If the trail cook had the time to cook beans to tenderness, he certainly had time to cook corned beef. It is my experience that dried beans need 4-6 hours of cooking to become tender. Soaking them overnight will reduce this time a bit, and cooking them with some of the spices in a pressure cooker for about an hour does the trick nicely. Pressure cookers didn't seem to be on the trail cooks wagon, however.



Dave