Rosalind
Deeply Rooted
I would like to have pickles and sauerkraut that are actually crisp this year, so I'm researching various pickling methods. I have lots of cukes at the moment. If I screw up a bit, that's OK. I still have pickles from last year, because by December all the pickles have turned into dill-flavored mush and no one wants to eat them unless they are cut up in egg salad.
I want to try lacto-fermentation, except I am a bit nervous about the concept. My kitchen has quite a lot of centuries-old dust, for all I know there's anthrax floating around, waiting for a pickle to land on and kill us all. I'd feel a bit better about it if there were starter cultures involved, and I read that you can put whey leftover from cheesemaking in there to get started. I make mozzarella, so whey starter is not a problem. Would yogurt or cultured buttermilk work too? They've got lactobacilli in them for sure.
I tried to do sauerkraut last year with a bit of lacto-fermented sauerkraut from Whole Paycheck as a starter culture, but it didn't work too well. Never got very sour. Will try it again this year if I can keep the groundhog out of the cabbages, I think maybe my brine recipe was too strong or had the word "tbsp" where they meant "tsp".
My grandmother the germophobe is no help. I asked her how she kept pickles crisp, and she said she didn't, she just let them go mushy and yelled at anyone who complained.
Has anyone tried lacto-fermentation? How did it work out? Can you pack the stuff into jars when you're done and just sort of loosely cover it? I kinda need my bowls and crocks and whatnot for other stuff...
I want to try lacto-fermentation, except I am a bit nervous about the concept. My kitchen has quite a lot of centuries-old dust, for all I know there's anthrax floating around, waiting for a pickle to land on and kill us all. I'd feel a bit better about it if there were starter cultures involved, and I read that you can put whey leftover from cheesemaking in there to get started. I make mozzarella, so whey starter is not a problem. Would yogurt or cultured buttermilk work too? They've got lactobacilli in them for sure.
I tried to do sauerkraut last year with a bit of lacto-fermented sauerkraut from Whole Paycheck as a starter culture, but it didn't work too well. Never got very sour. Will try it again this year if I can keep the groundhog out of the cabbages, I think maybe my brine recipe was too strong or had the word "tbsp" where they meant "tsp".
My grandmother the germophobe is no help. I asked her how she kept pickles crisp, and she said she didn't, she just let them go mushy and yelled at anyone who complained.
Has anyone tried lacto-fermentation? How did it work out? Can you pack the stuff into jars when you're done and just sort of loosely cover it? I kinda need my bowls and crocks and whatnot for other stuff...