Dear Annie,
I frequently forget to soak beans overnight. I’ve heard that there is a quick-soak method. Do you know what it is? After reading that there is a toxic plastic (bisphenol A, or BPA) in can linings, I am trying to cook my own beans.
Sally, NB

Dear Sally,
Yes, and this is the method I use all the time. You are absolutely correct to avoid canned beans at this time, given that the lining of the vast majority of canned goods contains the endocrine disrupting chemical BPA.

Soak the beans as long as you can, rinse, and then place in a pot and cover with water. Bring the beans to a rapid boil for a few minutes, remove from the heat, cover, and let sit for an hour. Rinse the beans thoroughly, replace the water with clean water, and proceed with the recipe. If soaked for a few hours before the quick boil, beans generally need only about half an hour of actual cooking time to reach the right texture and softness for eating. Note that beans contain a sugar, oligosaccharide, that is hard for the human digestive track to break down, resulting in flatulence. This quick-soak method of cooking beans seems to work as well as the long-soak method for helping to break down oligosaccharide so it doesn’t have such a strong effect.