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Yes, I'd say the word "boil" in there is half the problem. Beans don't like to be boiled, they like to be simmered long and slow.

An overnight soak is ideal, with the level of the water an inch or two above the beans; but if there isn't time, you can "quick soak" beans by covering with boiling water, then cover the container and let it stand at room temperature for about 1 hour. Drain and cook as normal, though it may take quick-soaked beans a bit longer to cook than overnight-soaked beans.

Oh, and add a smoked ham hock and bay leaf to the beans while cooking. So delicious! Good luck!

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Salt will dry out the beans while they're cooking, so don't add salt till you're about to serve!

Purchase a pressure cooker. Best beans ever.

I would like to start supplementing our very bean-heavy diet with more home-cooked beans rather than canned beans. However, I need to put a meal on the table very quickly at night and need to have beans ready to go at various points during the week--cooking them as needed is simply not practical for me.

How long do cooked beans last in a tupperware in the fridge? And how do you all store yours--do you drain them or rinse them after cooking or store them in some of their cooking liquid?

Instead of regular soaking, you can also brine the beans overnight. It slightly breaks down the outer layer and makes for some lovely and tender beans.

Here is the fail-proof method I have been using for years:

After sorting and rinsing the beans, in a large pot add 5 cups of water for each cup of dry beans. Bring to a boil. Boil for 2 or 3 minutes, remove from heat, cover and stand, preferably 4 hours or more; maximum 24 hours. (The longer soaking time is recommended to allow a greater amount of sugar to dissolve, thus helping the beans to be more easily digested.) Whether you soak the beans for one hour or several, discard soak water; rinse beans and pan. Return beans to pan, add fresh cold water to fully cover the beans, 1-2 teaspoons oil or shortening and 2 teaspoons salt, if desired. Simmer the beans gently with the lid tilted until they are tender, to avoid breaking the skins. Any oils, seasonings, or vegetables should be added at this time.

Soak the beans overnight in a crockpot, drain in the morning, recover and cook on low for 8 hours. Slowcooker means that you won't have to worry about the boil going too crazy and, in theory, you can cook them while at work.

@Katherine, do you just brine them in salted water, or do you add anything else? That sounds like a fine idea and I'd like to give it a whirl.

lotusmoss - i keep them in their cooking liquid in tupperwares for about a week. they also freeze really well (also in their cooking liquid). I often make double or triple batches and freeze them in smaller portions for later use.

I second the pressure cooker. Really the softest best beans you will ever eat. And WAY faster than simmering them.

Leave it in water overnight.Boil for an hour;spill the water. Fry some finely chopped onionsuntil they tur golden-brown than add the beans and everything else besides seasoning and coock for 90-120 minutes.Season when they are done.

Bad beans? That makes me sad :(

As a bean-eater, one kitchen item I would never give up is my pressure cooker. It makes the best, most wonderful beans ever in about 30 min (without soaking!). It's not a cheap piece of equipment, but it's absolutely worth the investment. Dried beans are so much tastier than canned beans.

In a pressure cooker: four cups of water for every cup of beans. Add some oil, which is important so the skins don't clog the valve -- I once forgot to add oil and ended up with mung beans on my ceiling! Cooking time varies from 10-28 min depending on the type of bean. Let the pressure in the cooker come down naturally so as to not jostle the beans in the pot.

Katherine -- brine while soaking? That's interesting. Everything else I've read says to not put any salt until the end, because it keeps the beans from soaking up water.

My wife is a master (mistress?) of bean baking! Her current recipe is sort of a combination of my mother's recipe, and her grandmother's recipe, with her own twist thrown in. Note it has almost no processed sugar - this dramatically reduces and almost eliminates heartburn, which is something I've experienced with beans the last few years.

http://www.urbanhippy.ca/nova/scotia/baked/beans

Part of the problem you are experiencing with bitterness could be the type of bean you are using, but is also probably that you are not discarding the water. You will notice that my wife discards the water twice. And there is never an issue with them not being soft.

I make them all the time - way cheaper and better than canned. Although I've also used the quick cook method, I find I like the soaking method--feels easier to me. Wash the beans, soak in a lot of water (I use filtered water) for about 8 hours (not precise though, not at all). Don't add salt or anything (I'm a veg). I soak them in the pot that I will cook them in and just leave them on the counter.

