Fermenting Food.

[worth1]

Anybody do a ferment and have it smell like acetone?
I have 3 times.
It's ethyl acetate nail polish remover ingredient.
Salt too low and temperature too high.
Plus other things.
I have read you can fix it with added Salt or lower temperature and it will go away.
Never tried it and it tasted horrible.

[Amateurinawe]

[mention]worth1[/mention] Yes, but are your nails nice and clean now

[karstopography]

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German Texans, the ones that settled central Texas 150 plus years ago, made sauerkraut using the local wild juniper berries. I had to go out and forage for the very last of the crop to get a teaspoon or so for this sauerkraut ferment. One ~2# cabbage cut fresh from the garden was the perfect amount for a quart of thoroughly massaged and tightly packed green cabbage. Two percent brine, 14 grams of sea salt added to 700 grams of chopped and cored cabbage, along with a bit more brine to keep it all covered. House is cool inside now so ought to produce a nice steady ferment. Juniper berries, besides tasting great, are naturally anti-bacterial, but not so much to the lactobacillus types.

[worth1]

How long will it ferment?

I pulled the lid on my habaneros and burned my nose off smelling.

[karstopography]

[mention]worth1[/mention] I just checked the temperature in the house this morning, the kitchen, and it was 58 degrees. That’s on the cool side for these sauerkraut fermentations as I understand things. Things looked a little slow, not a ton of bubbles, but still positive pressure on the lid. Some say 60-65 degrees works bests, others say 65-72. I just turned on the heat to bump the kitchen over 60 degrees. Supposedly, cooler ferments on sauerkraut produce better color and textures, but take a lot longer. My target is 3 weeks or so. I have a pH meter, 3.8 or 3.9 is about right from what I’ve seen.

[worth1]

@worth1 I just checked the temperature in the house this morning, the kitchen, and it was 58 degrees. That’s on the cool side for these sauerkraut fermentations as I understand things. Things looked a little slow, not a ton of bubbles, but still positive pressure on the lid. Some say 60-65 degrees works bests, others say 65-72. I just turned on the heat to bump the kitchen over 60 degrees. Supposedly, cooler ferments on sauerkraut produce better color and textures, but take a lot longer. My target is 3 weeks or so. I have a pH meter, 3.8 or 3.9 is about right from what I’ve seen.

Many of the folks I knew that grew up in Germany did their sauerkraut in a big barrel in the basement.
One woman told me how she would go down from time to time and eat some sauerkraut.
They just left it in the barrel.
If my house is too cold I use a brooder lamp on the crock to warm it up.
Haven't done that in awhile.

[pepperhead212]

Yesterday I used the Instant Pot for fermenting another food - Dosa. This is an Indian flatbread, made with a combination of rice and lentils, which are soaked, then ground to a paste, then thinned to a batter, and fermented. I used the yogurt mode, adjusted to low, which is the lower temp, for fermenting jiu niang, which I found was around 90°. Since dosa is made mostly in southern India, this would probably
be a "cool" room temperature there, and it took a whole day to ferment! I haven't cooked it, yet - I just put it out on my back porch, to cool.

The stuff looks like a sourdough rye sponge, the gray coming from the black skins of the urad dal. Usually, they are split and hulled, but these were the ones that were split, but not hulled.
Dosa, before fermenting. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

After fermenting 24 hours:
Dosa fermenting by pepperhead212, on Flickr

[worth1]

[mention]karstopography[/mention]
How is the sauerkraut coming along?
Is this the first attempt at it and have you had good homemade before?
Can't wait to see how it comes out.

Planning to make habanero sauce this weekend from my fermented habanero peppers.
Maybe depending on how it smells.
Then I will make another batch and just let the fermenting peppers sit for a really good long time.
Maybe 3 months or more.

[karstopography]

[mention]worth1[/mention] I sampled it today. Seems okay, not amazing yet or anything. I had my ph meter and it looked like it was under 4.0, but I was having a little trouble with the meter. Distilled white vinegar I tested it with came in around 2.1 on pH so it shouldn’t be far off. Activity in the fermentation jar has subsided considerably, but not stopped. Texture is nice, not soggy, there’s some nice crunch without tasting raw or rotten or anything negative. I think it needs more time at cool room temperatures to develop more depth of flavor, the flavor didn’t exactly wow me yet, almost like it could have used some salt and little more acidity. 2% by weight sea salt to cabbage weight seems pretty standard for sauerkraut, but I might bump it up next time closer to 3%.

One thing I read was leave this going three or four weeks before sticking in the fridge.

[worth1]

One thing I do with cabbage is let it make its own juice and don't add brine.
My recipe from the sausage maker calls for 1 teaspoon for every pound.
2 tablespoons for 5 pounds and 4 tablespoons for 12 pounds.
If it's fresh cabbage you won't have to worry about liquid.
Cabbage is pounded and packed into the container with my cabbage packers.
One giant one and a little one for jars.

[worth1]

Well I ((was)) going to do my habanero lime hot sauce today but didn't.
Got really lazy and involved in reading a book.
Guess its going to go for at least a month.

[worth1]

Coming up on 5 weeks for my fermenting habaneros.

[worth1]

I just pulled the stems from the habanero peppers and ran the peppers whole in the blender.
While blinding I sprinkled in 1/8th teaspoon of xanthan gum.
Just taste tested the thick pepper mash and it almost killed me.
Good lord it was hot.
While doing this I mixed up 1/2 cup of sugar 1/4 cup lime juice and 1/4 cup of sangria wine.
Heated up till sugar disoved and let cool.
Will add to pepper sauce, taste again and adjust as needed.
Added 1/4 cup more of lime juice and it is spot on.
Made about one quart from what I can tell.
My mouth is really on fire from testing.
This is a rather thick sauce.

[worth1]

Here the devil sauce is.
I'm calling it Sangria Diablo.
Translation in English Devils Blood.

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[worth1]

Now that my taste buds grew back i tested a drop this morning.
Very flavorful right before it burned my taste buds off again.

[worth1]

Cleaning out my refrigerator and I ran across my fermented salted limes.
Plucked one out and sprinkled some sugar on it.
What a tasty treat for the first bite of the day.
Rind and all.
This used to be something all the kids looked forward to in days gone by.

[karstopography]

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Enjoying my beauty berry mead I made last summer. Rather complex. Strong.

[karstopography]

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Got to keep some in the pipeline. This one has self-foraged Linden Flowers, Garden grown Lemon Balm, and Yaupon tea in it. Sage and Orange Blossom Honey. Wish you could smell how delicious the aroma is!

[worth1]

I'm thinking of doing a zipper bag ferment experiment with cabbage.

[karstopography]

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Getting one in the bottle always feels like an accomplishment. This one is somewhere between off dry and semi sweet. Floral. Smooth, especially for being so young.

The other one is a Mustang grape pyment. Excited about this one, tastes vaguely like grape sweet tarts. Not sour, tart, with the unique Mustang grape taste. Hope it finishes and clears up with this taste.