I found this wonderful info bit in Relish magazine. I'm the one who usually soaks beans overnight to prepare them for cooking. Of course, that requires that I actually think ahead. I can usually accomplish this on New Year's Eve so that I can eat black-eyed peas on New Year's Day. So I was excited to find there's an alternative for the other days of the year.
Dried beans must be soaked before cooking. I hope everyone already knows this. I don't know what happens when you don't do this. I've never tried it. I wouldn't imagine anything edible would come from it though.
Soak beans overnight. You want to first rinse and check the beans. Sometimes there are discolored or broken beans in the bag. Remove those. Then place the beans in a large bowl with cold water. Let them stand (or sit?) overnight. Relish suggests 6 cups of water for 1 pound of beans. I simply make sure that the beans are fully covered. Be sure to drain the beans before you cook them.
Quick-soak beans. Rinse and check the beans. Remove the discolored or broken beans. Place the beans in a large pot with 6 cups of cold water. Cover, bring to a boil and boil 2 minutes. Remove from the heat and let stand, covered, 1 hour. Drain. I look forward to trying this method. I just hope the water doesn't boil over. That would be a mess.
