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Beans make you gassy, and other advice from last night's first YC dinner

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Re: Beans make you gassy, and other advice from last night's first YC dinner

#4
post #3

Beans make you gassy Much less so if you soak them (ideally in a slightly caustic solution) and cook them at high temperature (i.e., boiling under pressure). The former will leach oligosaccharides, and the later will break them down.

I have a five gallon container of NaOH that I intend to make soap with one day. Should I use a little of that, or is there a more tame kitchen staple which is caustic?

Re: Beans make you gassy, and other advice from last night's first YC dinner

#5
post #3

Beans make you gassy Much less so if you soak them (ideally in a slightly caustic solution) and cook them at high temperature (i.e., boiling under pressure). The former will leach oligosaccharides, and the later will break them down.

Damn, I came here to post that. We eat beans all the time - soak them overnight and pressure-cook them and you'll have less gas from the beans than you would from a pizza. Rinse them once or twice while they're soaking and it'll work even better.

Hadn't heard about the caustic solution, though. What's caustic in the kitchen? Baking soda, I guess? I'm going to try that.

Re: Beans make you gassy, and other advice from last night's first YC dinner

#6
post #3

Beans make you gassy Much less so if you soak them (ideally in a slightly caustic solution) and cook them at high temperature (i.e., boiling under pressure). The former will leach oligosaccharides, and the later will break them down.

I have a five gallon container of NaOH that I intend to make soap with one day. Should I use a little of that, or is there a more tame kitchen staple which is caustic?

"I have a five gallon container of NaOH that I intend to make soap with one day"

Don't use it without checking the MSDS to make sure it's pure. You can also buy food grade KOH from specialty food sites, which is much safer to work with. (It's commonly used to make lutefisk.)

Alternatively, you could just use Beano.

Re: Beans make you gassy, and other advice from last night's first YC dinner

#7
post #3

Beans make you gassy Much less so if you soak them (ideally in a slightly caustic solution) and cook them at high temperature (i.e., boiling under pressure). The former will leach oligosaccharides, and the later will break them down.

See also http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/2009/04/new-way-to-soa... and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phytic_acid#Food_science

Re: Beans make you gassy, and other advice from last night's first YC dinner

#8
post #3

Beans make you gassy Much less so if you soak them (ideally in a slightly caustic solution) and cook them at high temperature (i.e., boiling under pressure). The former will leach oligosaccharides, and the later will break them down.

I've heard that cooking them in fresh water (throw out the soaking water) helps as well

Re: Beans make you gassy, and other advice from last night's first YC dinner

#9
post #3

Beans make you gassy Much less so if you soak them (ideally in a slightly caustic solution) and cook them at high temperature (i.e., boiling under pressure). The former will leach oligosaccharides, and the later will break them down.

I've heard that cooking them in fresh water (throw out the soaking water) helps as well

Yes, you should definitely throw out the water you soaked the beans in. (Even better, change the water halfway through the soaking. The key point is to shift the equilibrium point by making sure that the dissolved oligosaccharides don't redeposit into the beans.)

Re: Beans make you gassy, and other advice from last night's first YC dinner

#10
"At our first meeting with Paul, we showed him a PDF presentation and he sort of freaked out and it was really awkward for about 10 minutes as he tried to digest why we had made a presentation for him."

Why is that? I'm genuinely curious to know what would be uncomfortable about having a presentation, especially at a first meeting. It seems like that would be a good way to say "here's where we're at" in a few quick screens.

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