Lacto fermentation

[Gary Knowels]

Do you lactic acid ferment food items? What are your favorite recipes/produce? What setups do you use?

I have been lactofermenting vegetables for as long as I can remember. I grew up spending a lot of time with my very rural, depression era grandfather and a 5 gallon crock full of sauerkraut was always around. Through my childhood, it was essentially only sauerkraut, with the occasional half-sour pickle thrown in. As an adult I've branched out to kimchis and other vegetables, mostly leftover stuff from my garden. Here are a few recent ferments.

Green tomatoes


Chard stems

Fennel

 

[mcswny]

I've done a couple hot sauces, but it's been a minute. I think it was around 4%--does that sound right??
What I do remember is that it was incredible. Lacto fermented hot sauces are so damn good.
It didnt hurt that they were all garden peppers.

I need to get back too it.

 

[Evan B]

I love fermenting some hot sauces with peppers from my garden every year. I do a lot of different sauces that I kind of make up on the fly, and about 1/3 of them are with fermented peppers. Makes quite a different product, and it's quite awesome.

 

[Gary Knowels]

I use between 2-4% salt, usually depending on the temperature of fermentation, but also for flavor. In general warmer temps, more salt, shorter ferment.

I haven't done hot sauce yet because I don't grow peppers, but I plan to next year with farmers market chiles

 

[Gary Knowels]

I love fermenting some hot sauces with peppers from my garden every year. I do a lot of different sauces that I kind of make up on the fly, and about 1/3 of them are with fermented peppers. Makes quite a different product, and it's quite awesome.

View attachment 49905View attachment 49907

How do you like those airlock chambers? I either use my 2 gallon German crock or mason jars with a standard lid on loosely because I haven't invested in more supplies yet (wife my kill me for getting more kitchen toys )

 

[mcswny]

mason jars with a standard lid on loosely because I haven't invested in more supplies yet (wife my kill me for getting more kitchen toys )

i did this the first time I made hot sauce, and after one night, the jar overflowed on a brand new white oak shelf I put up in our kitchen when i remodeld it. The brine oxidized (or some chemical reaction) and theres just a large dark stain in the wood. Learned my lesson: dont fill the jar up to high with a loose lid.

 

[Josh]

How do you like those airlock chambers? I either use my 2 gallon German crock or mason jars with a standard lid on loosely because I haven't invested in more supplies yet (wife my kill me for getting more kitchen toys )

The airlock things are pretty cheap on amazon at this point.

Amazon product ASIN B075LRMRDQ

 

[Evan B]

The airlocks do the job. I'm very familiar with them from my time in the homebrewing world. Honestly, a piece of foil around the jar opening works as well as the positive pressure form the ferment will keep any infections from falling in

 

[Josh]

We've tried a couple of batches of kraut and kimchi. The issue for my house is that I'm on an extremely low sodium diet. So I can't really use salt. Contrary to popular belief, it is possible to ferment without salt. But it's trickier and there is less info out there.

 

[Gary Knowels]

i did this the first time I made hot sauce, and after one night, the jar overflowed on a brand new white oak shelf I put up in our kitchen when i remodeld it. The brine oxidized (or some chemical reaction) and theres just a large dark stain in the wood. Learned my lesson: dont fill the jar up to high with a loose lid.

Been there done that. Everything goes in a second spill catching dish now.

 

[TicTokCroc]

Gonna slide on over here to stop cluttering up the garden thread.

So 3% salt brine, by mass. Would I get my weight of water in grams then add 3% salt in grams? So 100g water 3g salt, etc?

Whole mustard seed, whole coriander, and picking salt are very hard to find in today's modern grocery. Ended up subbing kosher salt after a quick internet search.

 

[TicTokCroc]

I found a brine calculator online, so after a bit more reading I went with a 4% brine since it's 78 degrees where I'm fermenting. Off they go.

 

[Gary Knowels]

@FontinalisFin looking good!

