Need HELP with recipe #252226

[htrice]

Hi,

I need help with using the Best Ever Baked Beans (Crock Pot) with dry beans vs the canned it calls for. I was not able to find navy beans canned so I bought dried, but I have no idea how to alter the recipe to make it work.

PLEASE HELP IF YOU CAN.
Thanks so much!!

[duonyte]

Dried beans are superior in flavor to canned, i think, plus less salty but they require more time. The canned beans are cooked, so you will need to soak and cook the beans or if you don't have time to soak, then you need to quick soak them. Most packages have the instructions on them. Otherwise, rinse them first and sort to make sure you have no stones or broken beans. See long and quick soak and cooking instructions on the chart below.

This page has a handy equivalents chart http://www.johnrussell.name/recipes/beans.htm .

[Cook In Southwest]

Just a hint about pre-cooking the beans: do it on the stove, not in the crock pot. Unless your crock pot runs extremely hot, the dried beans will remain pretty darn hard when cooked in a crock pot. I've never been able to get them soft in one - even after cooking for up to 3 days!

[duonyte]

I know I've cooked pinto beans without any trouble, this recipe Cowboy Beans , but I do soak them overnight first.

[Red Apple Guy]

I agree that for a pre-cook, the crockpot is not a good tool. I usually soak my beans overnight. However, I have had success cooking unsoaked beans in a crockpot on low for 10 hours.

I've also had the "hard as nails" experience cooking beans. Some attribute that to adding salt at the beginning of the cook and some don't.

So, to make this thing work for me, I soak the beans, cook without salt or acidic ingredients on low until tender and then add salt, tomatoes and the other ingredients.

Big Crock Pot Full of Pinto Beans

Red

[Cook In Southwest]

Yes, I know that you should add those flavoring ingredients AFTER the beans have cooked. I also know that old beans will not soften up as much as you would want. Maybe my beans are always old?

However, when a recipe calls for canned beans, what they are really saying is they want beans that are both done AND soft. Canned beans are cooked under pressure, so they are always softer than home cooked beans.

I guess it is partially personal preference, but I like my beans soft. Cooking them in the crock pot has never worked for me under any circumstances. (I have tried more than once.) I have given up on that and only use cooked beans in the crock pot. It is fine for that final flavor-added cooking stage. But for the initial cooking I will stick with the stove-top from here on out. My crock pot just isn't hot enough (even on high) to get them soft as I like. (I always pre-soak the beans before cooking. The only exception is black beans which I may or may not pre-soak.)

[Red Apple Guy]

I see what you are saying. Crockpot beans are always firmer than ones cooked on the stove.