The YouTube videos on fermented food laud this as the new health awareness thing. Seems humans evolved with fermented foods and then with the invention of refrigeration BLAM! Every thing changed in very big ways, mostly good, but not entirely. Now, along with the rise of antibiotics we no longer have the good bacteria cultures within our bodies balanced as they used to be. People are claiming a whole range of noticeable heath benefits including improved energy and gastrointestinal improvement. They get hooked. This is the sour flavor our ancestors knew, soured by fermentation, not by vinegar.
It only takes four day. What the heck. We'll see for ourselves.
2 comments:
I look forward to your results and comments. I got a Mortier Pilon fermentation pot for Christmas but I tried it a few times and all I got was stinky mush.
Mush.
Hmmmm.
I wonder what went wrong.
I know so little. All that I think that I know comes from watching YouTube videos.
If you were making pickles from cucumbers, the videos said that cucumbers have an enzyme at their tip that causes them to turn to mush so that the seeds have something soft to help them grow. So cut off the tips.
They also say add a few bay leaves for its tannin to help them stay crunchy.
They also say a rather coolish room temperature is best. Too cool and the process is too slow, and if it's too warm then it goes way too fast and that invites all kinds of problems like yeast and the wrong bacteria.
65℉ - 78℉ for four days. Then check if you like what you see and taste.
The process is anaerobic so everything MUST be underneath the liquid. Anything above the liquid invites deterioration and that's why they use weights. Most videos show a sandwich bag filled with water to act as weight to push everything under the water.
These jars get narrow near the top so everything is pressed in there real tight underneath the liquid.
Finally, they do notice yeast growth at the surface that they remove by skimming.
Then refrigerate to retard the process drastically. Or else it will keep right on fermenting until there is nothing left for the bacteria to act on. This is usually four days, but as many as seven days.
Maybe your room was too warm.
Maybe you went too long.
Maybe it wasn't entirely under the liquid.
Maybe your water had chlorine that prevented the lacto-bacteria to grow properly and other bacteria took advantage.
I just now read reviews on amazon for your Mortier Pilon. People complained about not having all of the parts (the weight, and some kind of pencil) and they complain about the glass cracking and breaking too easily.
Something like it all turning to mush could put a guy off the idea permanently. I hope you didn't give up.
I recommend watching a few YouTube videos, if you haven't already. People are really enthusiastic about this.
I've never liked sauerkraut, but I've only had the vinegar kind. And I don't like dill pickles because I don't like vinegar water and dill. I do like bread and butter pickles but they're a bit overly sweet. Surely there's something in between. I'm hoping the sauerkraut is appealing and I'm daring myself to make pickles that I like better than the ones I can buy. It's all an experiment. What the heck.
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