How to Prevent Gas With Baking Soda in Beans
- 1). Put the dried beans in a pot and add enough water to cover them.
- 2). Heat the water until it starts to boil and then remove from the burner. This process breaks the skin of the beans, allowing the gas-producing starches within them to release into the surrounding water (See References 1 and 2).
- 3). Pour off the water, rinse the beans thoroughly, cover the beans with fresh water and add about one teaspoon of baking soda to the mix (See References 1 and 2).
- 4). Let the beans soak at least overnight (See References 1 and 2). When they have soaked enough, they will have doubled in size (See Reference 1). This process may take up to a full 24 hours for some beans (See Reference 1). Some sources suggest that 48 hours may be appropriate since a longer soaking helps leech out more of the gassy sugars (See Reference 3).
- 5). Rinse the beans thoroughly several times during the soak to wash off traces of the gaseous sugars the baking soda soak released (See Reference 2) and prevent them from being reabsorbed into the beans (See Reference 3).
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