How To Cook Dry Beans:

• Buy fresh beans with no wrinkles in the surface- check out the bulk section.  It will be cheaper and fresher because the beans have a high turn over rate in bulk.  Keep them in a glass jar away from direct sunlight.
• Rinse the beans and pick out any beans that float to the top and/or pick out any dirt/rocks (these will generally float to the bottom).
• Soak the beans overnight (covered with a cracked lid to avoid fermentation and bubbling over).  It will take the stinker sugary gas out of em.  A general rule is ~ 4-5 cups of water for 1 cup of dry beans for soaking.
• Don't cook the beans in the soaking water- give them fresh water to cook in.
• Cover with water by a ~3 inches (general rule for soaked beans is to cook in 3-4 cups of water for each cup of dry beans).  Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer covered until tender (some beans take longer than others (up to 2 hours) depending on the type and if you pre-soaked or not.
• Flavor with herbs, spices, oils, vinegars, etc...  if you want but you can always do this later too.  Don't flavor until ~30 minutes before done.
• Drain or serve with the liquid it was cooked in.  Whichever you prefer!

If you forget to soak overnight, you can also cook them from dry in the Crock-Pot on low for ~ 6-8 hours, in a Instant Pot ~ 40 minutes, or on the stovetop for ~ 1-3 hours.  Add enough water to the beans to cover by ~ 3" (~4-5 cups of water per cup of dry beans).

Happy Bean Cookin'! Beckie