Advice on avoiding death by gas

[DennisD]

OK - we've got two cases of canned beans and 75 lbs. of dried beans - we won't die of starvation. Can any experienced prepperrs advise as to how we can avoid death by flatulence?
Beano is relatively expensive. Are there less expensive cooking methods or additives to mitigate the gaseous effects? This is my first real post after several years of lurking. The wisdom of the Board is respected. Thanks
DennisD

 

[Nuthatch]

Include dried beans in your diet weekly/daily and get adjusted to them. Also, do not cook them in the water you used to soak them. Drain and rinse them. Try stocking some baking soda or activated charcoal to take if the gas really bothers you.

 

[Grantbo]

This is Grantbo

Easy. Pick out any rocks or nasty looking dry beans. Be sure to soak them long enough to make them soft before cooking and eating.

Rough bean means lots 'O' gas.

 

[Dennis Olson]

A case of Bean-o....

 

[don24mac]

Well that's silly... Eat 'em outside... Away from campfires...

 

[Chronicles]

capture gas by product, at exit points and compress and store for needed fuel source.. LOL

 

[INVAR]

Advice on avoiding death by gas

Do not be within an enclosed space with me after I have had a boiled head of cabbage, pinto beans, a can of Hormel, fresh onions and grated pepperjack cheese, a half dozen deviled eggs and a sixer of Schlitz.

Keep me away from open flame.

If I am in the fetal position, RUN and do NOT look back.


You may turn into a pillar of salt if you do.


More wisdom from the sages:

http://hv.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=000h17

 

[Big Bob]

Peel a potato and throw it in the cooking water with the beans.

It will help break down the enzymes that cause gas.


God must have wanted us to eat lots of beans,

He made so many of them.

 

[Warren Bone]

When we make chile (chili?) we always add some vinegar; it adds lot's of good flavor and takes out some of the toot.

Also...when we cook beans we add ginger; dried from the little can. It takes out the toot also.

I won't fix chili without the vinegar; I usually splash a few tablespoons or more in a pot. You'll like it.

warren.

 

[Hansa44]

Peel a potato and throw it in the cooking water with the beans.

It will help break down the enzymes that cause gas.


God must have wanted us to eat lots of beans,

He made so many of them.

Ooorrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr, God has a great sense of humor

 

[Oldotaku]

I soak beans for 16 to 24 hours before cooking, with 2 Tbs vinegar in the soak water per Lb. of beans. I then drain the water, wash the beans clean in a colander. In a dutch oven, I fry up 1/2 Lb of bacon (chopped up), one big white onion (chopped as well), and whatever spices you want to use (1/2 Tbs pepper, 1 Tbs lemon juice, few dashes of Tabasco, and few dashes of Worstershire for me). Don't drain the bacon grease, just dump the washed beans on top, and add enough water to the pot so that the water is visible amongst the beans. Cook at a low simmer for 4-6 hours. I have no gas trouble eating this, since I've probably cooked the farts out . The acid soak probably has a lot to do with it too.

 

[Chronicles]

I would take INVAR's warning very serious....LOL

 

[IceWave]

Yeah, ya gotta watch it with the mating call of the Michigan Barking Spider. It can get you into some real trouble.

 

[rmagee58]

Today at the pump

I went into the gas station today and asked for five dollars worth of gas. The clerk farted and gave me a receipt.

 

[Barry Natchitoches]

OK - we've got two cases of canned beans and 75 lbs. of dried beans - we won't die of starvation. Can any experienced prepperrs advise as to how we can avoid death by flatulence?
Beano is relatively expensive. Are there less expensive cooking methods or additives to mitigate the gaseous effects? This is my first real post after several years of lurking. The wisdom of the Board is respected. Thanks
DennisD

Dennis,


We eat red beans and rice at least once a week in my household (it's a New Orleans delicacy).


It's easy to cook the beans without the gas.


