White beans

I have soaked another big pot of beans and now I'm looking forward to reaping the rewards tonight. I like how it takes a little patience to make them this way - it takes time but not a lot of effort on the part of the cook...
Soak the beans overnight in a pot you can put into the oven - they should plump up and nearly double in volume that way. I have a ceramic bean pot and I think it is pretty much ideal.
Precise measurements are a bit of moot point for this kind of stuff, but for the pot I just finished I used four cups of beans, three shallots, four 5 inch sprigs of rosemary.

1. Drain the beans and boil enough water to cover them, preheat the oven to 350 F.
2. Add little flavor directly in the pot - a chopped yellow onion or some shallots, a head or two of garlic works well to of course! I save the rinds from my grana cheese and drop one or two pieces of that in the pot if I have one on hand. A little bit or herbs can be good too - a couple twigs of rosemary gives a lovely fragrance to the beans. You can put in all or none of the above, it is up to your sensibilities. Just drop it in with the drained beans in the pot.
   
3. Pour in boiling water to cover the beans plus an inch. Add a few tablespoons of olive oil. Put the lid on the pot and stick it in the oven.
4. After an hour in the oven fish out a bean and bite into it - it should not have any firm core left but you do want to take them before they all convert to bean mush. Mine seem to want to cook about 90 minutes before they are done
   
5. Salt to taste after the beans are cooked. Myth has it that the skins get tougher if you salt beforehand. Have never really tested that, but it makes good sense to salt afterwards anyway...
   

I think that one of the reasons that a ceramic pot is so good for this purpose is that the beans are done nearly at the same time. That is not to say that it is impossible to make beans on a fast track. Try this: cover a wide sauce pan with an inch of beans, rinse them, then put them back in the pan with an extra inch of water to cover. Add cloves of garlic (say a full head) and olive oil. Cook without a lid, add water if it starts to dry out too much before they are done. Doing them this way creates a nice thick base.