danmdevries wrote:Chris - do beans cook well in the instant pot? I've always done cast iron kettle or crock pot for mine, takes 8-12 hours. Would consider buying one if for beans alone. Wife hates when I cook, so when I'm doing a long cook like that I'm stuck doing it in the garage or out in the camper overnight.
RMAN4443 wrote:Dan, I've got an instant pot....dried beans take about 45 minutes to cook, plus about an extra 15 minutes on each end for pressure up, and pressure release...time varies 10 or 15 minutes plus or minus depending on the type of beans....hour and a half max fromstart to finish
Brother Dan,
Rman hit it on the nose.
I personally cook dried pintos for 50 minutes and I do the pressure release at the end instead of letting it release pressure on its own.
For anything that calls for a natural pressure release I just tack that time onto the cook time +/- a minute or two and I release the pressure manually. My guess is if you cook them say an hour you would have re fried bean paste instead of beans lol.
Tips
Do not salt the dried beans as this keeps them from softening, salt after cooked that is if you use any salt.
If you soak your beans prior to cooking this will cut down the cook time. The times I use are for dried beans that are just washed and Not soaked.
If you want you can throw in a ham bone for seasoning, or a piece of fatback. I prefer ham bone.
How much water you use is up to you, I prefer about 3 thumb widths above the dried bean level or 3 inches.
They say pintos, out of all the other types of dried beans, requires a longer cooking time using conventional pots. I use this as my base for deciding times for other types of beans. As I am still learning this thing.
Last tip, If you decide to buy an instant pot, get the largest you can find. Moms got me the 8 quart. If it was smaller which they do sell, I would be in deep dodo lol.
I have started a folder on my PC that I keep my recipes because I cant remember chit. Once I find the right amount of time and water etc for my taste on each, I move that recipe to a completed folder with the appropriate changes. It is a huge learning curve from what I am accustom to cooking with as far as times and such. It has been ages since I have used a regular pressure cooker. I can say from my experience so far on the instant pot 1: the food is just as good and tender as using a standard weight driven pressure cooker. 2: Cooking times are drastically decreased from standard cooking times when using conventional pots and pans. I know I love this thing for sure.