After soaking, drain off the water and add fresh (filtered) water--quite a bit; I'd say a few inches above the beans.* Once I add the water, I bring the pot of beans and water to a boil. Then, remove from the burner and turn down the heat. Once the heat is down (once you've done this a few times, you'll know the right setting), return the beans to the burner and bring them back to a gentle, but vigorous bubble (not a full boil, as someone else noted)--a simmer. Then cook until done.

For red beans, it might only take an hour or less. I set the timer for 30 minutes, check the beans and stir, then set if for another 30 minutes. It's important to stir so the beans cook evenly.

Then, after they're fully cooled, add salt, then portion them into containers and freeze them. I usually make enough for a week or two at a time. Of course, I'll have some when they're freshly cooked too. They're good with olive oil lightly drizzled across the top when they're fresh.

Most important, don't fear cooking them. They're dirt cheap and they're just dumb beans. If you have some disasters, try again. Beans are no big deal. I consider them a staple food.

*Mark Bittman says to add maybe an inch or so above the level of the beans, but I find that too fussy, because you have to check them all the time to make sure there's enough water and everytime you add water, the temperature of cooking beans changes; I find you also have to stir them a lot so that they cook evenly, since there's less water.

Also, Leigh Anne, I just reread what you said about the beans never getting soft. If you are either soaking them first or using the quick cook method described by someone else above and they're never getting cooked, it's possible you have old beans. Really old beans might never cook. Get a pound or so of beans somewhere else and try again.

I am glad this was posted. I didn't know how to cook beans properly either.

I used to never salt my beans while simmering because I was always told they'd dry out or not get soft. Then I read a Bittman article saying you COULD salt at the beginning. So, my new method is to soak in the Crockpot overnight, drain, then cover w/water, PLENTY of salt, and a good slug of olive oil. Put the cooker on low, come home from work to a great pot of (plain) beans ready to use.

@chi_cass thank you for the tips! I never thought about freezing them--I don't know why since I freeze soups/stews made with beans all the time! I'm going to try and motivate now to make the switch over...

This recipe for 90 minute NO SOAK BEANS works like a charm every single time http://bit.ly/12eDQU -- there is no need for a pressure cooker, fuss or muss!

Hard water can also keep your beans from cooking all the way.

I guess I am the dissenting voice here, but I never bother to pre-soak my beans before cooking them. It probably adds an extra 1/2 to 1 hour of cooking, but that's not a problem for me. My favorites are kidney beans as well as small white beans, and I find that both take somewhere between 1h15 and 2 hours to cook, and that the cooking time can vary widely -- one bag of beans will take ~1.5 hours to cook, and the next of the same variety might take 2.5 hours! I've even had batches that *never* get soft, even after 4 hours of cooking (old beans, I guess). One thing that is important is to buy your dried beans from a place that has fairly hight turnover -- natural foods stores, latino markets, artisan bean stands at the FM etc. -- as you are less likely to get beans that have been sitting around for years and years

No soaking here, either.

I put a pound of pinto beans in a slow cooker with about 1/2 of a small white onion (chopped), 2-3 cloves of garlic (diced), and a couple tablespoons of fresh lard (not that white brick junk). Add enough water to cover the beans by a few inches. Cook on low for 8 hours. Salt to taste at the very end and don't even think about tossing the liquid. Black beans are the same, but I add a sprig of epazote if I have it.

Not sure where you live but if you're above 3500 feet they take longer. I live at 6200 feet and they take hours and hours and hours- at least eight hours and that's after soaking. Last time I did it I needed to go to bed and they still weren't done so I turned off the stove and covered the pot. By morning they were pretty soft after sitting in the hot water all night, but still needed another hour or two of cooking.

@jess pith and @lillies

Yes, brine while soaking! It works great.

In a NY Times column, Harold McGee, the food chemistry expert, weighs in on this long standing controversy:

Q: When should I add salt when cooking dried beans? I’ve heard not to add salt too early because it slows down the cooking. However, when I add salt towards the end, the flavor seems a bit flat.

