If you want to enjoy veggies from your garden or the farmers' market year round, does that mean that you have to spend hours and hours canning in a steamy hot kitchen?
Nope. Not if you know how to ferment.
Fermenting is easy. No boiling water, no electricity. Just vegetables, salt, and a jar.
Fermented vegetables are similar to yogurt because they are colonized by beneficial bacteria and are probiotic. They contain numerous enzymes that help you break down other food in your meal. Eating fermented foods every day, whether that's sauerkraut, fermented pickles (most modern pickles are not fermented), kimchi, water kefir, dairy kefir, or yogurt, is a great way to improve the microbiome of your gut.
If you have never had fermented veggies before, you might wonder what they are like. They are pleasantly tart and crisp. You can eat them raw to enjoy the probiotic benefits, but they can also be added to cooked foods like soup. In many traditional cultures it is common to eat a small amount of raw fermented vegetables with every meal because they help your body digest the food you eat.
There are many dinners where I simply cook pork and serve it with a side of fermented vegetables. It's so convenient because it's already made!
Not only is fermenting easier than canning, but it enhances the nutrition of the food. I suspect that pressure canning vegetables decreases their nutritional value.
While there are many types of vegetables that ferment well, some need special consideration and are not going to be covered here. The easy ones that are a mainstay in my kitchen are:
cabbage
daikon radish
green beans
Properly fermented and stored veggies will last at least a year. You can still be eating sauerkraut from last year while you are waiting for your cabbages this year to grow.
Fermenting is easy, but it must be done correctly. If you do it wrong, you will end up with a stinky pile of mush.
A fido jar of daikon radish, carrot and ginger fermenting. Notice the head space at the top, and gas bubbles along the sides of the jar.
Here are three rules to keep in mind as you ferment vegetables:
temperature matters
oxygen causes mold
use non-iodized salt
Temperature: Different bacteria species have optimal temperatures that they like to grow at. Some like it cold, some like it warm, some like it hot. The lactic bacteria that make good ferments grow in the 60's through low 70'sF.
The only batch of sauerkraut I ever made that went bad was one that I made during the heat of summer. My kitchen was in the high 70'sF. Not only did that batch smell funky, but when I tried eating a little, it made my tummy feel funky. Since then, I have learned that if it's too warm in my kitchen, I can put the fermenting jars on my basement stairs and they will stay at the right temperature.
Oxygen: Mold needs oxygen to grow. If you can keep oxygen off the surface of your veggies, there is no way for mold to grow.
The secret to achieving an oxygen free environment is having the right kind of fermentation vessel. There are many options for fermenting containers. My favorite is what I call fido jars, or those glass jars that have a glass lid on a metal hinge and a rubber gasket. Le Parfait is a good brand that I have found available at my local health food store and on amazon.
You can achieve fermented foods in open air vessels, but mold will form on the surface and it just gets nasty.
The beauty of fido jars is that once you have packed your shredded, salted vegetables into the jar and tightly closed the lid, as the bacteria multiply and produce carbon dioxide (which you can see in the form of bubbles rising to the surface), pressure builds inside the jar and pushes out the oxygen that had been there when you first closed the lid. The rubber gasket is tight, but it does allow pressure to escape. You do NOT have to burp it for fear that it will explode.
Although it looks the same to you, in reality, the gas inside the lid of a sealed, fermented jar is different than the air you breathe. It is carbon dioxide. Therefore, no mold can grow.
People who have tried to ferment veggies and instead produced stinky messes of goo failed to keep oxygen from their product. Many people think that you have to burp it. Do not burp it. A sturdy fido jar will self vent, without allowing oxygen back in. If you burp it, you will be letting oxygen back in.
Salt: Salt has been prized for millennia, not only because it tastes good and your body needs it, but because it preserves food. One tablespoon of salt preserves a quart of vegetables.
Salt works by selecting for the right kind of bacteria. Many undesirable bacteria will not grow in the presence of salt. The lactic bacteria that we want to grow on our veggies to transform them into delicious, nutritious ferments like salt.
If you use iodized salt, the iodine prevents lactic bacteria from growing. You can use himalayan salt, sea salt, kosher salt, or canning salt. Just make sure it was not iodized.
