So I made like 3 gallons of chili a while back. I had 2 half gallon jars of beans I was rehydrating for said chili. Let them soak for a day but also added salt to the water. Well by next morning they were fermenting HARD. Like foaming out the top of the jars and bubbling like a soda. So I just let them go on my counter for a few days and then made chili out of them. Was delicious. Not sure if the fermentation did anything to the flavor of the beans but I had zero gas from them.
So anyway I decided to make more chili again. I decided to ferment 3 half gallons this time, black beans, kidney, and red. So I got them all fermenting I can can now officially say the max number of fermenting beans you should have goin in one room is two half gallons. Cause god lord do these make a smell. It’s distinct. Like you know it’s from beans. It’s like, you know how when you have a been fart you can tell it’s a bean fart. Like you just can tell by some off note “yeah that’s from those beans”? Well it’s like that but without the rest of the fart. Just the beans part.
Here’s where the science experiment comes in. I have them all with air lock bubblers. The smell has attracted gnats to the jars and they fly down into the bubblers and get trapped in the liquid I used which is a suuuper salty brine. The distribution of gnats however, is not even. It seems the black beans have attracted no gnats, the red beans 1 gnat, and the kidney beans 7 gnats. So, I can surmise that, kidney beans cause the stinkiest farts of the 3 types.
You’re welcome.
Think of what we could achieve if science were not limited by what research funding bodies think might be useful.
To achieve communism we must embrace the immortal science of Bean
Marxism-Leninism-Legumism™
What kind of equipment do you use to ferment beans safely?
A half gallon jar with an air lock, salt, water, beans
How difficult is it to ferment without it becoming inedible? Also, do you ferment them before or after cooking?
It’s pretty easy to ferment any vegetable comrade. Just take the total weight of the vegetables pluss water, then add between 2-3% of that weight in salt. You don’t even need air tight just cover with a cloth. Just keep everything submerged below the water level. That’s the biggest issue. Using an air lock is just extra precaution if you worried about mold. I live in a very humida area where mold grows easily so I never ferment without an airlock.
Beans can be fermented before or after cooking. These are before cooking. They will loose their probiotic effect when I cook them but I do this primarily to make them easier to digest, reduce carb load, and… because I can. If fermenting after cooking you need a starter. I use excess juice from sauerkraut I make.
It’s also hard to go “too long” on a ferment. I’ve let kraut go for 3-4 months before I capped it and put it in the fridge. It stops fermenting usually after a month but it stays fairly well preserved in there because of the acid it makes and the salt water.
Very cool – I’ll have to give it a try soon. Have you ever fermented lentils or other non-bean legumes?
First time beans was an accident. This is only my second legume based ferment. Others I have done peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, sauerkraut, and kimchi styled sauerkraut. I also make kombucha and various vinegars including apple, raisin, cranberry, blueberry, and red wine.
An excellent accident
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Don’t know comrade. But those gnats sure like the lactobacillus kidney bean farts.
Another thing you can do to make the ferment taste fizzy without actually sealing the jar is add some ginger, in my case specifically crystalized ginger. I did this to some dill pickles and even though they weren’t sealed they still had this sort of fizzy taste to them. Was kind of weird.
I also make kombucha and when it’s completely fermented and bottles I add some crushed, crystalized ginger to the bottles and seal them. It is just enough extra sugar added to ferment and build some pressure to carbonate but not go too far and have to vent it. A few small pieces into a 32oz flip top bottle.
fermented food has been shown to be easier to digest, your probably on to something there.
Even normal soaking procedures for beans are fermentation I think. What’s responsible for the bean farts and fermentation smell etc. are oligosaccharides that we cannot digest ourselves, hence the need for fermentation.
I suspect they may also be behind the difference in the number of gnats attracted. Kidney beans are poisonous if undercooked, so maybe that is due to a higher concentration of oligosaccharides and consequently more odor is produced during fermentation that attracts gnats, but I am not sure about that, it could be something else.
You are correct. Just having the beans soak in water for 12-24 hours will get rid of most of those saccharides so fermentation is not a necessity. The extended fermentation and continued soaking just helps to eliminate any remaining traces of them and also digests some carbs and fibres in the beans.
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