Thank you so much! I stopped eating beans altogether, because of the digestive problems. I have IBS, and I only allow myself to eat them in a chili (with garlic, onion, chili's, other things that are hard to 'handle'). I'm building up a resistance a bit for most things but beans are hard on everyone so.. =') Next time I'll soak my beans longer and test if that helps for me! I sure hope so!

That's always worked for me: I pre-soak for 24 hours, then pre-cook (usually in the Crock-pot) until tender, THEN use them in the recipe as directed. No digestive response whatsoever. You can also do large batches ahead of time, and leave the pre-cooked beans in the fridge until ready to use.

I'll definitely have to try the longer soaking time. I had learned from a Cook's Illustrated Recipe that soaking beans in a brine solution (rather than plain cold water) helps the skins on the beans intact during cooking, so you have soft creaming individual beans instead of mush. I'll have to see if increasing the soaking time with salted water makes a difference!

I panicked when I saw this post. I love your other method. I hate soaking beans, because I just never have the foresight or energy to do it. Its good to know, but I can never keep up with this stuff.

Did you discard the soaking water? Doing so removes some of the 'offending' compounds in the beans.

@sipalittletea - I had the same reaction! "No! I love the oven method!" Glad to know the method still stands, with soaking optional. :)

fabricwench is right. You should discard the soaking water.

So funny ... I used to soak for 24 hours, but stopped doing it after I forgot to think a day ahead one time, and noticed no digestive difference. Perhaps my body just doesn't have problems with beans any more after I increased my consumption of them over the past year?

I used to think what a nuisance it was to soak beans ahead of time but now I just dump a cup of beans in some water whenever I think of it, and let 'em sit for whenever the next day. I find the longer soak makes for a much shorter cooking time as well as relieving digestive distress.

I pre-soak my beans between 12-24 hours, and change the water 3 times. "Oligosaccharides" is the stuff in beans that make ya toot.... The water whisks a lot of it away.

I've been eating beans every day since December, and toot less now than before!

http://www.passionatehomemaking.com/2008/04/whole-grains-grinding-soaking.html
the post above talks a little about the benefits of soaking beans and whole grains. I have found it very helpful!

soaking doesn't fix that problem for me. i have always soaked my dry beans overnight before cooking, and always discard the water. however, i ALWAYS have trouble with the toots, and flat out unpleasant bathroom trips whenever i make them. husband has the same problem. to be clear the only beans i bother cooking from dried anymore are black beans.

i have heard that if you only eat beans every once in a while it's harder on your digestion than if you eat them often, so maybe this is why? i've also read (a long time ago) that the darker the bean the more irritating they can be to your stomach, anyone know if this is true?

Pressure-cooking quick soak yields similarly positive digestive results in my experience. The beans are often not as pretty as with a 24-hour soak, but I rarely have the time to care about beans looking pretty, much less to remember to presoak...

I don't have trouble with beans in that way, but I have always always soaked them overnight. Just how my mama taught me.

I've heard that adding salt/using brine can increase the cooking time, since the firmer skin is less permeable.

I have read that putting a strip of seaweed (kelp, dulse, whatever you've got) into the cooking water helps with digestion issues, so I do it all the time. I eat so many beans, though, that my digestive track doesn't blink (or do anything else unseemly) when I eat them. Either way, it'd add nutrients!

i've only ever soaked beans overnight, and my SO notes he still has difficulties with them. next time i'll give'em a full 24 hours before i use them.

Beans, having a lot of fiber, are more problematic if you are not used to eating much fiber. If they bother you, check your fiber consumption. It should be around 25 g. per day.

We love beans around here. One of the best food bargains and lots of options for them.

I also use canned beans for quick.

Using certain spices can help alleviate those symptoms. I believe bay leaf and cumin are two of them...can't remember where I read that unfortunately, but it's worth investigating.

I slow cook all of my beans and no longer have trouble digesting them. But, I also eat legumes just about every day and sometimes twice daily. Some are harder on your system than others.

I've also heard not to eat fruit before or directly after eating legumes because the sugars in the fruit don't mesh well with the starch.

Kinda reminds me of the old saying, "Beans, beans, good for the heart, the more you eat, the more you have 'digestive response problems'...hahaha! I have always soaked my beans, never not done it. And, I discard the water and add fresh before putting on the stove.

I soak overnight and change the water a few times throughout that period (like before I go to bed and in the morning or whenever). The beans also get a good rinse before I toss them in the pot.

I made red beans & rice this weekend and I don't think I've been tooting all that much.

The more you eat them, the less you have the musical fruit side effect, it took me about a month to build up tolerance. You can use one of the digestive enzyme products, like Beano, while you're building up tolerance and if you eat beans 3x a week regularly from then on then you can usually discontinue use of the digestive enzyme after a month or so.

I second the seaweed trick. That works really well and gives the beans and broth a wonderful rich flavor too. Lots of umami.

I just do what generations of cooks do with beans to avoid the toots: while cooking, pop in a healthy teaspoon of baking soda. It'll froth n' roar for a second but it really lowers the compounds that cause gas. Also, remember, any food with lots of fiber will get your butt trumpet going. I just pop a Beano and life is grand.

Try Pre soaking for minimum of 8 hours and then discarding the soaking liquid before cooking the beans. Seems to work for me:)

I have always soaked my beans over night the process degases the beans. If I decide last minute to make beans I will boil them for 1/2 hour and let them sit for another 1/2 hr covered than drain them put fresh hot water and start cooking that also degases the beans.