Daikon and Carrot Ginger Ferment
My family's favorite ferment is a blend of daikon radish, carrots, and ginger. I frequently serve this as the vegetable with dinner. It feels like cheating because it was already made. It's healthy convenience food. It's also good stirred into rice or added to a batch of healthy ramen.
I grow lots of daikon radish and carrots, and the batches that I make tend to be huge. I am going to give quantities here for a half gallon jar, but you can definitely scale it up.
Please stick to the 10% volume of carrots. If you use much more, the high sugar content of the carrots takes over and makes it unpleasant. I think it grows the wrong bacteria.
Having a kitchen scale that goes up to 11 pounds really helps when you are preserving foods.
3 lbs 2 oz daikon radish
6 oz carrot
2 oz ginger root
2 Tbs non-iodized salt
Clean up the radishes and carrots and grate them. If you are doing large quantities, a food processor makes this easy.
Slice the ginger into 1/4" coins and put them in a blender with a little water, blend it till it's in small pieces.
Put all three vegetables in a large bowl. Add the salt and mix it thoroughly.
Pack the mixture into a half gallon / 2 quart fido jar (the type that is sturdy glass, has a hinged glass lid and rubber gasket). There should be some head space (empty area at the top) which is necessary so that as it bubbles during fermentation, it doesn't bubble over.
Close the lid and seal it with the metal clasp. Leave the jar in a spot that is in the 60's - low 70'sF, whether that's on your counter, a shelf in the basement, or on the basement stairs. Temperature is critical. Do not have it warmer or colder than that while it goes through fermentation.
After a couple of days, you should see it bubbling. This is a sign that it is working properly. If it bubbles over because you didn't have quite enough head space, it should still be sealed properly. I have had jars bubble over a bit, but they had good seals and lasted a long time.
Remember, those bubbles are pushing out the air that was under the lid when you closed it, replacing it with carbon dioxide. DO NOT BURP IT OR OPEN IT UNTIL YOU ARE READY TO START EATING IT. You must maintain that CO2 cushion for it to last through the winter without spoiling.
Once the bubbling has subsided, it has fully fermented and can be put in your basement for storage. My basement gets as cool as 40F during the winter, and as warm as 60 in the summer. I have no trouble storing sealed fido jars of ferments from the previous year into the next summer.
Over time, you may notice that the top inch of veggies fades in color, especially if they are above the juice line. Don't worry about it. It is just fine. If you pour in the juices at the bottom of the bowl after packing your jar, the liquid covering the veggies helps prevent fading.
When you open a jar to begin eating it, at that point keep it in your fridge until you finish it. Even if you go for weeks without using any, it should last a very long time in the fridge. The fermented vegetables have already been colonized by lactic bacteria, so it is not conducive for other things like mold to grow on.
Grated radishes, carrots, and salt ready to mix.
Cabbage and Green Beans
The same principles that we covered for the radish and carrot recipe apply to making sauerkraut out of cabbages, and fermented green beans.
When you make sauerkraut, slice the cabbage as thin as possible, then treat it just like the radish/carrot mixture above. I recommend including the ginger! If you let the salt work into the cabbage for a couple of hours before packing the jar, that will give the salt time to draw out moisture and make it easier to pack tightly. Pour the juices in that were drawn out, they help prevent the top layer from fading.
Fermenting green beans is a bit different, because you don't shred or slice them. You can leave them whole or chop them into bite sized pieces, but they are not something that packs tight like shredded veggies. (You can shred them if you want, but I prefer the flavor when they are not shredded.) In this case, put your whole or chopped beans into the jar. Fill it with non-chlorinated water up to about 1.5" below the top of the jar (remember to give it head space). Add the salt at the same rate that you would for a jar of shredded veggies, which is 1 Tbs for a quart jar, or 2 Tbs for a half gallon jar.
Fermented green beans make great dilly beans if you leave them whole and add sprigs of fresh dill and a few garlic cloves, or you can make them without dill and use them as an easy addition to soup.
What about botulism??
If you followed the guidelines above, you have no need to worry about botulism in your fermented veggies. Botulism can only grow in low acid environments. Lactic bacteria produce lactic acid. The tart flavor of fermented vegetables is exactly what makes it safe.
Chinese pork belly, rice, and daikon carrot ferment.
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