Harold McGee replies: Salt does slow the softening of dried beans, but adding it early also gets salt into the bean interior, while adding late leaves most of the salt on or near the surface. If you’re thinking ahead early enough to presoak the beans, salt in the presoaking water actually speeds the cooking, in addition to salting the beans evenly.

I never soak anymore. It doesn't seem to make a shred of difference. I cook in water so that it's bubbling but not boiling (no salt, it toughens the skins). I agree that cooking time depends on the freshness of the beans. Lima beans take me under 30 mins. We don't have hard water in Australia. Maybe that makes a difference!

I've just cooked beans for the first time this week - fresh borlotti beans in the tomato sauce & creamy polenta recipe that was up here a little while ago (we've had them twice this week already, big hit with both my fiance and me - thanks!), and I bought some dried black beans and dried great northern beans from the market at the same time, even though I have no clue how to cook them - they look great in the pantry in old spirits bottles though, and beat canned for packaging etc - so this is perfect timing & very helpful. I'd really like to get into cooking dishes like beans more, as we're cutting back on our meat consumption, and beans are really tasty. Not something that's featured in either of our culinary educations thus far though.

So, I have another question - do fresh beans need soaking at all? We just podded them, then simmered them slowly for about 45mins, and whilst they were really tasty, quite a few were still a bit crunchy, kind of. My fiance actually liked the texture this added to the dish, but I wasn't convinced that they were properly cooked - any suggestions/thoughts?

Also, with the add salt early / don't add it until the end discussion - I'm planning on trying the great northerns with a ham hock, just soaking the beans overnight, then rinsing, and throwing in the pan with water and the hock - will the saltiness of the hock affect the beans at all? And any other tips there - for example, should I brown the hock a bit in a touch of oil/butter first, and if so, can I simply brown the hock in the pan, then throw the beans and water on top, or will the oil/butter mess up the beans?

All help much appreciated, thanks! :-)

Rancho Gordo once told me not to soak their beans for more than 4 hours, because they think it makes their beans begin to germinate (their beans are usually very fresh... less than 8 to 12 months old).

Also I saw this in a recent Saveur:

http://www.saveur.com/article/Techniques/Good-Beans

SLOW COOKER! I just did this yesterday and my pinto beans.... mmmmm! I soaked overnight, drained, cooked on low for 8 hrs with 1 in. of liquid covering the beans. I used chicken stock and added 4 slices of uncooked bacon, a tbsp of chili powder, garlic pwdr, dried minced onion, salt, pepper. Soooo good. Next time I will try making baked beans.

I also use a pressure cooking with my beans that have been soaked overnight.

Going to try the brine method though!

Besides shortening cook times, pre-soaking is suppose to help with digestibility. So if you find that you tend to be gassy after eating beans, then it's best to soak.

You can even consider changing the soak water often with fresh water to help eliminate even more of the complex sugars that cause indigestion (which is why you never use the soaking water for cooking).

2 words: pressure cooker
i've cooked a lot of beans a lot of different ways, and IMO, the pressure cooker is the least fuss, best-result.
I don't soak the beans, just cover with about 1-inch or so of water, bring to pressure over high heat, reduce the heat, and let cook. About 30 minutes for black beans, 45 for chickpeas. let the pressure come down naturally (no quick release). perfect beans -- no burst beans. Ive also had few problems with digestion cooking them this way.

If you have time, you don't even need to soak. In the morning, I put unsoaked white beans, seasonings, sometimes a hamhock or prosciutto end, maybe an onion - whatever's on hand - and stock in a bean pot toss in the oven. Check ever couple hours and add stock to be sure they are mostly covered. They are done in about five-seven hours. It' great on a cold day - makes the house nice and toasty and the smell is heaven.

If you're cooking them half the day and they are still hard, I suspect the beans are just too old. I'd discard the ones you have and try to get more beans from a different supplier and see how that goes.

kathrine - thanks for that quote. I'm going to experiment with salt in the soaking water.

For those of you who have gotten fresh beans, I'd love to get some, but I haven't seen any in the farmers' market or stores here in DC. I'm pretty sure they were available in markets in CA (but then, everything is...sigh...)

I definitely echo everyone else's tip on soaking overnight. If you know when you plan on using them, you can soak one night, cook the next night while you eat something else (so you're not waiting on the beans just to have dinner), and eat on another day. Just plan ahead.

