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From: gene@batman.UUCP (Gene Mutschler)
Newsgroups: net.cooks
Subject: Re: Draining soaked beans
Message-ID: <142@batman.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 18-Jul-85 12:21:16 EDT
Article-I.D.: batman.142
Posted: Thu Jul 18 12:21:16 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 20-Jul-85 17:45:08 EDT
References: <11450@brl-tgr.ARPA> <1795@amdahl.UUCP>
Distribution: net
Organization: Burroughs Austin Research Center, TX
Lines: 21

> > ...soaking dried beans overnight, and then
> > draining them and discarding the water they had soaked in, and then,
> > when cooking the beans, adding more fresh water.
> 
> One of the reasons I have heard is that the water leaches out
> the substance responsible for "gas". Couldn't tell
> much difference, though there did seem to be a little less gas...
> 
> E. Michael Smith  ...!{hplabs,ihnp4,amd,nsc}!amdahl!ems
> 
It may work little bit, but the reason in only incidentally related.
I have found that virtually gasless beans can be cooked using Adelle
Davis' method from her _Lets Cook It Right_ cookbook.  In this method,
you drop the beans A FEW AT A TIME into fully boiling water--never so
fast that the boiling stops.  She claims that this breaks down the
(whatever) that is indigestible.  I don't  know about the truth of the
claim, but repeated experiments indicate to me that it works.
To the extent that an overnight soak in cool water does the same thing
then one could expect a lessening of gas in beans cooked more conventionally.

Gene Mutschler ...{harvard, seismo, etc}!ut-sally!oakhill!cyb-eng!batman!gene