Bean There

The science behind the song

"Bean There" is built around a small, recurring kitchen truth: dried legumes need a long soak before they're cooked. Soaking does two useful things. It shortens cooking time considerably, since the beans have already taken up water before they hit the heat, and it leaches out some of the raffinose-family oligosaccharides that resist digestion in the small intestine and are largely responsible for the gas associated with eating beans, since they're fermented further down the gut.

Soaking, and discarding the soaking water, also reduces phytic acid, a compound in legumes that can bind minerals like iron and zinc and reduce how much the body absorbs. None of this is dramatic chemistry, it's just the quiet, practical reason a note in the song reads "they always need soaking," underlined with a heart rather than a warning.