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From: ems@amdahl.UUCP (ems)
Newsgroups: net.cooks
Subject: Re: Draining soaked beans
Message-ID: <1795@amdahl.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 15-Jul-85 16:26:44 EDT
Article-I.D.: amdahl.1795
Posted: Mon Jul 15 16:26:44 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 18-Jul-85 06:13:38 EDT
References: <11450@brl-tgr.ARPA>
Distribution: net
Organization: Circle C Shellfish Ranch, Shores-of-the-Pacific, Ca
Lines: 22

> The recent posting of the "Frugal Gourmet"'s red-beans-and-rice recipe
> mentioned the concept of 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. I have seen this in
> other recipes, too. Does anyone know why this is done?
> 

One of the reasons I have heard is that the water leaches out
the substance responsible for "gas".  This was attributed to
a non-digestible sugar, a pentose.  This seemed a bit odd to me
so I conducted a test.  One batch soaked and cooked, the other
soaked, drained, soaked, drained, and cooked.  Couldn't tell
much difference, though there did seem to be a little less gas...

Anyone out there in net.land know if there is any truth to this
particular wives tale?
-- 

E. Michael Smith  ...!{hplabs,ihnp4,amd,nsc}!amdahl!ems

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