How to quick-soak dried beans

The one dish that my mom would make from scratch whenever the opportunity arose was a huge pot of pinto beans. And by opportunity, I mean the one night of the week, no month, when she was actually able to take the time to soak dried beans over night, thrown in a ham hock (I am sure that stores still sell these although I have never seen one), and then cook them all day. They were and still are phenomenal and my favorite dish to have whenever I get home to see my parents. Seeing my parents is an rare occasion despite how my mom’s beans call to me. I mean, she could put the beans on to soak, and have them fully cooked in the time it would take me to get to there. Alas, I must make beans myself.

Far be it for me to fix something that a’int broke, but I usually don’t have the foresight, or the desire to soak beans overnight when I can pop open a can in under thirty seconds. However, dried beans somehow taste infinitely better than canned. So when I read that I could soak beans in my crockpot and have them ready to go in under three hours (…still requiring rare foresight on my part), I knew my time had come.