Many thanks for your responses. I have saved some of them for my experiment. It
is interesting that some say the crock pot works on pintos and others say it
doesn't. Julio (who is adopted just recently) says when he was a kid they
cooked them in the CP all the time. Anyway I will give it a whirl...soak
overnight tonight and then CP them tomorrow on high so I can keep an eye on
them. Will post results. I have a new CP and the temps on it seem higher than
the temps on my old one that I bought years ago and which refused to die. I
bought a new one just because the old one looked ratty after so many years of
use.

Thanks again.

Another thing to keep in mind is that acidity (including
tomatos) will prevent beans from cooking.

This is in fact why you can cook a batch of chili for
a really long time without the beans turning to mush.

Steve

BubbaBob > wrote:

> (Steve Pope) wrote:

>> Another thing to keep in mind is that acidity (including
>> tomatos) will prevent beans from cooking.
>>
>> This is in fact why you can cook a batch of chili for
>> a really long time without the beans turning to mush.

>So will salt.

Hmm... maybe, but not to the extend acid does. I generally
add salt to a pot of beans about 10 minutes before it's done
and they will continue to cook.

> But who would put beans in chile?

Protein source, if it's vegetarian chili.

> Or tomatoes?

I make a few types of chili; one is based on beans, tomatoes,
and dried chili powders of various sorts (pasilla and New Mexico,
usually). I rather like it.

Steve