Fermenting Food.

[worth1]

Saturday will be 6 days and I'll probably test the pickles tonight after work.
No telling how they'll turn out because they've been in 75 degree heat in the day and 70 at night.

[ddsack]

How did they taste? Ferment should have gone fast at those temps.

I now have enough cukes from my potted greenhouse plants to ferment a small batch. Can't keep up with eating them. Two pots, two plants in each pot. Iznik and Picolino Hyb varieties bear really fast. Volunteer dill seedlings all over the garden, still small, but can use the whole plant. I like fresh dill better than dry dill seed.

[worth1]

How did they taste? Ferment should have gone fast at those temps.

I now have enough cukes from my potted greenhouse plants to ferment a small batch. Can't keep up with eating them. Two pots, two plants in each pot. Iznik and Picolino Hyb varieties bear really fast. Volunteer dill seedlings all over the garden, still small, but can use the whole plant. I like fresh dill better than dry dill seed.

I haven't tried them yet.
I will try today.

[worth1]

Tested one of the pickles yesterday.
A total failure.
Very acidic.
Taste was there but way mushy.
A combination of things did this.
One way to hot in the house.
Two I used sink water but I boiled it first and let it cool down.
My water is frigging loaded with calcium chlorine and lord only knows what and I have no idea if it effected it.
I don't think the boiling got all the chlorine out.
The smell was off too.
Three I'm pretty sure they were slicing cucumbers like marketmore 76 or straight 8 not pickling cucumbers.
I can't find pickling cucumbers in the store anymore.
Those pickles were probably ready in 2 or at the most 3 days.
Off to the trash heap.

[ddsack]

Sorry the batch failed. Mine rarely turn out the same way twice. Some good, some meh, some NOPE! I wish I had a source of good water. We have a private well that is very hard water. It looks clear when it comes out of the outdoor faucet, but after sitting for a few hours turns cloudy, and then a day later is clear with a rust precipitate in the container. We need a high power water softener with pre-filter to keep all our bathroom fixtures from turning rusty. I use the softened water for my ferments figuring that that extra salt should not affect much. My son has much better well water and does not use a water softener. I did bring over a gallon of his water one time, but I changed up some of the added spices, so too many variable to say that my results were different.

[worth1]

No worries @ddsack
I normally use RO water but didn't this time.
Plus the heat.
And probably the cucumber selection.
A couple of times they smelled like acetone which is another natural occurrence at times.

[maxjohnson]

First time making fermented chili sauce. Bought these fermenting jar lids on amazon.

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Harvested tabasco and habanero pepper from the garden. Ran them through the food processor along with 3% salt added by weight. They've been fermenting for 5 weeks at around 65-70*F. About every 2-3 days I came by and swirl the jar a bit to let the stuff mix.

The tabasco had enough juice of their own, so I didn't needed to do anything. The habaneros after 3 weeks I realized it was just too dry so I added a bit more filtered water and salt.

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Ran them through the blender today, added a small amount of my own pickling vinegar. Tested ph was around 3.5.

Not sure how people go about it, but since they are raw and continuing to ferment, to avoid explosion I reuse these super market bottles that uses flip top caps, and for the bottles with twisted caps I added a layer of rubber band so I don't over tighten it.

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The smell of these are amazing. The fermented tabasco is absolutely delicious, not too spicy, very citrusy and complex. The best hot sauce I've tasted. The fermented habanero smells very fruity and tropical, but still stings your tongue a lot, a bit too hot for me.

[worth1]

I have yet to have anything explode from fermenting.
Many times I just let the gas pressure off a little every day but not all.
Fermented sauce is way more flavorful than vinegar based sauce.
Imagine sauerkraut made without fermenting and just adding vinegar and salt.

[worth1]

I've got a quart of carrot sticks in a quart jar.
I went with about 17 grams of canning salt in 16 ounces of water.
That's a little over 3% salt solution it doesn't have to be exact.

[worth1]

I forgot to mention that I made a purple color by mixing blue food color with red food color.
Possibly fermented purple carrots for Halloween.
Next I have some sweet potatoes that I'm going to ferment.
I've done those before.