Beans play an important part in barbecue culture. Hard to find a pit stop that doesn't serve some sort of beans.
Canned beans are quick and easy. Drain the salty liquid, rinse, and they are ready to eat. But many people prefer dried beans. Dried beans are much cheaper and taste slightly better. They just take a bit more effort and a lot more time. As Steve Santo of the highly regarded bean grower Rancho Gordo likes to say "The big advantage of dried beans is the liquid they make. Canned beans need to be washed, whereas real beans come with free soup!" If you wish to use dried beans, it's pretty easy.
Dump dried beans on the counter and make sure there are no pebbles or other foreign matter in them. Give them a quick rinse in cold water. In a bowl, cover the beans with three times their volume of water or stock, and soak at least 6 hours. You can soak up to 12 hours if you wish. The longer dried beans soak, the less they need to cook. Beans soaked for 6 hours may need to cook 3-4 hours. Beans soaked for 12 hours may be done in 2 hours or so. If you don't have time to soak beans, you can cook with dried beans, they'll just take longer to get tender, perhaps 5-6 hours depending on the type and size of the bean.
Some folks think that you should discard the soaking water to reduce flatulence, but I have read reliable sources saying that this doesn't work, and that throwing out the liquid wastes nutrients. Santo says we should use the liquid, and that's good enough for me. Of course if you soak in stock or broth, you will definately want to keep the liquid.
After the beans have been added to the recipe, boil for about 5 minutes, cut back on the heat, and let the beans simmer for about 2 hours or until they get soft enough to pierce easily with a fork. Don't boil beans for more than a few minutes or else they will turn to mush. Simmer them.
Dried beans cook even faster in a pressure cooker. Rinse, soak, and cook 20 minutes in the pressure cooker. Then open the lid and cook another 20 minutes or more until the beans are done.
If you live at altitude, bean cookery can be consterning. Water boils at a lower temp at altitude because the column of air pressing down on the water surface is shorter and that lowers the air pressure, so vapor escapes the water at a lower temp. As a result it takes longer to cook beans at altitude. A rule of thumb is add 10% for each 1000 feet above sea level.
Approximate equivalents
Here are some useful measurements. They can vary significantly depending on the type of beans, the size of the beans, or the brand of the canner.
Dried beans absorb liquid when cooked so increase the liquid in the recipe when you cook with dried beans.
Dried beans expand to about 2.5 times their original volume when soaked and 3.5 times their original volume when cooked.
1 can of beans = 15 ounces undrained = about 10 ounces drained = 1/4 pound dried beans.
1 pound dried beans = about 2 cups dried beans = about 5 cups soaked beans = about 7 cups cooked beans = 4 cans drained beans.
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