Fermentation
As a homesteader and seasonal food enthusiast, at some point it is inevitable that you will end up with a giant pile of pickling cucumbers, some amazing wild-harvested berries, or a Farmer’s Market collection of greens, all demanding to be used RIGHT NOW! While there are many ways to preserve a seasonal harvest for enjoyment at a later time, today we’re going to be talking about fermentation.
Fermentation 101
Tutorial: How to Make Sauerkraut
Tutorial: How to Make Lacto-Fermented Pickles
Fermentation 101
Fermentation is an ancient art of food preservation. Long before there were canning jars, chest freezers, or food dehydrators, cultures around the world had methods for fermenting food in order to preserve the harvest and stay healthy.
Did you know that your body is host to a community of microorganisms? When they are in a healthy balance, the microorganisms in your gut affect your mood, break down food into nutrients for your body, regulate your immune system, and so much more.
Many of the foods we eat and enjoy on a regular basis have undergone the process of fermentation, which simply is the action of living bacteria and yeasts on organic matter. Some of our favorite foods are fermented, including:
- Cheese
- Salami
- Sauerkraut
- Wine
- Sourdough Bread
- Water Kefir
- Pickles
We all know that yeasts and bacteria can spoil food if left unchecked. The art of fermentation involves creating just the right conditions to encourage the growth of just the beneficial ones.
A quick primer on Bacteria and Yeast, and how they contribute to the fermentation process:
Bacteria – Are microscopic organisms that are cultured to make foods sour tasting, like yogurt, sour pickles, vinegar, etc. Their digestive process creates carbon dioxide, lactic acid and acetic acid as by-products, among others.
Yeasts – Are microscopic fungi that are cultivated for alcohol production or when you want gas bubbles, as in leavened bread or carbonated sodas. Their by-products are alcohol, carbon dioxide, and amino acids and organic compounds.
So, why ferment?
What is the benefit of taking fresh food and subjecting it to the diverse processes of fermentation? There are many benefits and I’ll list a few:
- Food Enrichment– Vitamins are preserved and sometimes produced via fermentation. Amino acids are formed, which makes more complete proteins.
- Food Digestibility– Fermentation is a form of pre-digestion, which helps our bodies break down food into smaller digestible parts. Lactose, gluten, and soy particularly benefit from this pre-digestion.
- Health– Beneficial ferment organisms actually inhibit pathogenic bacteria. Some toxins are broken down as well.
- Live Cultures– Fermented foods can help replenish our intestinal flora and fauna, which is particularly important after taking a round of antibiotics.
- Food Preservation– Both the acidity and the alcohol produced during fermentation preserves food for months or years. Hard cheese preserves fresh milk; Wine preserves fresh fruit or juices, etc.
- Food Security and Local Economy – By their nature, fermented foods are best produced on a small scale. They are value-added products that can be the basis for a small business or home-based cottage industry. Plus, wild cultures are free for the capturing!
- Food Taste and Texture– Imagine a world without cheese, or wine! Fermentation makes complex, sour, salty, creamy, tangy, aromatic, rich, pungent, and yummy additions to a local food diet.
Fermentation can be an extremely complex process, or an incredibly simple one. Sauerkraut is perhaps the best known vegetable lactoferment; a very simple recipe consisting of salt and cabbage, and perhaps some spices. But so many other types of vegetables can be lactofermented as a way of preserving the harvest, enhancing flavor, and increasing digestibility and nutrient content.
In this module, you’ll find a video on how to make lacto-fermented sauerkraut. This is a very simple ferment to start with as it only requires two ingredients – cabbage and salt. When you’re ready to move on to more complex ferments, here are some resources:
Books:
In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan
Wild Fermentation by Sandor Elix Katz
The Art of Fermentation by Sandor Elix Katz
Home Cheese Making by Ricki Carroll
Bread Alone by Daniel Leader
Websites:
How to Make Sauerkraut
Password: kraut
How to Make Sauerkraut from Teri Page on Vimeo.
How to Make Lacto-Fermented Pickles
Have you ever tasted a real New York deli pickle? They are crisp and flavorful without being too “biting.” This is because instead of pickling with a vinegar solution, the pickles are lacto-fermented.
Making pickles at home is easy and fun, plus you can be creative with the seasonings and flavors to fit your taste. Below I’ve included three of my favorite pickle recipes.
Garlic-Ginger Pickles
Ingredients:
- 5-6 pickling cucumbers, sliced into spears or rounds
- 3 cloves of garlic, smashed
- ½ -1 tsp of fresh, chopped ginger root
- ½ tsp coriander seed
- 1 clove
Spicy Pickles
Ingredients:
- 5-6 pickling cucumbers, sliced into spears or rounds
- 1/2 tsp black peppercorns
- 1/4 – 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
- 1/4 tsp cumin seed
- 1 clove garlic
Classic Dill Pickles
Ingredients:
- 1 tsp dill seeds OR 1-2 heads of dill
- 1/4 tsp black peppercorns
- 1/4 tsp horseradish root (minced, or cut into a small piece and smashed)
- 1 horseradish or grape leaf
To Make:
- First, pre-make the brine. To make one gallon of brine, dissolve 3/4 cup of salt in one gallon of water.
- If I have smaller cucumbers, I like to keep them whole in the jars. But you can also cut them into spears, or bread-and-butter style.
- Simply add your garlic and/or spices to the jar, arrange the cucumbers, and cover completely with brine.
I like to leave my pickles on the counter, with a lid slightly ajar. Each day I tighten the lid, turn the jar over to make sure all of the cukes are moistened with the salt brine, and then return them back to their original position. After a few days, you will begin to see small fizzy bubbles form in the jar, as fermentation begins. After a week or so, I sample a pickle to see if it’s reached my desired level of sour flavor, then pop the jars in the fridge for storage. They will keep for months, but trust me, they will not last that long!
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