I've never used a "recipe" to cook Pinto Beans! I never soak mine and I've always cooked them about +/- 5 hours. I remember my Grandma use to soak them overnight, then cooked them at least EIGHT hours the next day!

I cook them all day while I'm at work. 6 to 8 hours.

I do soak them over night and I cook them till I can easily smash them with a spoon usually about 6 hours or so in my crock pot on high. I always take some out and mash them up and add back to the pot to help thicken them up.

I always soak any dry bean over night, if I forget I do the quick soak method listed on most of the bags, get the hottest water possible and soak them in that for an hour or so prior to cooking and usually have to cook them longer.

I don't know of many hard dry beans that would be done in 2 hours. Eating them not well cooked will give you a tummy ache too.

If you salted them before tender, they may be a little on the firm side.

Sue

Add a couple of dashes of baking soda. That is a well known "cure" for hard beans. :) I had that problem for YEARS and frustrated me so much until I came across this info.

Blessings,
Haley

Thanks for the suggestions!

country_bumpkin, it is a recipe for "bean soup" very popular at a Mexican restaurant here in Houston.

marilyn_sue, the recipe did call for salt...too bad I didn't know that beforehand!

Hale_bopp, I'm simmering them some more as we "speak" and if they're still too crunchy in 30-45 minutes I'll add a dash of baking soda.

My Dad always soaked them (any dry beans) overnight with baking soda then next day rinsed them good and cooked them forever. He then added cooked hamburger with onions and other spices. Wish I had his recipe. They were so good. He called them friolas for years, finally figured out that was Spanish for beans.

I think they need to cook for at least 6 hours..they will need to be seasoned as well. I like to sautee diced bacon and onions, cook until the bacon is cooked well and the onions transparent, then add to the beans after they have cooked for 4 to 5 hours.. so they will simmer
another couple of hours with the onions and bacon... the leftovers the next day are even better...serve with warm cornbread..yumm

If the beans were 'old', they often won't soften to your tastes.

I never soak my beans. I cook in a crockpot on high for approx 5 hours. I don't salt them until they've cooked about 3 hrs.

Shirley

I agree with gadgets - old beans will take a very long time to soften and sometimes won't soften at all. Be sure to buy your beans where there's a good turnover. My local natural foods grocery has noticeably better beans in bulk than the regular grocery. I suspect that the regular grocery has beans sitting around for ages.

Also as stated above, don't add salt until late in the process. The same goes for anything acidic. Soaking is the right thing to do, just be sure to throw out the soak water and rinse them before cooking.
You should have enough liquid to cover the beans through out the cooking process and never add cold liquid to hot beans.
Good luck! I love pintos.

Its not the amount of the water, but its temperature. When you heat water, its temperature rises until it hits the boiling point, and then gets no hotter. At the boiling point, water boils off as vapor (steam). Adding more heat only causes more boil-off, the tmeperature remains the same.

The pressure above the water affects it boiling point. Increased pressure increases the boiling point. Water boils at 212 F at standard atmospheric pressure at sea level. Go to Denver, elevation ca 5280 ft, and water boils at a lower temperature. Therefore, it will take longer to cook beans in Denver than in Florida. It takes a very long time at places like Vail, Colorado (elevation 10,000+ ft).

The small change in pressure of weather systems will affect the boiling point by a few degrees. A low pressure day will need a bit more time to cook the beans.

A pressure cooker can speed cooking of beans and other things. One pressure cooker I'm aware of has its relief valve set at about 5 psi above atmospheric. That amount of pressure increase is enough to raise the boiling point enough hasten the cooking of beans. The added pressure may help as well.

The cooking time for beans ( and other hard to break down foods) is not a constant. The time given in most recipes is for elevations less than 1000 ft.