Ask me a question below about fermentation.
Do you have a problem with your ferment? Is there something you want to try but don’t know how? Do you need some ideas?
Ask me right now. Keep it to 1-2 questions per comment.
This Q&A will close 48 hours from publishing.
Go ahead. I’m ready to answer.
Hello, thanks for taking questions. I am new to fermenting. This month, for the first time, I tried fermenting cucumbers following a fermentation recipe for a “bread and butter” type. It included a bit of honey. I may have done something wrong although I was so careful to follow the instructions carefully. While the results have a nice crisp texture, the cucumber chips are not as sweet as the usual b&b pickles. I would like to try again. Do you have a fermentation recipe for bread and butter chips that you recommend? Not a big fan of dill…
Welcome to the fermenting community! I always recommend starting with traditional and simple recipes before experimenting with different flavors. You can start by making pickles with just cucumbers and brine (water + salt):
Ingredients: 6-8 cucumbers; 1 tablespoon sea salt, Himalayan pink salt or kosher salt and 1/2 quart water
Equipment: 1 quart glass jar with lid
Boil water for the brine. You will need approx 1/2 quart of water depending on the size of your cucumbers.
Trim off both ends of cucumbers. This will keep them crunchy and allow to fit as many as you can into the jar. Leave an inch between the top of the jar and the brine.
Make the brine. Dissolve salt in hot water, let it cool down on the room temperature then pour it into the jar.
Submerge the cucumbers. Ensure cucumbers are submerged below the brine and are tightly placed so they don’t float above the brine.
Cover the jar. Place the lid on the jar.
Let it ferment. Leave the jar at room temperature away from sunlight anywhere from 2 to 5 days. After a couple of days, you’ll see the color changing and the brine will turn a little cloudy. Don’t worry, that is expected.
In this recipe, brine which is salt to water ratio is around 3 percent. However, you can go a bit higher if you like, up to 5 percent. You can calculate the ratio using brine calculator. These pickles won’t be sweet but they will be delicious and crunchy. Happy pickling!
I started brewing kombucha and my scoby is floating at the bottom of the jar. Is this ok or has the scoby gone off?
Your SCOBY is perfectly fine. Sometimes SCOBY tends to sink to the bottom of the jar, but it doesn’t mean the SCOBY has gone off. A new SCOBY will grow across the top of the brew.
There are a couple of reasons for SCOBY to sink: temperature is not right or SCOBY is added to a new batch of kombucha (SCOBY and base liquid is not the same flavor as the new tea). Happy brewing!
So I have SO MUCH cabbage in my garden!!! I don’t know what to do with it. I really didn’t think I would have so many…And most of it is red savoy variety. I’ve been thinking about preserving some but really not looking forward to slicing all that cabbage for sauerkraut. Can I preserve it as whole heads? What else can I do with it? Any ideas??
That is awesome to hear. You can ferment whole heads of cabbage. This type of fermentation is well-known in Europe across the Balkan region. People in this region enjoy their sour cabbage over winter months with meat dishes. Have a look here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whole_sour_cabbage
https://www.wildfermentation.com/romanian-fermented-whole-cabbage-process/
You are probably wondering how you are going to consume that much sour cabbage!? I suggest you can gift whole cabbage heads to your friends and families instead of wine and chocolates. Sour cabbage goes well with many meat dishes and salads so I’m sure people will enjoy it and their gut will be healthy and happy. Good luck.
I like the idea of kimchi and sauerkraut but I hate salt (and I have high blood pressure – well I’m medicated). So my question is: What is the least amount of salt I can get away with to keep away the bad bugs whilst fermentation is taking place? Thanks. Angela
Hey Angela, finding a balance is always tricky. By reducing the recommended amount of salt you may put the food to spoilage risk. My recommendation is to make sauerkraut as per the recipe but to rinse it before serving by:
– rinsing it in a colander or
– placing sauerkraut in a bowl and covering it with room temperature water and letting it soak for 30 mins or so
By rinsing the sauerkraut the amount of salt will reduce. This is what I do when my sauerkraut is too salty.
I recommend you run this approach past your doctor and see what they say.
Disclaimer: I’m not a medical professional and hold no medical licenses. This is not medical advice.
How can you know that the food you’ve fermented contains live cultures
That’s a great question. Live cultures are living micro-organisms that are present in some foods in a form of bacteria, yeast or mold. Live culture term is commonly linked to fermented dairy products like yogurt, kefir, cheese and others. Here are some examples of live cultures presence:
– When making kombucha you will notice that SCOBY feeds off sugar and keeps growing during the fermentation process
– Making sourdough starter by mixing water and flour creates live bacteria, which keeps expanding and the sourdough starter keeps growing
If there is no live cultures or they are not active, then you won’t get the final product.
Thanks Gigi, sound advice : )
I’d like to try my hand at sourdough bread before it gets too hot to put the oven on we had one day – that was enough : ( – of 47 degrees C last summer!!! So how do I give “timeout” for the starter or do I just make another when summer is over? Angela
I get you – you don’t want to have an oven on on 47C days. It’s possible to freeze starter in an airtight container or a freezer-safe plastic bag for 6 months or so. I talked about it here. I usually don’t freeze my starter because I always like to start fresh and I have limited storage space in my fridge.