The Fermentation Station - The art of leaving things in a jar for months to make it awesome.

pooey

pooey

pooey

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8 Mar 2004
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London
Love a bit of fermenting.
Probiotic, alcoholic, delicious, all things can be achieved by fermenting.

The thrill of pushing your kombucha carbonation knowing that a misstep will result in a messy explosion in the kitchen at 4am that sounds exactly like someone breaking in through your window.

I'm currently fermenting hot sauces (lacto ferment) only after an unsurprising kombucha mishap resulted in carbonation fermentations getting banned by the Mrs for now. Anyone else love a ferment?
 
Here's a lacto hotsauce, 7 days in.
Garlic, Sugar Rush chilli, Ghost pepper, Padron, bell pepper, 2% brine. Currently sitting at pH 4. There's a compound in garlic that reacts and turns blue in acidic conditions for those alarmed

20210206-144926.jpg
 
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My ex and I used to brew Kombucha, which turned oout great. I really need to grow some myself.

I tried Tepache (fermented pineapple skin in sugar water) over Christmas; not bad but not sure I made it right or if I'll do it again.
 
I do love a kombucha. I was surprised at how alcoholic the mother solution can get after a few repeated batches. I got 20% on a refractometer on my last batch before adding fruit and carbonating, i recon if it didn't explode it would have been 25%+
 
Kicking off a garlic honey ferment today.

1. Get some honey (raw honey if you can)
2. Get some garlic
3. Combine in a jar, airtight is fine if you burp it daily
4. Leave for a while.
5. Enjoy!
 
I have two jars of kimchi in the fridge. At least two years old. I'm afraid to open them incase I lose an eye. Neither have any visible mold, so they're probably edible. They've ominously darkened though...I just don't find myself using it as my wife is a Korma lass.

I also have a big ol' jar of preserved lemons. These motherheckers have been in the jar at room temp for about 6 years. The smell is gorgeous, like Fairycello.
 
Not very new age and healthy, I've got a spiced apple cider on the brew, will be starting a ginger beer this weekend and running batches overlapping, bottling/pasturising is such a pain. Plan is to have a few cases of 500ml bottles ready for summer BBQ season. Always nicer when it's home brewed and the sun's shining :cool:
 
Illgresi said:
just don't find myself using it as my wife is a Korma lass.
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I also have some homemade kimchi in the fridge that will never get eaten because my other half doesn't like it :p It getting to the stage where we'll have to do separate meals lol..

I made some sauerkraut today as we had some leftover white cabbage. Probably another thing my other half won't eat! Does it go with hot dogs? Not sure actually what to have it with.
 
krooton said:
Makes no difference to me, any type of sausage in bread combo and I am all about the kraut + mild mustard, NOM!
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I agree :D Pity my other half has an aversion to anything bread-related. I'd say 4 out of my 5 types of favourite foods are sandwich/burrito/wrap related :p
 
pooey said:
Kicking off a garlic honey ferment today.

1. Get some honey (raw honey if you can)
2. Get some garlic
3. Combine in a jar, airtight is fine if you burp it daily
4. Leave for a while.
5. Enjoy!
Click to expand...

I promise this isn;t meant to sound as dumb as it is, but what does that taste like? Is it sweeter or spicy / acrid?
 
Nice, there was a good article on Serious Eats recently about fermenting hot sauces.

I usually have a jar of simple lacto-fermented carrots & jalapenos on the go, good for snacking, on top of tacos etc. Will probably do some hot sauces this year too!

@Illgresi - give that kimchi another 3-4 years and it should be perfect :D
 
Scam said:
I also have some homemade kimchi in the fridge that will never get eaten because my other half doesn't like it :p It getting to the stage where we'll have to do separate meals lol..

I made some sauerkraut today as we had some leftover white cabbage. Probably another thing my other half won't eat! Does it go with hot dogs? Not sure actually what to have it with.
Click to expand...

Mine won't try anything that I've fermented, thinks it's gross. I've tried explaining the tea, chocolate, yoghurt plus about a million other common foods are all fermented, to no avail.

Rich_L said:
Nice, there was a good article on Serious Eats recently about fermenting hot sauces.

I usually have a jar of simple lacto-fermented carrots & jalapenos on the go, good for snacking, on top of tacos etc. Will probably do some hot sauces this year too!

@Illgresi - give that kimchi another 3-4 years and it should be perfect :D
Click to expand...

If it doesn't kill me now, I don't suppose it ever will!
 
SPG said:
Would love to have a go, no idea where to start for something safe and simple.
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Sauerkraut is probably the way to go. Pick up some kilner jars (0.5L ones are a convenient size but you can go for any size you wish), and an airlock lid.

1. Sterilise the jar. I usually stick it in the dishwasher, and once it is done I fill it with boiling water and let it sit for a few mins, then empty and let it cool.
2. Slice up a medium cabbage (I can cram a medium cabbage into a 0.5L jar) removing the loose outer leaves first. I prefer savoy sliced fairly thin (say 5mm) and stick it in a bowl on a set of scales.
3. Add 2% by weight of good salt (think Maldon,sel gris, himalayan pink salt etc)
4. Mix the salt in thoroughly and give the cabbage a bit of a crush. I like to add caraway seeds, say 1 tsp.
5. After 10 mins, give it another mix and crush, then leave for another 30 mins to an hour depending on how much patience you have.
6. Pop the cabbage in a jar, give it a good squish down, and make sure there's plenty of cabbage juice to cover, but leave a bit of headroom as it will bubble up.
7. Stick the jar in a tray on the counter and leave for 3 to 5 days. Taste it every day with a clean fork, and stop the fermentation when it is to your liking by putting on a sealing lid and sticking it in the fridge.

You're looking for it to be a bit salty, a bit sour, and a bit funky.

As long as you're clean and you add the right amount of salt, it literally can't go wrong. The salt and the acidity prevent anything dangerous growing. This will work for most vegetables (fennel is excellent but you'll need to add a bit of onion to get it going, I like to add strips of orange zest as well).
 
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