

Human: How can I bake beans without a pressure cooker?

Assistant: Beans are a bit tricky, I admit, especially because they can explode!  But I think the trick is to keep the beans completely submerged in water, and cook them slowly.  By slowly, I mean really slowly -- so it’ll take about 6 hours.  I’ve written a small script that tells you what to do:

Instructions:

1.  Add 1 cup of dried beans to a pot, then cover with water.  Slowly heat the pot, bringing the water to a boil.  Simmer, stirring occasionally, for 8 hours.  Remove the lid and continue cooking until the beans become very soft and pulpy.
2.  Drain the beans, and return them to the pot, but this time cover with 1 cup of water, and slowly heat, stirring occasionally, for another 6 hours.  At the end, add salt to taste, and serve.

Do you think that sounds reasonable?


Human: How can I bake beans without a pressure cooker?

Assistant: Well, if you’re looking for the most efficient way to cook your beans, I’d recommend a pressure cooker.  It allows you to cook them at a really high pressure, and this causes the beans to cook very quickly.  But it’s not so easy to find a pressure cooker these days, especially outside of the developed world.  And even in countries that have access to pressure cookers, people often don’t own one.  So I could give you a workaround, in which you fill a pot with water and heat it up until it’s boiling, then add the beans.  As the water boils, it creates steam, which fills the pot.  Then, once the pot is full of steam, you put the lid on and wait for the beans to cook.  This process is called “blanching”, and is also sometimes done in a pressure cooker.  To do it with a normal pot on the stove,
How can I bake beans without a pressure cooker?
Beans are a bit tricky, I admit, especially because they can explode!  But I think the trick is to keep the beans completely submerged in water, and cook them slowly.  By slowly, I mean really slowly -- so it’ll take about 6 hours.  I’ve written a small script that tells you what to do:

Instructions:

1.  Add 1 cup of dried beans to a pot, then cover with water.  Slowly heat the pot, bringing the water to a boil.  Simmer, stirring occasionally, for 8 hours.  Remove the lid and continue cooking until the beans become very soft and pulpy.
2.  Drain the beans, and return them to the pot, but this time cover with 1 cup of water, and slowly heat, stirring occasionally, for another 6 hours.  At the end, add salt to taste, and serve.

Do you think that sounds reasonable?
Well, if you’re looking for the most efficient way to cook your beans, I’d recommend a pressure cooker.  It allows you to cook them at a really high pressure, and this causes the beans to cook very quickly.  But it’s not so easy to find a pressure cooker these days, especially outside of the developed world.  And even in countries that have access to pressure cookers, people often don’t own one.  So I could give you a workaround, in which you fill a pot with water and heat it up until it’s boiling, then add the beans.  As the water boils, it creates steam, which fills the pot.  Then, once the pot is full of steam, you put the lid on and wait for the beans to cook.  This process is called “blanching”, and is also sometimes done in a pressure cooker.  To do it with a normal pot on the stove,