All you do is mix in one teaspoon of baking soda when the beans first come to a boil. (Actually, you can add the baking soda in any time during the boiling process, but my wife says it works best if you put the baking soda in early).


The stuff will bubble big time, I don't mean the bubbling from the boiling process, but this is a different bubbling, due to the mixing of strong bean acids with the very alkaline baking soda.


But that bubbling will go down in a few minutes, leaving just the bubbling due to the boiling process itself.


It is the acid in the beans that causes the gas. Neutralize the acid, and voila, no gas!

 

[okie medicvet]

When we make chile (chili?) we always add some vinegar; it adds lot's of good flavor and takes out some of the toot.

Also...when we cook beans we add ginger; dried from the little can. It takes out the toot also.

I won't fix chili without the vinegar; I usually splash a few tablespoons or more in a pot. You'll like it.

warren.

I make my chili with a dash of red wine vinegar, and always wondered why never had any major fart problems with them..guess I now know why..just following the recipe that was handed to me...

and am I the only one that thinks 'campfire scenes' and immediately flashes to the one in BLAZING SADDLES?? heehee.

 

[BrSpiritus]

Think of it this way. Farting is healthy and adds a much needed element of humour to life.

 

[Caplock50]

I agree with Barry Natchitoches on this. I've done it all my life, and my parents did it all of theirs as well. I can definately attest to the fact that it works. Btw, Barry, I call that 'bubbling', foaming.

 

[INVAR]

Think of it this way. Farting is healthy and adds a much needed element of humour to life.

It is also a compliment to the host and chef in some cultures, and a necessary defensive weapon in a home with five women in it.


Someone please pass the sourkraut.

 

[cider]

The girls in this house call it Biological Warfare!
Cider

 

[Hermit]

Funny you should ask about this, I was just going to start a new thread with this Reuters article:

Scientists find secret to gas-free beans

Tuesday, April 25, 2006; Posted: 3:05 p.m. EDT (19:05 GMT)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- Two strains of bacteria are the key to making beans flatulence-free, Venezuelan researchers reported on Tuesday.

They identified two bacteria, Lactobacillus casei and Lactobacillus plantarum, which can be added to beans so they cause minimal distress to those who eat them, and to those around the bean-lovers, Marisela Granito of Simon Bolivar University in Caracas, Venezuela and colleagues reported.

Flatulence is gas released by bacteria that live in the large intestine when they break down food. Fermenting makes food more digestible earlier on.

Writing in the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, Granito and colleagues found that adding these two gut bacteria to beans before cooking them made them even less likely to cause flatulence.

They tested black beans, known scientifically as Phaseolus vulgaris.

"Legumes, and particularly Phaseolus vulgaris, are an important source of nutrients, especially in developing countries," Granito's team wrote in the report.

"In spite of being part of the staple diets of these populations, their consumption is limited by the flatulence they produce."

Smart cooks know they can ferment beans, and make them less gas-inducing, by cooking them in the liquor from a previous batch. But Granito's team wanted to find out just which bacteria were responsible for this.

When the researchers fermented black beans with the two bacteria, they found it decreased the soluble fiber content by more than 60 percent and lowered levels of raffinose, a compound known to cause gas, by 88 percent.

They fed the beans to rats and then analyzed the rats' droppings to ensure that the beans were digested and kept their nutritional value.

When pre-soaked in the L. casei, the beans stayed nutritious and produced few gas-causing compounds, they reported.

"Therefore, the lactic acid bacteria involved in the bean fermentation, which include L. casei as a probiotic, could be used as functional starter cultures in the food industry," the researchers wrote.

"Likewise, the cooking applied after induced fermentation produced an additional diminution of the compounds related to flatulence."

taken from http://www.cnn.com/2006/HEALTH/04/25/health.beans.reut/index.html?section=cnn_health

 

[INVAR]

That will take all the fun and delight out of eating beans.

If they do this - I'm boycotting.

I'll just replace the beans with boiled cabbage, feta cheese, some pickled eggs and some malt liquor.

