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Fermenting veggies - questions!

576 views 3 replies 4 participants last post by  tanyalynn 
#1 ·
I was thinking of starting my journey into ferments with the fermented carrots from NT. A few questions:
  • Are they yummy?

  • The only whey-like substance I have at the moment is the watery stuff from packet "home-made" yoghurt. Would that work, or should I just use the larger amount of salt instead?
  • I use Himalayan Crystal Salt, which has rather large crystals (I swear they're bigger than they used to be!). Will they be OK or should I grind them up?
  • Is this an OK recipe to start with, or would I do better with sauerkraut or something?
Thanks!
 
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#2 ·
The recipe is a fundamentally flawed recipe. If you adapt it, it should taste great.

It has WAY WAY too much salt. I used the salt amount for not using whey, even though I didn't use whey, the first time I did it, and it was way too salty.

I'd cut the salt again (to taste, it should taste saltier than you want to eat, but still edible when you set them to ferment. the recipe makes them unedibly salty), and not use whey. really, there is no need. Salt keeps the bad bacteria at bay until enough lactobacteria build up. also, it will take much longer than 3 days to ferment, unless it's like... 100 degrees all the time, and then it still might. I'd start checking it by tasting it, and seeing when you like it, after about a week or two.

The salt should be fine coarse. I use coarse celtic sea salt, which has quite big crystals and I don't grind them up. They'll be sitting in brine for 4 weeks (for kraut. carrots may be less. they are DEFINITELY longer than the three days the recipes calls for though, fyi.)

If you feel comfortable adapting the recipe to make it work the first time, by all means, give it a try. If not, try a sourkraut from sandor katz website. His fermentation recipes are much better.
 
#3 ·
If you can get a hold of Wild Fermentation, do it, it's a great read. Katz does a great job of making you feel comfortable with fermenting things. His style seems to be a little of this, a little of that, know what to look for and go for it. Which is how I ferment my veggies - very experimentally. Ginger and carrots fermented together are amazing! But I don't use SF's recipe. I kind of modified Katz's pickle recipe (using the brine concentration he calls for) and make carrot spears instead of shredding. It's less labor intensive and my kids are more inclined to eat things in spears than grated.

But once you get going, you won't want to stop trying new options. I've only ever fermented with salt, I wouldn't worry about the whey for ginger carrots.
 
#4 ·
There's a lot of really helpful, practical discussion in this thread....

http://mothering.com/discussions/sho...d.php?t=426207

I do whey-less as well, and overall, salt amounts are much more flexible than NT suggests, for that particular recipe I used that thread to help me.

We love the NT kimchee recipe the best, Sandor Katz's dill pickle recipe is also great (available online at wildfermentation.com).
 
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