The first step in cooking beans is buying the right ones. Most dried beans you’d find at the grocery store or in the bulk section of high-dollar organic markets aren’t very good since they don’t see enough turnover to be remotely fresh. Rancho Gordo has excellent beans; so does Zursun, a company out of Idaho.

A cheaper alternative would be to buy beans from busy international markets that cater to bean-loving populations, where there’s a better chance that the store is turning over its inventory.

A word on the pot: I like to cook beans in clay. Glazed or unglazed, terra cotta is the perfect vessel for cooking beans. Put them in the chosen pot and cover them with fresh water. You don’t need as much as you might think: enough to cover the beans by an inch or so will suffice. Too much water and the flavor of the beans will be diluted. Place a lid on the pot and place on a burner over low heat. For a clay pot, use a heat diffuser — or use one regardless. The idea is that you want very even, slow cooking for the beans. As they come up to a simmer, skim any foam or froth that might come to the surface and replace the lid. Cook. Slowly. Nice and easy.