sauerkraut

[Jeff Schwaber]

I ate some of the first batch of sauerkraut that we made, the stuff from about two weeks ago. It was tasty, though the texture of the turnips and cabbage was better than the texture of the turnip greens. In the future I'll chop the greens finer to get them to blend in better. I had to scrape some mold off the top of the liquid before I pulled kraut out, but no harm. I haven't opened the red cabbage based ones, as they don't look like they're progressing quite as quickly.

What's y'alls progress?

Jeff

[Ouroboros]

I did a kimchi from napa cabbage, bok choi, daikon, and burdock root,
with red chili flakes, cayanne, elephant garlic, scallions, ginger. I
allowed it to ferment five days. After the third day, a couple bubbles
would rise when the container was jostled. No mold occured. I
transfered it to jars and refrigeration. The result is slightly sour,
crisp, fairly spicy.

It is rather amazing how much the vegetables shrink after that initial
salting. From a half-head of napa cabbage I had barely four pint jars
of kimchi (of course that is probably enough for six months or so).

The burdock root discolors when cut - probably I'll not use it again.
I am considering carrots next time, does anyone know whether their
color will bleed in the salt and acid bath? maybe red radishes.

-Matthew

[Audrey Eschright]

On Nov 10, 2008, at 9:30 AM, Ouroboros wrote:
> The burdock root discolors when cut - probably I'll not use it again.
> I am considering carrots next time, does anyone know whether their
> color will bleed in the salt and acid bath? maybe red radishes.

I have carrots in mine, and the color looks normal.

Picture: http://flickr.com/photos/ame/3019934824/

The batch I started the week before the meeting is salty, crunchier
toward the top, but not really sour yet. I'm going to keep pressing
it until the whole batch looks more like the stuff at the bottom. I
also stirred things around to see if that helps.

Audrey

[Jeff Schwaber]

On Mon, Nov 10, 2008 at 9:54 AM, Audrey Eschright <spin...@gmail.com> wrote:

On Nov 10, 2008, at 9:30 AM, Ouroboros wrote:
> The burdock root discolors when cut - probably I'll not use it again.
> I am considering carrots next time, does anyone know whether their
> color will bleed in the salt and acid bath? maybe red radishes.

I have carrots in mine, and the color looks normal.

Picture: http://flickr.com/photos/ame/3019934824/

Looks like the orange has bled into the liquid a bit, but not into the cabbage. That's pretty.
 

The batch I started the week before the meeting is salty, crunchier
toward the top, but not really sour yet. I'm going to keep pressing
it until the whole batch looks more like the stuff at the bottom. I
also stirred things around to see if that helps.

This is fascinating. We've got people with completely different timelines for kraut.

Jeff
 

Audrey