and more evenly cooked results. "

This is 2/3 of the way to my non-cook mom's only signature recipe -- bean soup. Soak great northern beans overnight. In the morning, add some bay leaves and stew meat, leave it in the crock pot all day. At about 4:00, cut up the meat, plop it back in. A couple hours later, serve with blueberry muffins, gouda cheese, and apple slices.

It looks like Oliver Twist orphanage gruel, but it is delicious and the one thing my sister and I ask her to make whenever we visit.

I just cooked up a batch of black beans in my slow cooker today :) I've never added salt but think I'll give it a go as sometimes the beans do split.

Also, there'a little typo in the last sentence- I think you mean "try soaking the beans overnight with a brine solution of 1 1/2 tablespoons of VINEGAR mixed into 8 cups of water."- it currently says add water to water...

Adding vinegar to water doesn't make brine either - the missing word is SALT!

When I make black beans I also add a slug of olive oil.

I used to have such a hard time cooking a good pot of beans, but I decided it was just because I was working with old beans. Now I buy a pound of dry beans in the bulk section of my grocery store and within a week cook them in the slow cooker. I do soak them overnight as well, and for my Red Beans and Rice recipe I add the cajun seasoning (which includes salt) at the beginning. Beans are completely cooked thru, but not mushy.

mmm, in Mexico, we soak the beans always, but never cook the beans with salt, the salt is added until they are done, when the beans are soft but no mushy. If you add salt at the beginning, the beans tend to be hard. I try both ways, and no salt before cooking it is better.

I have been trying to cook decent beans for the past 20 years and stumbling across slow cooker methods would seemed top have solved my problem .. especially with the added benefit of pulses being infused with the flavours of onion, garlic and other favourites. I have tried the slow cook method, so far only after pre-soaking and the beans will not cook. I have tried Pinto beans and Pidgeon Peas (similar to a small black eyed bean) in the first case slow cooked for 24 hours but the bean is still crisp. One hour in boiling water cooks them thereafter .. which is fine but not the idea of a slow cook. At least the skins have not split. Anyone found a similar issue .. I have a batch of butter beans ready to go but I assume the same result. This appears to be an American site and I'm based in the UK .. perhaps those European beans just don't want to play ball?

Maker

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