re: Made red beans for the first time.

Perhaps you were going for Natchitoches style red beans?

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Natchitoches style is more spicy and the beans ate more of a slop than beany. New Orlens style you mash some but Natchitoches style basically all the beans are naturally mashed without having to actually mash them it's part of the slow cooker process.

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Like I've said several times already in this thread Natchitoches style red beans are a more spicy robust bean served in a more "slop" style than the more beany New Oleans style. New Orleans has a bit more refined taste to it but Natchitoches is more wholesome.

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LINK

I didn't see that thread when it was posted, but someone linked to it later. Cracks me up every time.

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Natchitoches ... slow cooker

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From Wikipedia, sourced to other documents:
"The toxic compound phytohaemagglutinin, a lectin, is present in many common bean varieties but is especially concentrated in red kidney beans. White kidney beans contain about a third as many toxins as the red variety; broad beans (Vicia faba) contain 5 to 10% as much as red kidney beans.

Phytohaemagglutinin can be inactivated by cooking beans for ten minutes at boiling point (100 °C, 212 °F). Insufficient cooking, such as in a slow cooker at 80 °C/ 176 °F, is insufficient to deactivate all toxins. To safely cook the beans, the U.S Food and Drug Administration recommends boiling for 30 minutes to ensure they reach a sufficient temperature for long enough to destroy the toxin completely. For dry beans, the FDA also recommends an initial soak of at least 5 hours in water which should then be discarded. Outbreaks of poisoning have been associated with cooking kidney beans in slow cookers."

Make sure you've got an adequately powerful slow cooker if you don't want food poisoning, Natchitoches peoples.

Also, for the people who say there's no reason to soak, see above, and also "soaking beans removes 5 to 10% of the gas-producing sugars that can cause flatulence for some people."