PRESSURE COOKING BEANS

Pressure cooking beans is fast and easy, but you can’t just throw in the beans and clamp the lid on! For safety, you MUST presoak beans, removing loose hulls; measure water and add some oil when doing so; and watch your timing. Oil helps reduce the foam from the beans as well as helping keep the skins from popping off and clogging up the vent tube.

Important: ALWAYS clean the lid and vent of the pressure cooker thoroughly BEFORE and AFTER cooking beans! Be sure to check and eyeball the vent tube and all around the rubber ring to clear any bean skins stuck in them. NEVER leave the hearing range of the pressure cooker while beans are cooking. Never fill the cooker over 2/3 full, counting both beans and water. This means a standard 6 quart pressure cooker can cook up about 1 to 1 1/2 pounds of dried beans (3 cups of dried beans) at one time, provided they are soaked. If the weight stops jiggling, or you hear foaming or sputtering, the cooker is clogged and must be handled immediately. If the cooker does clog, remove from heat immdiately, place the pressure cooker in the sink and run cold water over the entire cooker to bring the pressure down quickly. When the pressure is completely released, remove and clean the lid, vent, and rubber gasket. I never repressurize a batch that has clogged; I finish cooking a batch that has clogged the vent on the open stove (with the pressure OFF and the lid unlocked).

This is the basic formula for pressure cooking beans in a standard 15 pound pressure cooker:
1 cup dried beans, soaked before cooking plus 4 cups water plus 1 tablespoon oil (2 tablespoons for soy beans, fava or large lima beans) plus NO salt, acids, sugar, vinegar or tomato until after cooking.
When the cooking time is up, quick-release the pressure cooker under cold water to avoid foaming or sputtering at the vent.

Here are the details. Rinse and soak beans before putting in the cooking pot, carefully rubbing hrough the soaked beans and pouring off all loose or floating skins before cooking. Soaking beans for 12 hours (overnight) will also greatly reduce the cooking time and give a more tender bean.
Cooking time for the pressure cooking portion of time is according to the chart below. If the beans are not tender after recommended cooking times, continue cooking uncovered, adding additional water if the level is below the top of the beans. Cooking times may change depending on the quality and age of the beans. Cranberry, garbanzos and soybeans are the slowest cooking types. Black-eyed peas, split peas and lentils do not need to be soaked or even presoaked. You can cook them unsoaked and they cook very quickly. Be sure to presoak very old beans overnight before cooking by bringing to a boil and then covering.
If your beans are over one year old, they may take much longer to cook; in fact some very old beans never do get tender.

Pressure presoak: a 1 hour method