Black Beans

Ingredients:

3 C Black Beans
1/4 C Rock Salt

Cover completely in water and let soak overnight. Rinse and drain beans.

In Pressure Cooker:

3 slices bacon (or) 1 1/2″ Summer or Beef Sausage (this is what I prefer) diced small
1 Onion chopped fine
1 1/2 flowers of garlic (about 15-20 cloves) coarsely chopped (very chunky)

Saute these three ingredients until onion is translucent and meat is cooked well. Add:

2 qts. chicken broth
Beans
6 bay leaves
Fresh thyme and oregano (put in several sprigs of each we will fish out the sticks in the end)

Cover the pressure cooker and place on high until pot comes up to pressure and starts spewing. Turn down slightly and cook for 25 minutes. When the time is up, take off the heat but do not use a quick release method for the steam. Allow the pressure cooker to come down naturally. Once the pressure has been released, remove the lid and fish out the herb stems and the bay leaves. You can use kitchen twine around the herbs for easy removal. Once, when I didn’t have any twine available I used dental floss. Mixture will have some liquid left. Strain off about half of the liquid and save the rest for storage.