A big batch can take a while, while 1-2 cups dry can take anywhere between 45 minutes to 1.5 hours. If you do make a big batch, they can keep in the fridge for a week (I'm pretty sure). My stepmom makes a boat load of beans on a Saturday or Sunday and she doesn't even refrigerate and they last a few days. My bf can't even chop onions but he can make beans so you'll be fine.

Oh yes and bring to a slight boil then SIMMER for the bulk of the cooking time. Don't rush them and they'll love you back.

I've gotten conflicting comments about whether or not salting beans at the beginning toughens them. I usually do salt at the beginning because I feel the flavor is better, and because I've always managed to get beans cooked to my liking this way. But perhaps you could try waiting to salt them until the very end as a variant.

As was said, it's extremely important to get beans from a good source, because freshness is the key to quicker-cooking (and better-tasting) beans. If you think your beans might not be the freshest, I'd recommend cooking them in a pressure cooker. This cuts down the time dramatically, when you don't have hours to cook them. No bean has ever taken me longer than half an hour to cook (and usually not even that) in a pressure cooker! As far as gray and bitter beans, I've never experienced that. Perhaps they really have gone rancid?

Lastly, you could try adding kombu, since it's said to help beans cook up tender; plus it imparts minerals and a subtle umami flavor, and increases their digestibility!

I often use a slow cooker and it works great. However, I think using a pressure cooker yields better-tasting and more colorful beans. I soak overnight or all day before cooking, but you don't have to with the pressure cooker.

I was really, really intimidated by using my pressure cooker at first, but it really isn't difficult or dangerous. I do put a little oil in with the beans so that they don't foam up, but it has never seemed to be a problem.

I use the Parsons method, which requires no soaking (except for chickpeas) and is pretty much all done in the oven. Wash your dry beans, put them in a Dutch oven or other heavy pot with a lid and bring them to a boil on the stove. Preheat the oven to 250 degrees F. Once the beans have come to a boil, put the pot in the oven and bake for about 70-80 minutes depending on the age of your beans. I usually add salt about halfway through the cooking. The beans are always perfectly tender and uniformly intact -- before I started cooking beans in the oven, I always had problems with some beans being too soft while others were too hard. Totally not a problem anymore. I also love that I can think, "Hm, I want beans for dinner tonight," and have them ready within a couple hours.

Leigh Anne, it sounds like you might have hard water. While salt does not prevent beans from softening, minerals in your water could. (The bitterness and grayness sounds like a chemical reaction.) Maybe you could try making beans with bottled water once rather than water from the tap, to see if that makes a difference.

Thanks for the help...i think Anjali may have been right about the hard water. I have exceptionally hard water here in Phoenix. I made two batches this weekend, one simply by soaking overnight and gently simmering (not boiling!) and the other using the oven method--both with the distilled water we have to use in the espresso machine--and they were great! Thanks for all of the helpful comments...no more canned beans for me!

-Leigh Anne

Coming from a long line of true hillbilly bred in the Tennessee mountains bean eater and cooker I have a few things to add. First the reason for soaking the beans is to get the "gas" out. Soaking the beans takes out some of the indigestable sugars that cause you to (excuse me) flatuate. There are two methods I use, overnight: cover with water and soak and quick soak: cover with water and boil for a couple of minutes, cover and let sit for one hour. Always discard the soak water and rinse the beans before cooking. Also , I was always told to not put anything acidic in such as tomatoes until the beans were fully cooked. It keeps the beans from getting soft.

Anjali, I'm totally with you on the baking in the oven method. I soak mine overnight, change the water, bring to a boil on the stovetop in my enameled cast iron pot, then pop them, covered, in a 250 degree oven until done. It's awesome--no fiddling with the stove controls to maintain a simmer.

I love, love, love chickpeas and black beans, and always have some in the fridge or freezer to toss in salads, soups, hummus, dips, or whatever. To be able to pull out just what I need from the freezer, a trick I use is to spread out the cooked beans (no liquid) on a baking tray and put them in the freezer until hard, then transfer them to a freezer bag. This way they don't all freeze together and I don't have to defrost a whole container for just a small amount. They do thaw quite quickly when just left on the counter for a half hour or so.