I made this Kimchi last month. Holy cow it was good. A little saucier than normal due to the increased amount of Korean pepper flakes.
I plan to make red cabbage kraut tomorrow.
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You guys are talking about pickling and fermenting. This reminds me of the best krauts I had in Berlin, in a small restaurant, a type of grandma’s kitchen. It served best red cabbage krauts with fried pig shank. I think I might want to try to make a batch of krauts that I hope to match that flavor.
Friend of mine gave me a duck receip that calls for pickled lime. so I have a jar of pickled limes as well as a jar of salted lemons in kitchen prepared .
Instead of making kimchi, another friend of mine who is from northern part of China, told me how to make pickled sour napa cabbag. This was a larger size napa cabbage, now only less than half the volume after two weeks
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lots of krauts love here. I scheduled to make a red cabbage kraut and an orange beet kraut, tonight, I will post them. I like them young, so small jars, and they will be gone in 10 days tops.
toss some cucumbers and radishes in there… I hear apples can be good too…
Did not have any cukes on hand but there is raddish and a small amount of carrot. 
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By now I got some hang of the effect of extra ingredients in krauts. The traditional vegetables (cabbage, plus carrots, beets, turnips, and radish) are fine. Apples and oranges are fine. Other things (turmeric, garlic, cranberry, ginger) IMHO slow down the ferment, often considerably. It has to be, I guess, with the anti-bacterial properties of these herbs.
Anyhow here is a couple of pics. I got home to find almost no beets, so no beet krauts until saturday. I also wanted to finish half a white cabbage, so no red kraut either! But I get to show off my pineapple kvass almost ready for bottling and in the same vessel a beet-pineapple kvass moments after bottling (the mix due to the lack of beets, but it is good I swear).
Note on pineapples: except for the leaves, I really use the whole fruit. the pulp is the edible part of course. The skins make a tart, digestion-helping kvass. And, an indian friend who is also a naturopath told me that the precious protease enzymes are particularly concentrated in the core, which is usually discarded. I freeze it in plastic containers, then juice it with other things. I sure digest everything well with the kvass or the juice! here the two pics (beet kvass also has the white kraut):
I read more of the history / origin of the kraut. It’s said the original kraut was made with rice wine 200+ years BC in China. I am tempted to try making a batch of rice wine kraut to compare the flavor of modern kraut. I’m wondering if anyone here had tried making rice wine kraut and has any tips to share before I start.
I have no experience, but I have eaten a lot of acetic fermented veggies (specially in Italy) and lactic fermented veggies. I am all lactic now, no comparison, IMHO.
Kvass, this is new to me. I used to make /drink Kombocha. What does this beverage taste like?
beet kvass is a traditional russian drink. It does have some complexity, and the sweetness of the beets is fairly balanced by the tartness of the ferment. Like all ferments it will have lowered sugar and increased vitamins, and you can give it a little sparkle by bottling and leaving the bottle outside the fridge for a day, but IMO the reason why I like it so much is that a drink with a bit of salt in it (difficult to taste) hydrates you better.
It certainly tastes very refreshing. You may have noticed from the pics that I start my kvass ferments in a bit of water, then add the rest of the water after the ferment is going. It cuts down on the salt, I do think salt is good for you, but with all these fermented things I am getting my share.
Interesting beverage. I might try to make a batch of beet kvass when I get some beets
I did a couple batches of fermented tomato juice this year. I got behind this summer on tomato processing so I just put them in the freezer as they ripened. Processed two big batches of frozen tomatoes over Christmas for canned tomato sauce. As the tomatoes thaw, the cells burst and they expel a large quantity of watery liquid, which turns out to contain a lot of the tomatoes’ sugar. Separated that off to ferment and processed the rest into canned tomato sauce.
Inoculated the liquid with a tablespoon of sauerkraut brine and let ‘er rip. It’s absolutely delicious. Nice tomatoey flavor, tangy and effervescent. And better than boiling all that fluid off while processing the tomato sauce!
A heaping 20 quart stock pot full of frozen tomatoes yielded about 6 quarts of fermented juice and 3 quarts of tomatoe sauce.
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I am inspired by all your posts. I went to grocery store today and bought a head of red cabbage for making red cabbage sauerkraut, and few pounds of beets for trying beet Kvass.Here is the red cabbage with apple sauerkraut.
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any time I ferment pickles they go soft. Is that a cultivar issue or what? Anyone able to keep them crisp?
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I am no expert but to keep crisp people often add some alum, or a couple cherry leaves per jar (i assume tannins?) to help retain crunch…i added some Chokecherry leaves and it seem to help with one batch but that was a while ago
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Here is the beets kvass. Red cabbage sauerkraut I used rice wine as a starter. The beets kvass I used sour napa cabbage juice as a starter to cut down the salt. Will see how well this work.
red cabbage and apple, and beets and oranges, are my favorites. for the kvass any of the recipes on the web will work. Put more beets and ferment it longer if you want a tonic, less beets and shorter ferment for a thirst-quenching drink.
also oak leaves, or grape leaves.
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