My ham bone was pretty big, so I made stock with it first, covering it with water and cooking at high pressure for an hour. If you had and tired carrots, wilted onions, etc, you could toss them in. Peppercorns would be good also, maybe a bay leaf... but I was tired and just did the ham bone straight up.
Chilling stock lets you remove as much fat as you'd like, also.
Precook your dried beans for 2 min. high pressure -- in water, not in your nice stock! Let cool for at least 15 min before manually releasing remaining pressure (flip valve forward so steam escapes and silver button drops). Drain the water (it will carry off various flatulence producing compounds), then put beans back in pot with onion or whatnot and enough ham stock to cover.
I'm precooking 2 pounds of lima beans now and have a pound of green split peas that will join them when the stock goes in. Will dice some onion, add a teaspoon of cumin, and some pepper, set for 5 more min at high pressure.. Last time I did this my notes say I cooked for 8 min high pressure -- but I had big "butter beans" and had baby limas in my pantry this time, so I think less time will work better. I want the split peas to fall apart but not the limas.
I know that's a lot of details, thought it might demystify instant pot cooking for anybody still on the fence about getting (or using) one.
