Salt, Fermentation, Vegetables

#1

https://www.wildfermentation.com/the-art-of-fermentation/#0

Does anyone ferment their own veg to make pickles?

(MooBoom) #2

No but I keep meaning to. Great for your gut health. Sauerkraut is supposed to be easy to start with, but I don’t love it.

(TJ Borden) #3

Pretty sure @CandyLindTX makes her own sauerkraut.

(Banting & Yudkin & Atkins & Eadeses & Cordain & Taubes & Volek & Naiman & Bikman ) #4

My brother used to make all manner of pickled veg. He gave out jars of homemade pickles and jams as wedding favors.

I think he’s gotten away from it, with his sales job, but works on nearly any veg.

(Candy Lind) #5

Yes, and it’s super easy. I will return with “how to” links when I can. Not on my phone & stuck without computer ATM.

#6

I’ve bought lots of little cucumbers…

(Candy Lind) #7

I have NOT done pickles but would love to try it sometime. Having gone back on the road, I have no space or time to devote to anything like this except when I go home. I can make a new batch of sauerkraut the first day I go home, and it will be sour enough for my taste by the time I leave home.

(Vincent Hall) #8

I make my own saurkrout. Reminds me I’m down to my last two jars so need to knock up some more. Keepnit simple at first, just cabbage.
\v/

#9

Yes. Giardiniera and red cabbage mostly, but whatever strikes my fancy. Have a nice batch of curry spice cauliflower going now.

#10

And they turned into a soft, smelly, salty mess

#11

So, 1) failures happen, learn and move forward. 2) What was your process? 3) A couple of things come immediately to mind: did you remember to remove the blossom ends? Tannin? Too high temps?

#12

Yes. But I haven’t a clue what the lesson is?

It was warm ~ 25C, there was no tannin ingredient, the blossom ends came off when they were washed ~ but completely … ?

I’ll probably go back to making cabbage pickle but I wanted to try something more low carb.

If I had a glut of cucumbers in the garden I’d carry on but they ain’t cheap.

Thank you.

#13

25C! Yikes! That’s hot. Hotter than I’d do ferments in. How strong was your brine? Also, you need to cut off the blossom end as it contains an enzyme that makes the pickles soft and bad:

https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can_06/prep_foods.html

#14

Thank you very much.

(Jane Reed) #15

To Mon, who doesn’t like sauerkraut:. the homemade stuff tastes much, much better than anything store-bought. Like you, I never liked sauerkraut. But when I first made a small jar I changed my mind. The more sour you allow it to get, the better it tastes.

(Full Metal KETO AF) #16

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I am big time into fermentation of vegetables and was going to start a thread and found this one. I ferment in a water lock crock as well as repurposed tall 2 liter pasta storage jars with the wire bail lids. I fill those about 2\3 full of packed vegetables and make sure there’s brine on top and create your anaerobic seal with a Ziploc bag filled with extra brine on top. Leave an inch or a bit more of air space at the top and remove the rubber seal from the jar so co2 can escape. It’s good to spin them a little every day for the start especially to help gas escape. I have never had any mold issues. I make sauerkraut and Chinese Paò Caí which is my favorite. I cooked Sichuan food professionally most of my adult life. Ready in 1-3 weeks depending on your taste. I like sauerkraut at 6 weeks. I try to eat a large serving most days and it has boosted my weight loss on keto. I stir fry about 3 ounces of ground meat with coconut oil or bacon grease and add a touch of soy to flavor it at the end. Add green onion or garlic if you want and turn off the heat after the spices cook. Add your Paò Caí chopped a little if you like and toss with a few drops of sesame oil if you like that and plate.

I do the Sauerkraut in a polish 5 liter fermentation crock and the Paò Caí in the pasta storage jars (thrift store). I recommend this water lock Polish crock from Amazon as the best deal I could find. Excellent quality:

So after reading some posts from others using wirelock type jars like Fido for fermenting you can leave the rubber seal in place because air can escape if pressure builds. There are some who say that they can explode under pressure and burp the jars daily for a week to prevent this. I’m currently experimenting with all the ideas that make sense to me. Trying the seals! If one explodes I’ll definitely post!

(MooBoom) #17

David how did you go? Any 'splosions? Also- great post from Dec '18, super inspiring!

(Full Metal KETO AF) #18

The last batches I made were fine, I’m in Florida on vacation now from California and haven’t been fermenting other than a batch of green tomatoes for the friend that I’m visiting. Starting up batches again in February.

#19

Wow!
Okay, I am definitely going to try in a few months when it is cooler here. Love that photo.