Kimchi And Fermented Vegetables How To And Why

Discussion in 'Let Food Be Your Medicine' started by Aerianne, Aug 11, 2015.

  1. Aerianne

    Aerianne Lifetime Supporter Lifetime Supporter

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    There are

    cucumbers and onions;
    cucumbers and garlic;
    green beans and garlic;
    turnips, radishes and garlic;
    carrots and ginger.

    11 jars in all.
     
  2. Pieceofmyheart

    Pieceofmyheart Grumpy old bitch HipForums Supporter

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    Too much sugar maybe? Yes, candida can cause dry mouth, and dry mouth can cause tooth decay. Have you tried rinsing with diluted ACV?
     
  3. Lucy Goosey

    Lucy Goosey Member

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    Nice! You mentioned purchasing some jars. What kind did you buy?


    I like this idea. I won't use this exact recipe, but I'll definitely add fermented vegetables with the bit of fermented liquid to my next potato salad.

    http://www.farmcurious.com/potatosaladrecipe/
     
  4. Aerianne

    Aerianne Lifetime Supporter Lifetime Supporter

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    I bought a set of 2 qt. mason jars. I have pint sized and some odd food jars too.

    I'll have a look at that recipe because I love potato salad.
     
  5. Lucy Goosey

    Lucy Goosey Member

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    So it's 11 2-quart jars... good going! I'll eventually get some too. And the pint sized. I was lucky to get a dozen of the litre (quart) sized at a quarter of the price.

    I made the potato salad and just had it for dinner. You have to try it. I wasn't sure if I'd like the tang. I do! I just kept it simple and chopped up a few of the fermented veggies and added a bit of the liquid along with mayonnaise. I posted more in the cooking thread.
     
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  6. Aerianne

    Aerianne Lifetime Supporter Lifetime Supporter

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    My bad. They are quart jars. I got nine.

    Last night I made 6 qts. and 4 pints and some random jar.
     
  7. Lucy Goosey

    Lucy Goosey Member

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    Do you still have room to walk around the house? :-D
     
  8. Aerianne

    Aerianne Lifetime Supporter Lifetime Supporter

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    Most of the new jars will go to the refrigerator today. The carrots and green beans might need to stay out a little longer.
     
  9. Aerianne

    Aerianne Lifetime Supporter Lifetime Supporter

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    One of my jars, still outside of the refrigerator, has some kind of while particles around the top of the brine.

    What is it?
     
  10. expanse

    expanse Supporters HipForums Supporter

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    It could be yeast or mold, or even oxidation. I just looked up a bit about surface growth. It seems that although it should be removed, it shouldn't be cause for alarm. It sounds like it's best to get a stainless steel spoon, and skim off as much as you can.

    Air locks are supposed to be the best way to keep contamination out. I've had pretty good luck with mine.
     
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  11. expanse

    expanse Supporters HipForums Supporter

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    I get the plastic, wide mouth lids at walmart, and drill 1/2 inch holes in the lids. It's best to start out with a 1/8 inch pilot, the a 1/4, then 1/2. Set it top-down against a piece of scrap wood to drill, or it will tear the lid up .
    [​IMG]

    Then put a rubber grommet in the hole (you can get these from lowes, home Depot, or another hardware store).
    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    Then...
     
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  12. expanse

    expanse Supporters HipForums Supporter

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    Put your air lock in (from a liquor store, or somewhere that sells beer and wine making supplies).
    [​IMG]
     
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  13. Lucy Goosey

    Lucy Goosey Member

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  14. Lucy Goosey

    Lucy Goosey Member

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    More fermenting today. I found a recipe that everyone was raving about with beets, carrots, basil, dill and garlic so I made a jar of that. And a jar of cukes. The mini cukes didn't look very fresh, so I bought a couple of cucumbers and quartered them. Along with pickling spices, I used bay leaf, fresh dill and tarragon, and garlic. The jar in the middle is a melée of vegetables. Cauliflower, asparagus, rutabaga, sweet potato, carrots, green and yellow zucchini, Thai Chili pepper, garlic and a couple of fresh herbs… rosemary and thyme. Everything but the kitchen sink!

    [​IMG]
     
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  15. Aerianne

    Aerianne Lifetime Supporter Lifetime Supporter

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    I've found that you have to be careful when making mixed jars due to the hardness of the veggies.

    A jar with something like carrots doesn't go well with something soft like cucumbers. If you wait until the carrots seem done, then the cucumbers seem like mush.
     
  16. Lucy Goosey

    Lucy Goosey Member

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    As you go along, you discover which vegetables mix well together. Most of those are hard veggies. The only one I'm hesitant about is the asparagus. I actually put them in for a little experiment. I find with the airlocks, and with the slow ferment procedure, the veggies tend to stay crisper than when I used regular lids and fermented the jars at room temperature. I'll let you know how they turn out. The only thing I don't mix is cucumbers. I like them done very lightly. Not as many probiotics in them because I only ferment them for a few days (most jars I leave for several weeks), but the dill cukes are more for taste than health for me. I did find that zucchini tends to soften quicker, but I adjusted by cutting the pieces a lot bigger than I originally did and it seems to have worked. I only started the cooler, slower fermenting this summer. In the winter the cool room will be a lot colder so I'm not sure how that will work. I may have to put the jars in the kitchen again for the winter.
     
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  17. Lucy Goosey

    Lucy Goosey Member

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    I wanted to show you how my jars look fermenting. I took a closeup and left the pic bigger. See the slight CO2 bubbles at the top? They're not visibly bubbling, I just see the formation of the bubbles. They eventually disappear as the gas leaves the jar. And you see cloudiness starting to form at the bottom (the shapes towards the bottom aren't bubbles, that's just a pattern on the jar). That's how it looks at a slower fermenting at a cooler temperature. You don't get the strong bubbling like in a faster warmer ferment. So it takes longer, but is supposed to render more good bacteria and different strains of it, the longer you leave it.


    [​IMG]
     
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  18. Aerianne

    Aerianne Lifetime Supporter Lifetime Supporter

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    What's the temperature where you have them fermenting?
     
  19. Lucy Goosey

    Lucy Goosey Member

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    There's no thermometer in the room but I'd guess it's between 15 and 20C (approx. 60 to 70F) in the summer, depending how hot it is outside.
     
  20. Lucy Goosey

    Lucy Goosey Member

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    Oh I forgot to mention I put together a jar of sauerkraut today. I made it more the traditional way. I usually chop the cabbage then just pour a brine solution over it but today I grated it and massaged salt into it to release the juices. I left it for about an hour then massaged again. It made a lot of liquid! I packed the whole head of lettuce into one 1-litre (quart) jar all in its own juice! I didn't need extra brine at all, in fact there was liquid left over. I threw in a couple of cloves of garlic. I didn't bother with a pic, it was in a purple tinted jar so you couldn't see the contents. It will be interesting to see how it turns out in comparison to the way I usually make it.
     

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