The Art of Fermentation

[JakeAndBake]

I'm sure if the crew had tried my last 2, I would have been 4 for 5.

We had the last two off the air, and you were indeed 4 for 5. That was some mighty tasty kraut.

This quote, plus your forum avatar = I lol'd.

[Dirk McLargeHuge]

A crocheted afghan for the canner of the week!

Is believe it's pronounced 'ass-ghan'.

ass-ghan = a crocheted banana hammock = very comfortable, breathable, and absorbent.

There. Fixed it for you.

[spiderwrangler]

Not "Marble Pouch"?

[Protesto]

I like "Marble Pouch". You have my vote spider

[Ozwald]

I just marble pouched... I mean jarred my 2nd batch of kraut. Hot damn! The first batch was good but really salty (that's what she said), but I'm pretty sensitive to sodium. I just gave it a little rinse before adding it into my Kraut-titos (my version of a burrito plus kraut). This batch is delicious right out of the Cambro. Sour with just a touch of sweetness, crunchy & complex. 2 heads of green cabbage, 2 Braeburn apples & a handful or 2 of carrots. Fermented 20 days. It made about 5 liters of densely packed goodness. Thanks BN, I really needed something else to geek out about

[mordantly]

thats it... im making some this weekend!

[Ozwald]

My first batch (which was about half) had a pear in it. I think for my next batch I'm going to do the same as the 2nd batch but put the pear back in & probably up it to about 2-3 pears. Try it, pear or not. For the carrot I was just eye balling it, making it look roughly the same as coleslaw, colorwise. The other thing I learned was treat it like a batch of homebrew. I made mine in restaurant-grade Cambro's, but I think I'm just going to up it to a brew bucket. StarSan the shit out of it & you get a nice healthy fermentation that doesn't make you worry about contaminating everything in a 50' radius.

[screw and brew]

Ozwald - if your kraut is turning out too salty try weighing your ingredients and only add 2-3% of that weight in salt. You don't really need a whole lot to create conditions for the native lacto bug to get happy.

Fermenting in a brew bucket is a good idea - I think I'm going to do that with my next big batch. The only thing I worry about is all the oxygen in the head space of the bucket (unless you're doing a really big batch) which can invite some nasty molds. If you can I'd purge the kraut with some CO2.

Also for kraut you don't even have to worry about sanitizing. Also long as the bucket is clean nothing undesirable is going to be able to survive in the environment created by the lacto. I read about a study where scientists intentionally introduced a small amount of the botulism bacteria into naturally fermented kraut or pickles - the botulism didn't go away but it couldn't grow either. I would only worry about sanitizing if you are going from kraut to beer.

I never thought about pears in kraut. Don't they get kind of mushy?