The way I usually go about setting salt % follows:
Place alarge bowl on the scale and tare
Add all vegetable matter and spices, record mass
Multiply that mass by .03 (I always use 3% because that's where my taste buds like it, but I have a relatively cool basement)
Weigh out that much salt

Add salt and vegetable/spice to fermentation container

Make a 3% salt brine following the steps above, but with water instead of veg.
Pour over the veg mix until covering.

Don't worry about the salt in the bottom, it will dissolve and diffuse quickly enough.

 

[TicTokCroc]

@FontinalisFin looking good!

The way I usually go about setting salt % follows:
Place alarge bowl on the scale and tare
Add all vegetable matter and spices, record mass
Multiply that mass by .03 (I always use 3% because that's where my taste buds like it, but I have a relatively cool basement)
Weigh out that much salt

Add salt and vegetable/spice to fermentation container

Make a 3% salt brine following the steps above, but with water instead of veg.
Pour over the veg mix until covering.

Don't worry about the salt in the bottom, it will dissolve and diffuse quickly enough.

Interesting, so you want 3% of everything. Does this have to do with the salt extracting the liquid from the cukes or whatever else your fermenting?

So my 4% brine is probably more like a 2% or 3% brine when it's all finished.

 

[TicTokCroc]

Foaming at the tops, bubbles, overflow, slight cloudiness developing. Everything is staying below the brine though, Good so far?


I seem to be getting about this many new cukes every other day, not quite full bore yet.

Making another batch now, I should of planted more dill.

 

[Jake Watrous]

Do you lactic acid ferment food items? What are your favorite recipes/produce? What setups do you use?

I have been lactofermenting vegetables for as long as I can remember. I grew up spending a lot of time with my very rural, depression era grandfather and a 5 gallon crock full of sauerkraut was always around. Through my childhood, it was essentially only sauerkraut, with the occasional half-sour pickle thrown in. As an adult I've branched out to kimchis and other vegetables, mostly leftover stuff from my garden. Here are a few recent ferments.

Green tomatoes
View attachment 49896View attachment 49897

Chard stems
View attachment 49891View attachment 49895
Fennel
View attachment 49892

Is it hard to learn?

Would love another way to preserve things.

 

[Gary Knowels]

Interesting, so you want 3% of everything. Does this have to do with the salt extracting the liquid from the cukes or whatever else your fermenting?

So my 4% brine is probably more like a 2% or 3% brine when it's all finished.

I want everything to be at 3%. If you don't account for the mass of the veg then your brine percentage drops as salt diffuses into the veg, which can result is spoilage if the salt % is too low (still rather unlikely). No matter what happens the brine percentage stays constant with my method, which is what I want. I also find that finished pickles at 3% are right where my taste buds like it.

 

[Gary Knowels]

Is it hard to learn?

Would love another way to preserve things.

No, it seems intimidating at first, but it's really quite simple.

General tenets:
1. Make sure everything is clean (high heat in dishwasher or a dip and dry in sanitizing solution)
2. Weigh everything carefully
3. Double check your math on your salt addition
4. Try to keep ferments below 75 degrees (moreso quality than safety)

Like flyfishing, there is a lot of variables that one can streamline or obsess over. There are also many different methods and lots of web resources. I'm no expert, but I've done a bit and am happy to answer questions.

 

[Gary Knowels]

Foaming at the tops, bubbles, overflow, slight cloudiness developing. Everything is staying below the brine though, Good so far?
View attachment 75730

I seem to be getting about this many new cukes every other day, not quite full bore yet.
View attachment 75731
Making another batch now, I should of planted more dill.

That's what it should look like! They are super active, probably due to your warmer temps.

 

[TicTokCroc]

That's what it should look like! They are super active, probably due to your warmer temps.

It's between 72-78 night and day in here. Good, I was a bit concerned about the cloudiness. The batch I put up today I weighed out the extra 3% weight of the cukes in salt and added that(I still had brine left over that was 4% so I'll have something in between that). I'm planting cabbage starts now, sauerkraut this fall.