After which I will jump on a trampoline for a quarter hour and ask some one to pull my finger while my backside is pointing at Washington DC.

 

[Hermit]

I'm guessing that you're also a hermit, INVAR?

A brother of mine had a special casserole recipe, it had three kinds of beans and sauerkraut in it and was topped with gorgonzola cheese. It sounds awful, but everyone absolutely loved it, at parties it was the first dish finished.

But then the music began ....

 

[INVAR]

Ahh! A Symphony!

Delightful!

I like the parties where after the Tamale Pie and nacho bean dip has been devoured, the front room soon sounds like the musical mothership conversing scene in "Close Encounters of the Third Kind".

I would be the tuba blast of course.

 

[Freeholder]

DennisD said this was almost his first post here, but he also said he's been lurking for years, so I guess he ought to have known what to expect when he started this thread, LOL!

Kathleen

 

[Melodi]

Funny and entertaining as all this is, there is a real concern here. No one wants to be double up in pain (or sitting on a bucket) for hours, just when you might really need to be either on alert or even bugging out.

The best way to avoid this problem has already been mentioned, eat beans (or dried legumes like split peas, black eyed peas etc) at least once a week. Our family has started doing this, even though they are not my husband's farorite foods and our mostly foreign to our Irish house-mate. But we voted to do this after thinking about what happens when no one eats them for awhile.

I do the soaking with a pinch of baking soda thing and then rinse the beans completly in cold water. If they soak them a long time, it may also be fermenting them slightly, though the baking soda helps even if you only soak a couple of hours in boiling water (what I call fast-tracking) the beans. When I lived in Venezuela a pot of black beans was on almost every stove, every day so I immagine there is a certain amount of fermentation going on. Also, folks there tend to soak both beans and rice, which are almost always eaten together. In the US and Europe we don't tend to soak our rice, but it something to think about. Would also make it cook faster in a low fuel situation.

When I lived in a semi-vegetarian household (I am not a vegetarian) I ate beans nearly every day and after a couple of weeks my body adjusted. Some people, like our house-mate, who has almost no history of eating legumes can have some pretty intense reactions when first eating them. This is something you need to know about your family, while you still have time to adjust your preps. In our case, I made sure to get 25 kilos (about 50 pounds) of split green peas, because they bother his insides less. And in an emergency, a lower digestive track problem could change from funny to fatal if a person lost too much internal liquid and/or could not grab their shot gun fast enough because they couldn't move.

I'd love to see another thread on cooking beans. I grew up on them and can eat them every day (did in Venezuela) but they do get boreing if always cooked the same way. In Venezuela they have a number of interesting things they do with them, perhaps it is time to start another thread in homesteading and cooking?...

Melodi/Disaster Cat...going downstairs to make a bean burrito for lunch..

 

[Hansa44]

I just want to say here that I believe you can buy the stuff in the health food stores. It may come under the names of Biphodophillus and maybe acidophillus. It comes in capsules. You can also find it in high quality yogurt. Not the junk on supermarket shelves. Actually some supermarkets do carry "high quality" yogurt. Or make your own. It's really easy.

Yahoo! News
Study shows secret to gas-free beans

Tue Apr 25, 10:57 AM ET

Two strains of bacteria are the key to making beans flatulence-free, Venezuelan researchers reported on Tuesday.

They identified two bacteria, Lactobacillus casei and Lactobacillus plantarum, which can be added to beans so they cause minimal distress to those who eat them, and to those around the bean-lovers, Marisela Granito of Simon Bolivar University in Caracas, Venezuela and colleagues reported.

Flatulence is gas released by bacteria that live in the large intestine when they break down food. Fermenting makes food more digestible earlier on.

Writing in the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, Granito and colleagues found that adding these two gut bacteria to beans before cooking them made them even less likely to cause flatulence.

They tested black beans, known scientifically as Phaseolus vulgaris.

"Legumes, and particularly Phaseolus vulgaris, are an important source of nutrients, especially in developing countries," Granito's team wrote in the report.

