Most energy-efficient way to cook beans
I am wanting to cook relatively small portions of dry beans but am not sure what kind of equipment to buy. My main concern is energy efficiency: I expect to cook a lot of individual portions over the coming years and know from experience that if I cook them conventionally, that this means hours and hours of cooking.
What would be the most energy efficient way to cook these beans? If it matters, let's assume batches of 400g kidney beans, and that they have been soaked overnight.
I have a gas stove and the options seem to be:
- Boil them in a regular stainless steel pot
- Using a cast iron pot (better heat retention?)
- Slow cooker
- Pressure cooker (on the stove)
- Electric pressure cooker
Not sure if there are other common options (I don't have access to niche products). I found blogs such as these on the topic, but these seem to be personal blogs with data from single experiments, not sure how thorough or reliable this is.
Best Answer
With your constraints, and looking strictly at energy use, an electric pressure cooker would be the way to go. This is because unlike a stovetop pressure cooker they're insulated, even if only a little. Unlike a slow cooker there's less thermal mass of pot to heat up, and with kidney beans specifically, you need a hard boil as well as any slow cooking, to break down the Phytohaemagglutinin. This will add to the energy use of slow cooking.
If you know you're not going to switch to much larger batches, a smaller pressure cooker would be better than a larger one, as you need to create enough steam to pressurise the pot, meaning boiling more water for the larger pot.
In terms of carbon emissions and cost of energy, they may be better than a pressure cooker on a gas stove, or they may not. This depends on your local energy mix and pricing.
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What is the most energy efficient cooking method?
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Answer 2
A pressure cooker will be the quickest and most energy efficient option. Stove top or electric will probably depend on your available space and energy resources.
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