Cooking Beans

If you're cooking any type of bean from dried, always add salt at the end of cooking (after you test your beans for doneness).  Salt added to the liquid at the beginning tends to toughen bean skin, and make it less permeable, so the beans cook unevenly, take longer, and the "bite" is tougher.  Test your beans by eating at least 5 of them separately.  If 4 are tender and 1 is not, the pot is not done!  Once 4 are done, an additional cooking time of 10 minutes should in most cases take care of the pot.  We serve our own 5 Bean Bake (smoky, sweet, and spicy!)  with any entree you choose, but they go particularly well with our Southern Short Ribs or Pulled Pork.  Check out all of our entrees  www.lulasforlunch.com !