Slow Cooker: Beans

Finally found a nice slow cooker at the local Saver’s here in Boulder.  $7.00 out the door for a Rival 3040-BC!  Having the removable ceramic makes cleaning so much easier.  The best part is the odd glass lid we’ve had kicking around the house fits perfectly.

As an inaugural run, I cooked two batches of stock (veggie/chicken and turkey).  Not only did the house smell awesome for a whole day, but I cleared the freezer out a bit.

Now I’m eager to tackle cooking dried beans.  Like many of you, I aspire to using more dried beans, but have never been dedicated to the simple process of soaking them over night.  My old housemate purchased a pressure cooker to “speed things up” in this regard.  I look to the slow cooker for more simplifications.

The following sites offer excellent overviews and things to consider when slow cooking beans.

Stephanie O’Dea (The Crockpot Lady) offers tips in Cooking Dry Beans in the Slow Cooker

Cooking Dried Beans in the Slow Cooker via ChowHound references the CrockPot Lady’s site above, and the user feedback has a few good tips, including indication that I can get away with not pre-soaking.

Central Bean‘s Guide to cooking in the slow cooker offers, in brief, what I think will be my guide.

But beans do not cook that simply in a crock pot.  The Low setting is too low, lengthening the cooking time to 16 to 20 hours. And depending upon the age of the beans and the hardness of the water, the beans may not cook at all! If you cook beans on the High settling, a large amount of cooking liquid evaporates.  You’ll have to watch the crock pot to be sure the beans stay covered with liquid.  If you want to experiment with your crock pot, try cooking soaked beans for 2 or 3 hours on High, making sure they are constantly covered by liquid.  When they are just tender, turn the heat setting to Low and let them cook 6 to 8 hours longer.  During these last 6 to 8 hours the beans wont need any special attention.

Eager to see and taste how things come out.  I can finally knock a dent in my dried bean stocks.