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I'm not talking about taste, I'm talking about them not being a health hazard.

I cooked unsoaked adzuki beans for maybe a little less than 20 minutes on the lower pressure setting (don't know the numbers) in my pressure cooker. Then I waited for that cap in the pressure cooker to fall down and put the cooker under cold water, just to be sure, before opening the cooker.

The thing is, I don't usually cook them longer, but I don't open the pressure cooker for 1-2 hours. This time I opened it earlier, didn't think it would make so much difference because the cap was down.

I tried tasting the beans and I like the taste, it's a bit more sour than usual and the texture is a bit harder. I'm used to soft adzuki beans, but these are more like chickpeas, there is a chewing sound when I chew them. Also, they didn't expand as much as when I usually cook them.

I'd like to eat them but I don't know if they're safe, so what I'm asking is, I guess, how long do you have to cook them before they're safe to eat?

Edit:
I found out my lower pressure setting was 60 kpa.

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  • I realise that my question might be too specific. If that's the case, feel free to broaden it.
    – iCanLearn
    Dec 14, 2014 at 16:50
  • Your question is fine. We prefer specific questions over general ones. Welcome to cooking.stackexchange!
    – rumtscho ♦
    Dec 14, 2014 at 16:53

2 Answers 2

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Consulting several sources about Adzuki beans (see below) they shouldn't take any special time to cook, about equivalent to Navy beans. Normal cooking times should be 15 to 20 minutes for non-soaked beans at 14 PSI / 90 kPa.

However, you cooked them at low pressure, which is usually 7 PST / 45 kPa, and is too low to make much of a difference in bean cooking time. I don't know how long they'd take to cook at that pressure, but I suspect it's not much less than they take to cook with no pressure at all. That is, you'd probably have to cook them for an hour or more at that pressure.

Sources consulted:

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  • I didn't cook them at low pressure, I cooked them at the lower pressure setting (of the two available on my pressure cooker). I don't know how high that pressure is (it doesn't say on the cooker), but I'm 100% sure that I don't have to cook them for an hour, because they're overcooked if I cook them for maybe 30 minutes. Besides, the question was about how long you have to cook them in order for them to become safely edible, which should be lower than the recommended cooking time found in pressure cooker charts.
    – iCanLearn
    Dec 16, 2014 at 17:29
  • @iCanLearn What you're calling "lower pressure setting" is what FuzzyChef (and most pressure cooker recipes) call "low pressure" - there are two settings, "low" and "high".
    – Cascabel ♦
    Dec 16, 2014 at 20:20
  • 1
    @Jefromi: Well, yes and no. Most pressure cookers have two settings, but they're not necessarily low pressure and high pressure. If you look at the chart in my answer and if you look at FuzzyChef's answer, you'll see that they both define "low pressure" as 45 kPa, but the lower pressure setting on my pressure cooker is actually 60 kPa, which is referred to as "medium pressure" in the chart. That's a big difference - using 45 kPa might indeed not substantially decrease the cooking time, but 60 kPa does. If I cooked adzuki beans at 60 kPa for an hour, they'd be very overcooked.
    – iCanLearn
    Dec 16, 2014 at 20:43
  • @iCanLearn Ah, well that's a nice mess. Glad you managed to find the actual numbers!
    – Cascabel ♦
    Dec 16, 2014 at 20:45
  • @iCanLearn: you didn't put the pressure level of low pressure on your original question. On the other hand, you did ask "safe to eat" rather than "properly cooked", so my fault for trying to answer the latter rather than the former. Adzuki beans should be safe to eat at any level of doneness.
    – FuzzyChef
    Dec 17, 2014 at 20:59
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I found out that my lower pressure cooker setting is 60 kpa, which is around 8.7 psi. I also found this link, according to which i have to add cca 45% to the cooking time for a 15 psi pressure cooker.

Now, according to the ultimate pressure cooker chart, you have too cook adzuki beans:
2-3 minutes soaked (natural release)
5-9 minutes soaked (quick release)
14-20 minute unsoaked (quick release)

I didn't soak my beans and I used something closer to natural than quick release. I didn't let 100% of the pressure to get released, but the cap did fall down and most of the pressure was released naturally, so I'm going to add 50% to the natural release unsoaked time, just to be safe.
It can be deduced from the times mentioned above that soaking has as much of an effect as quick release, so let's say you need 5-9 for natural relased unsoaked 15 psi cooking time.

If I put everything together, the result is that I should cook my beans
5 - 9 + 50% because not completely natural release = 7.5 - 13.5 min + 45% because lower pressure setting = 10.9 - 19.5 minutes.

Assuming that the time needed to cook the beans in order to make them safe to eat is not higher than the minimum recommended cooking time, 11 minutes should be enough.

I cooked my beans for a little less than 20 minutes, so I think it's fair to say they're safe to eat.

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  • ICanLearn: answering your own question based on links found in my answer and information you withheld from the original question is "dirty pool" as far as I'm concerned. I will not be answering any additional questions you post to this Exchange.
    – FuzzyChef
    Dec 17, 2014 at 21:06
  • 2
    @FuzzyChef Your answer indeed was very helpful, and it's still there, collecting upvotes. Beyond that, let's keep in mind that sometimes fully answering a question is a collaborative process. Note that the OP did edit the actual pressure into the question, so it wasn't really withheld, and you're free to revise your answer further based on that knowledge. Do also note that this answer cites a different page from one of the sites you linked to, as well as an entirely different page. Sometimes one answer provides a starting point that allows another to go further, and that's a good thing.
    – Cascabel ♦
    Dec 18, 2014 at 0:21
  • iCanLearn: The only thing I can see that you could've really done differently is to have commented directly on FuzzyChef's answer with the new information as soon as you had it, rather than only editing the question and sneaking it into your reply to me, but I think that's more a matter of courtesy than requirement. Answering your own questions is definitely encouraged, so I don't see your answer as a problem - though of course be sure to upvote any other answers you found helpful!
    – Cascabel ♦
    Dec 18, 2014 at 1:11
  • Some pressure cooker tables assume relatively fresh dried adzuki as sold in Japan, some assume more stale or even overstored ones as found in markets where they do not sell much.
    – rackandboneman
    Feb 8, 2016 at 14:00

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