Big Pot of Beans Recipe (2024)

Recipe does not indicate at what point you would add the meat or parmesan. I assume not early on if doing slow cooking as it would cook to death, so, when? And if pressure cooking, when?

re salting the soaking water... this surprised me as well ... this is what I found : When you soak dried beans in salted water, they cook up with softer skins. Why? It has to do with how the sodium ions in salt interact with the cells of the bean skins. As the beans soak, the sodium ions replace some of the calcium and magnesium ions in the skins. Because sodium ions are more weakly charged than calcium and magnesium ions, they allow more water to penetrate into the skins (thus softer skins)

I learned long ago that beer was a delicious liquid in which to cook beans, thanks to Julie Jordan's wonderful vegetarian cookbook, Wings of Life. Cheap beer is just fine. Adds flavor and the alcohol cooks off.

This is the first bean recipe where I've read to soak and cook the beans in salt. The common recommendation is that it toughens the beans and interferes with cooking. Maybe Cooks Illustrated debunked the cooking with salt notion? Nonetheless, I've never seen a suggestion to soak in salty water. I'd love to hear the author's thoughts on the matter!

About the comment on soaking beans in salt water: Yes, a number of years ago Cooks Illustrated tested all the different ways of soaking/beans, and that was their recommendation - soak in salted water, cook in unsalted water. I've been following that for years and my beans come out great.

I have followed Melissa for years, and this recipe just blew my mind. I soaked Great Northern Beans; used a big garlic clove and celery stalk, rosemary and thyme springs, andouille sausage and Parmesan rind in the cooking [as to Nelle's post I added at the beginning of cooking. This was without doubt the best bowl of beans I have ever eaten. Talk about comfort food! With a slice of sourdough toast and French butter. And oh yeah, a good Czech pilsner. CHEERS!

The recommended cooking times chart for different bean varieties at https://www.hippressurecooking.com/pressure-cooking-times/ is very helpful.

The science is clearly and indisputably on the side of using salt and just the contrary to toughening the beans enables the outside of the bean pectin molecules to break down via sodium replacing the calcium ions in the molecule. The result is both a softer bean and more consistently cooked beans because the skins are not burst as they randomly may be where pectin molecules were not broken down in various beans and you have a mix of mushy and tough beans...

I grew up eating pinto beans (I'm from NM, a staple there) and my mom never salted beans until they were done cooking, thinking that the salt 'toughened' the beans. The result was always well-salted bean broth and bland beans that never really absorbed any salt. A few years ago I began salting the beans when I began cooking them. What a difference! And if possible, I love pinto beans even more now :)

Brining beans before cooking has become fairly standard practice—usually 1 tablespoon of salt per quart of water. The old adage about toughening the skins is not true. Beans cook far more evenly after having been brined; the only thing I do differently is rinse the brine off the beans before adding fresh water to cook.

Mostly followed this on the stovetop the other day. It was so good, I did a little dance in the kitchen, alone, when I first tasted the beans. Main difference was that I kept the soaking water as the cooking water, just adding a bit more fresh water in the cooking pot.

People, please stop over-thinking bean prep. They are not difficult. Soak or don't soak. Add flavors you like, from oils, spices, alliums to meats and salt will not affect anything, and if some beans become mushy - so what. Just as long as you give them a good rinse if not soaking, and cooking until tender (depends on the bean) they will be totally safe and enhanced by flavor. Stop fearing your food and reading unproven search articles (because all have been proven wrong).

I just cooked this. I will rinse the beans of the brine a little next time. I used a parm rind about 2x3 inches in size, added when I started to simmer the beans. I topped the beans with sauteed mushrooms, anchovies and a handful of spinach and arugula. A solid lovely meal.

Much appreciate the agile ingredient list, as most home cooks already think this way. By being more general you are helping novices think in terms of classes of ingredients rather than specific prescriptions. Please continue this way of doing recipes, well done.

I add celery, onion, carrot and lots of garlic and Rosemary. When beans are done I fish out all the aromatics and purée them, then add back into the remaining cooking liquid (adding a tad more water if necessary) for a delicious soup. Drizzle with olive oil!

This is a delicious, low-maintenance dish. The only thing I'll do differently next time is the pre-soak in salted water, then rinse and cook in unsalted water. I didn't have time to pre-soak, so I cooked the beans in salted water, and it was a bit too salty. But it was delicious nevertheless. It's amazing what you can do w/ the right herbs and vegetables!

I used white beans in the instant pot. I threw in some green garlic and spring onion stems, and I garnished with lots of grated parmesan and flaky salt. It was really delicious with toast!

Best bowl of beans ever! Simple, wonderfully flavorful after soaking great northern beans in salt water a few hours. After rinsing I just added water, carrot, celery, onion, a few garlic cloves, 2 bay leaves, and some dried Italian seasoning. No parmesan rind needed. Amazing!

I made this with some rancho gordo beans and very little else. No meat, no parm, but plenty of garlic. It was so good, so flavorful, I think the salt water soak made all the difference. My picky toddler ate three bowls full!

Yum. Per others' notes I sauteed bacon with onions & garlic, added bay & rosemary and proceeded from there with cannelloni. In my Dutch oven, they took under an hour til tender. Salt was perfect as I had salted soaking water then rinsed before cooking.

Didn’t have greens. 10 oz Parmesan rinds, next time I will just dice 10 oz Parmesan, not rinds and put it in in the beginning. Topped with honey mustard pretzel pieces stayed crunchy, not like bread or crackers.

"it should taste like the sea" is poetic and so ever bourgie precious... But for those of us who have never tasted the sea, how much salt per cup of water are we talking about?

Step 2 salting I think is to cook delicious beans to be used in other things or eaten drained, and not to make an edible broth for those beans. No soup is as salty as the sea. I wanted some broth, used less salt, and was sated.

If you are going serve the beans plain, they benefit from a night or two in the frig. Also, it really is important to salt them as indicated. Since I make the full recipe and there are only two of us, I often used the remainder of the beans in a soup, such as beans & escarole or pasta fa*gioli. Or in a salad, alone or with good tuna. Very handy basic bean cookery.

Too salty but otherwise good. Key to cooking dried beans is to have a wide open schedule. Start in the morning, they're done when they're done, reheat for dinner.

Why didn't I trust my gut?!! Or read the notes?!! Dinner is ruined. Way too salty. Maybe I should strain off the salty broth? I've added a potato. Fix this recipe!

I love recipes like this. I was a little worried beans wouldn’t be flavorful enough without animal fat, but they were very very flavorful! I used rosemary, thyme, garlic, an onion, 3 carrots, a celery stalk and half a corona beer and salted in soaking and cooking.

Can someone please comment about how much salt is needed to soak 1 lb of beans? Some are saying "tastes like the sea" = too salty. And I don't know what "tastes like the sea" even means because I would expect the sea to taste fishy and seaweed-like, which is clearly not what is meant.

We made this with fresh cranberry and duck sausage. We broiled some cherry tomatoes in the toaster oven until they popped, picked off the peels and added them to the soup. Wow! The umami and the color were both beautiful!

I will never, ever, make beans without brining them again, never. I grew up in New Orleans. I make red beans and rice every single week. How did I not know this? I made this recipe with Black Eyed Peas and a beautiful little hunk of very hard French Sausage, Rosemary from the garden, a Carrot, a Parsnip some Thyme and Sage, a Hard Cheese Rind, Pasley, Onion and Garlic of course. It's a revelation, very good indeed. I am definitely in the "rinse the brined beans" school as well.