I have never done that. I do it the way my parents, aunts, grandparents, grandaunts and everyone else before them do

Pick through the bag of beans for rocks or bugs, rinse the beans, and add them to a pot of boiling water. Some people will use a pressure cooker, but I don't own one. It will take about 1.5 hours to boil the beans. 20 minutes before they are done, I add a little salt. How do I know that they are almost done? Well, I pick some out with a spoon during boiling and try them. If they are easy to chew, the way they are supposed to feel when ready, they are done.

When boiling beans, you can't really leave the kitchen for long because of evaporation. You have to keep adding water, or they'll burn otherwise. During the boiling process, the beans have to be stirred often.

The great thing about boiling beans is that once they are done, you can serve yourself a laddleful of the water in a mug and drink it. It's so yummy, plus it's a great source of iron. In my home country, where beans are a staple, this is home remedy for those who suffer from anemia.

Finally, you put the whole batch of beans, including the water, in a container/bowl for storing. Must be kept in refridgerator or they will go bad quickly. For cooking, take what you need from the bowl and store the rest.

I've never had problems digesting beans. Then again, I grew up eating beans almost every single day of my life.

I want to add, storing the water the beans were boiled in will keep the beans from drying out. You don't wanna eat dried out beans. Plus, think about it, the water now contains a lot of the nutrients that were originally in the beans.

Besides, I don't know how other people who aren't Central American cook their beans, but for our everyday way of cooking beans, you want some of the water to come up with the beans when you get (cooking) spoonfuls of beans from the storage bowl. A lot of the flavor will be in that water. It makes no sense to not keep it.

Could it be that the soaking starts the germination process and the beans begin to break down their own enzymes, thus making it easier for your digestive tract to break down the rest? From what I've read about sprouting seeds and grains is that once the germination process has started the nutrients becomes much more bioavailable.

We soak for 24 hours and add epazote - it's a Mexican herb (tastes a little bit like thyme) that magically makes all the toots & discomfort of bean eating disappear! Tastes nice too. :)

I have always soaked them for a minimum of 6 hours, and usually with a tablespoon of baking soda in the water. After the soak, I rinse (dump the beans in a colander and flush with cold water) before cooking. I have no idea if it is the length of the soak or the baking soda (learned that from my dad, who was told that by his mom, etc...) but whatever it is, it works.

Never had a problem with gas or bloating and the beans are lovely texture.

Soaking beans with a tbsp or two of acidic medium (apple cider vinegar, lemon juice, yogurt/kefir, or whey) added to the water can also help with digestion. This reduces the phytic acid (enzyme inhibitors naturally present in beans, grains, nuts, and seeds) that makes certain foods hard to digest. Bonus: it also allows the body to absorb more nutrients from the food!

I always have a jar of beans soaking in the fridge. Sometimes it takes me as long as a week to get to them, but they still come out perfect every time. I use a pressure cooker and salt both the soaking water and the cooking water.

"Epazote is a green herb that grows fairly tall. Also known as, Mexican tea, this herb is used in bean dishes to add flavor and relieve digestive problems that beans may cause. Epazote is potent and should only be used in small quantities. Large quantities can be toxic. Just add a couple of leaves to your bean dish as it cooks."
Our Hispanic Farmer's Market here in Houston has herbalists out back that sell this herb, amongst many others. I first heard of using it in beans a while back and keep forgetting to buy some. Glad this post reminded me.

Problematic? I thought the digestive 'problems' were a worthwhile musical accompaniment to beans. I live alone... 'toot, oops..."

Sally Fallon in "Nourishing Traditions" mentions that soaking, or even sprouting is beneficial because more of the nutrients are "unlocked." So even beyond the digestive problems, there are good reasons to soak beans for extended periods.

Don't know about beans, but RICE is much nicer when soaked overnight - fragrant, unsticky, elongated grains.

I do something I read in Elizabeth David's French Provincial Cooking: add baking soda to the soaking water and keep changing it.

In practice, that works out to soaking the beans for a couple of days, initially changing the water every couple of hours and adding big handfuls of baking soda, and working down to water-only at the end. You can smell the "beany" odor diminishing in the soaking water over time. (Obviously, this takes a bit of planning--I do it for black-eyed peas at New Years; only rarely the rest of the year.) The beans come out, as Ms. Durand points out, creamy and not-so-gassy.

I also add a lot of minced ginger when I cook the beans, which is also supposed to help with the wind problem, but I honestly don't know if it does. The flavor's nice, though. (Reading through this thread, I see that kelp, bay leaves, cumin and epazote are also mentioned as de-gassers. They may or may not work, but they'd probably be delicious if you used them together--an experiment worth running.)

My husband and I don't really have problems with beans, which is good because I (like many others) am in love with the oven method of cooking beans and use it all the time. I've recommended it to so many other people as well. So glad it's not be replaced!

Great tip - Around here our water is so heavy in minerals,etc., that we have to use bottled water or the beans never get soft. I've forgotten and used tap water and ruined an excellent meal.

I am definitely going to try this out, I eat a lot of beans as well and even though I can digest them a lot better than when I ate them infrequently I still sometimes experience some, umm... discomfort.
I would love to try this with lentils... I adore them but they seem even worse than the beans for digestive... upsets.

Do they still make the product Beano? It works.

Soaking the beans for longer sets them off germinating, and changes the compounds in the bean itself leaving them easier to digest. You can even leave them for longer (but not under water). After the initial soaking, keep them moist by rinsing them a few times a day, even when they start to sprout you can cook them. Takes much less time though! Would never cook them in the soaking water, always use fresh! Sprouted lentils and mung beans are delicious tossed into stir frys too. :)