Wasn’t sure where to put this but it didn’t quite fit in the Kraut thread so thought I’d start a Ferment thread. I know there’s been ferments mentioned elsewhere here and there (a beautiful photo by @galinas of her pickles on another thread worth looking for). What I wanted to share was Pickle Pipes (a silicone ‘burper’ and Pickle Pebbles (glass weights) made by MasonTops (www.masontops.com). I discovered them a few years ago and added to my supply this year. They’ve just made my pickles and other ferments that I do in jars so much easier and more successful. No more fussing messily with trying to scim the scum (and not doing a very good job of it). Sometimes a jar of pickles does get some white mold but not often. I think there are other brands, too, but these are what I’m using. They feel like they’ll last a long time. Their latest weights are formed with a "handle’ in the top which makes them a whole lot easier to get out (the earlier ones were just solid flat glass).
My pickle ferments are pretty basic with dill, garlic, pickling spice, and grape leaf. I use 1 1/2 TB salt per quart water. Sometime a jar goes soft but generally they do well in the root cellar. Last year we ate the last one early February.
So, what ferments do you have going (other than sauerkraut which in on another thread)? Sue
Why don’t you move this thread and the one on sauerkraut to the food section instead of general gardening? That way we can find the recipes to make these delicious things!
no pics but I have a kimchi of napa cabbage, carrots, scallions, and chive flower buds which turned out pretty well…it certainly makes my burps smell terrible like authentic kimchi does
I put fresh basil and garlic in the brine, so they have kind of a gespacho like flavor. The ferment taste itself is unusual. You don’t expect a tomato to have a lacto ferment taste. And they are effervescent. It’s kind of a shocking and unique, but I find pleasant, eating experience.
Decided to stop the ferment on my hot sauce at 8 days. Blended up the solids with about 1/3 to 1/2 of the brine and got 8 canned quarts and 1 quart for the refrigerator. The color isn’t quite as bright as the photo, but the flavor is great. Adding carrot to the ferment added sweetness that the green jalapeno’s lacked.
The pears are rock hard, about 2 to 3 inches. The green apples are pure cardboard. The red-striped are actually pretty good eating, closely resembling a good Jonathan. Overall they have few blemishes, and some are unblemished, although it varies from year to year.
Final product is apple and pear krauts, very good side dish for fatty meat, specially if you are in a no-sugar day, because they bubble furiously and there is little sugar left in the kraut. Ingredients are lemon juice, fruit, water and salt. The pinky hue is a starter from another kraut.
These wild fruits are great for any dish where you don’t want to spend a perfect Northern Spy, and in fact for krauts they are much better than named varieties. I cook them too, with or without cranberries, I put them in green juices to make the juices a bit more palatable, and I flavor kombucha.
I did some whole Jerusalem artichokes this year. Just washed them and put them in a crock with garlic and caraway, then covered with 5% brine. They were done in just under a week. I used a whole head of garlic, which was probably a bit too much for my 2 gallon batch. If I were to do it again, I would probably scale back to a 3 or 4% brine, use less garlic, and add coriander. Maybe add turmeric to liven up the color a bit, as they don’t look particularly impressive…
A few questions about your jerusalem artichokes jcguarneri…I was wondering if the ferment process penetrated the whole artichokes or if larger ones would be better chopped? Also, how do you store them after the ferment, move to the fridge, can them, leave them in the crock? Did the artichokes need peeling after the ferment? I want to try this. I read fermenting was a good way to tame the inulin effect on the gut. Thanks.