"In spite of being part of the staple diets of these populations, their consumption is limited by the flatulence they produce."

Smart cooks know they can ferment beans, and make them less gas-inducing, by cooking them in the liquor from a previous batch. But Granito's team wanted to find out just which bacteria were responsible for this.

When the researchers fermented black beans with the two bacteria, they found it decreased the soluble fiber content by more than 60 percent and lowered levels of raffinose, a compound known to cause gas, by 88 percent.

They fed the beans to rats and then analyzed the rats' droppings to ensure that the beans were digested and kept their nutritional value.

When pre-soaked in the L. casei, the beans stayed nutritious and produced few gas-causing compounds, they reported.

"Therefore, the lactic acid bacteria involved in the bean fermentation, which include L. casei as a probiotic, could be used as functional starter cultures in the food industry," the researchers wrote.

"Likewise, the cooking applied after induced fermentation produced an additional diminution of the compounds related to flatulence."

 

[dimensiondancer]

What will all the teenage boys do without farts to light? Why, they will have to resort to other methods of disgusting behavior such as dressing up in Mom's clothing or whatnot.

Someone I work with swears that a pinch of nutmeg in dried beans while cooking will dispose of any gas problems. I doubt that though, because she raised 3 teenage sons who are totally morally adjusted. They surely lighted a fart or two to become so happy.

I have tried the nutmeg and the red wine vinegar and the soaking overnight, all three together and DH still blows the covers off the bed at night. There are no guarantees and God intended this to be, it must state such in the bible somewhere - so someone find the passage quickly.

 

[INVAR]

it must state such in the bible somewhere - so someone find the passage quickly.

Proverbs 21:9

It is better for a man to live in the corners of the attic than in a house with a raving woman


Solomon obviously was inspired to write that after he farted in bed.

 

[dirtdigger]

More about beans.....

I don't know but I've been told that beans by themselves are an incomplete protein and that adding corn to the meal solves the problem.

 

[dimensiondancer]

Bush is going to solve this problem

http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/showthread.php?t=195131

ENVR - Bush to ease gas problems by removing Clear Air regulations

 

[INVAR]

I don't know but I've been told that beans by themselves are an incomplete protein and that adding corn to the meal solves the problem.

Uhh....no - that actually creates ANOTHER problem...potentially far more deadly.

I tend to call it the "shotgun in the bowl" and usually is preceded by fetal-causing cramps and a sprint to the head, and it becomes what many of us know to be a 'Whole Roll Dump'.

 

[dimensiondancer]

Corn is a potential WMD for my household. Our house is safer with a pot of beans than one ear o' corn. I promise!

Corn bread maybe, but fresh roasted ear of corn although tasty and nutritious will make my dogs seek refuge in the closet.

And yes, my husband does blame the dog quite a bit.

 

[INVAR]

When one can vibrate the hardwood floors because you are sitting on a stool - it is kind of hard to blame the dog - who usually ends up running right before the explosion.

After all, animals are sensitive to earthquakes before they happen.


And BTW, putting corn and beans together in a meal should be considered a recipe for a weapon of mass destruction.

Plumbers often warn against that kind of combination and suggest it is safer to put an M-80 in your butt and light it, than to devour a plate of beans and a few ears of corn.

 

[newsnut]

NOOOOOOOOOOO! Taking the farts outta beans is like taking the rollercoasters out of an amusement park. Never never never de-gas the beans.

 

[Barry Natchitoches]

I agree with Barry Natchitoches on this. I've done it all my life, and my parents did it all of theirs as well. I can definately attest to the fact that it works. Btw, Barry, I call that 'bubbling', foaming.

Ah, yes, "foaming"!


I could not, for the life of me, remember the proper word for it when I was writing my post last night, and my wife was off at a Relief Society meeting so I couldn't ask her. Ever get one of those "writer's blocks," when you just cannot remember something very simple that you always know?



Thank's alot.