~If you cook onions with the beans they add flavor, but they also look grey and flubbery when you serve the beans. The flavor is fine with just salt and garlic.

Saute onions to add after the beans are cooked.

Meal ideas:
*You can mash pinto beans with the potato masher so they are like refried beans for burritos.

*With pinto beans or black beans you can add canned tomatoes, salsa, and corn to make a mexican soup.

*With navy beans you can add chicken broth and green salsa to make white chili. Thinly slice raw chicken and add to the chili at the very end and heat just until warm and no longer pink.

~Ratio of salt to beans for brining is:
1 T salt to 1 lb dry beans use 9.5 alkaline water

~Baked in 4 inch hotel pan OR on the stovetop in 15 qt brazier. (Makes 6 qts beans at 1/4 c serving, which is 1 spoonful, yields 96 servings.)

~4 lb beans brined in
1/4 c salt
in (8 qt pot) of water overnight. Generously cover with water (9.5 alkaline) because you want to be sure the beans stay submerged but not to much as to dilute the salt.

Rinse beans well and pick out skins. Rinse in a colander to really rinse out the grit from the bottom.

To get them cooking sooner boil water in my gallon tea kettle.

To the rinsed beans now back in the hotel pan (or brazier) add:
2 whole garlic bulbs nicked so each clove is exposed.
2 T salt

-They fit into the 12 qt stockpot but don't cook as quickly or evenly as the broader brazier or hotel pan.

Cover with water (over the beans by 1/2 inch) and roast with the lid on until they are soft. 30 minutes on convection 500*. Then convection 350* 30-40 minutes until they are soft.

OR just simmer them very gently on the stovetop in the brazier pan.

Total cook time: 1-2 hours.

Keep the liquid to reheat in then drain before transporting. OR freeze in the liquid and drain or rinse before using. This makes very clean beans that hold their shape and don't bleed their color everywhere in your recipe.

~MULTI-COOKER POT (using kangan water makes the beans so soft that the pot cooks them too long!)
1 lb beans (this will make the best texture, allowing room for steam)

Brine the beans:
1 T salt to 1 lb beans - soak overnight - 9.5 alkaline water.

Rinse and drain and put into pot. Cover just to top of beans with water. Add:
1/2 t salt

-optionally coarsely chopped garlic
-To make one pot 'refried beans' add beef fat and maybe chili powder.

Cook on:
pinto - 2 minutes pressure
navy and black - 1 min pressure

Turn off when pressure time is done (otherwise it will go to keep warm and overcook). Let pressure come down naturally for only 5-10 minutes.

Remove lid and stir gently.

Remember that beans improve in texture and taste after sitting a day. So make them early.

-It is simple to make more than one batch.

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