Cooking Dry Red Kidney Beans in Slow Cooker

[Whoever]

Have just acquired a slow cooker, and from a beef stew recipe for slow cookers downloaded from the internet, one ingredient is dry kidney beans. It says there is no need to precook or soak the beans. I always thought that these beans (which I presume are red kidney beans) contained poisons and needed to be soaked and fast boiled for at least 10 minutes. Is this correct or does long slow cooking eliminate the need for this process?

[Jugglering]

I wouldn't have thought that a slow cooker could reach the temperatures required to destroy the toxins in red kidney beans. If it was using a pressure cooker, then I could understand it, but not a slow cooker. I would definitely soak the beans and fast boil them for ten minutes.

I often pour boiling water over dried beans and leave to soak for an hour, change the water then cook them for some 30 to 40 minutes in my pressure cooker (no salt). If I remember, then I simply soak them in cold water overnight and then cook them in the pressure cooker.

[Jugglering]

Sorry, me again. I've just been checking on tinterwebby place and definitely DO NOT COOK RED KIDNEY BEANS IN A SLOW COOKER unless they have been previously fast boiled for at least ten minutes (some sites say 15 mins). All the sites also recommend soaking the beans (presumably in cold water) for at least 5 hours. (No problems with pressure cooking though)

More info here

[Jugglering]

drat... got cut off....

The sites also say cook the beans thoroughly before adding to the slow cooker/crockpot (ie don't assume that the slow cooker will cook the beans for you).

[Whoever]

Many thanks for your response. It's nice to know that my instincts were correct.

[pastafreak]

Maybe you should try posting the correct information on the recipe site for others....who knows how many might follow the same incorrect instrutions and become ill as a result.

[Jugglering]

Hear hear pastafreak !