New Food Project: Fermenting!

This will be short and sweet (actually a bit sour, haha)! I have been researching making fermented food for a few months, and I finally just did it.

About six weeks ago, I bought wide-mouth quart-size canning jars with standard lids, specialty fermenting lids, and glass weights. The fermenting lids are very sturdy, with a number-dial to remind you of the date you started the fermentation. The glass weights are designed to fit perfectly through the wide-mouth jars, and they are heavy enough to apply sufficient pressure to your fermenting foods.

I had already gathered several recipes, some of which came packaged with the fermenting lids, and I shopped for high quality, non-GMO, pesticide-free vegetables, most of which came from our local farmers market.

My biggest concern with fermenting was always about the massive amount of NaCl (salt) that every recipe on the internet calls for. There are even "professional" fermenting websites which claim that the extreme amount of salt is "absolutely required" for fermentation. They're talking about 1-2 TABLESPOONS per quart! I worried about this claim. If you haven't heard, eating heavily salted foods and beverages wreaks havoc on the body, weakening the arteries and heart, and creating an environment that invites disease. With that real scientific knowledge, we don't add salt to any food, and we limit the amount of processed foods that contain excessive sodium that comes from mined NaCL. So I wondered if our "salt substitute," Bragg's Liquid Amino Acids, would work in fermentation . . . .

Bragg's Liquid Aminos All Purpose Seasoning is made from non-GMO soybeans — edible food grown naturally ON the earth — and it contains 350mg of Sodium per teaspoon. Table salt — which comes from crystals mined FROM INSIDE the earth — contains 2,300mg of Sodium per teaspoon!

I asked a well-researched, intuitive, plant-friendly "friend," Frank GL from South Africa, if he thought that the Bragg's might work. Since he regularly ferments foods, he suggested that I give it a go.

So I put together my first ferment — a decidedly non-traditional Kimchi — on February 5. Since it is still fermenting, I will write about it in a separate post!

I made my second ferment the next day, February 6. It's like commercially produced "Gardiniera," but of course it is truly healthful, because it's made in my kitchen of love & life, with less salt and the best ingredients I could source.

I chopped cauliflower, red bell pepper, red onion, carrots, and garlic, then sliced and seeded jalapeño peppers. Then I packed the vegetables in layers into the fermenting jar, pressing down repeatedly to kind of "crush" the vegetables in order to maximize the amount in the jar, while leaving room for the expected expansion of fermentation. Yeah, my little fist fit into the jar and pretty much did the job! (Alternatively, you could use a wooden spoon or other similar tool, OR you could crush the vegetables in a flat glass dish. Same result.) Then, in a big glass bowl, I blended a water-and-Bragg's "broth" — roughly 2-3 cups of water and 1-2 Tablespoons of Bragg's — and then poured the liquid into the jar, leaving some room for expansion. I placed a glass weight on top to keep the veggies under the liquid.

I put the jar on a tray and set it on the floor inside a closet to maintain a fairly consistent temperature. The recipe said to wait 5-10 days for complete fermentation, then to remove the fermentation lid, replacing it with a standard canning jar lid, and to refrigerate the jar.

I waited 7 days for my fermentation. Then I refrigerated the jar for a few days before taste-testing the contents. Wow! This was the best "Gardiniera" I have ever tasted. Like most other homemade food, it is world's apart from any commercially produced food, fermented or not. Ron absolutely loved the taste of the jalapeño slices, which I sequestered just for him.

I chopped about 1.5 cups of the mixed veggies into two entrée-size dinner salads of raw spinach, red onion, tomato, and cauliflower. The flavor enhancement from my homemade fermented vegetable medley was delightful.

Thanks again to Frank for the tips and encouragement! I might never have used those jars, lids, and glass weights if I hadn't questioned the "science™®©℗" of fermenting and asked you for your advice.

I will keep you all apprised of my "kimchi" ferment after I do the official test!

Sharine.