Hows my little fermentor?

Seems like all I've been doing lately is making/repairing things, and I love it! Most recently I decided to tackle some other fermentations that aren't alcohol based.

This weekend Amanda and Andy visited us and Andy taught me his bread and yogurt making skills. We enjoyed the bread with some yummy fondue Laura put together and the Yogurt has been a fantastic breakfast addition over the last few days. Just so everyone knows, yogurt is so easy to make there is almost no reason to not make it yourself. Just look at this site. All you need is Jars, a cooler, a thermometer, and patience. Oh, and some other yogurt you like.

After they left we decided to thicken up our yogurt a bit, which is easy too, I just scooped it into a coffee filter that sat in a strainer over a bowl in the fridge, out comes whey and the good suff thickens, zero effort.

Andy rattled off a list of yummy things to do with the whey but after trolling around this cool blog I found something else interesting to do with it. Fermenting vegetables and sour kraut (part 2)! I've been reading ever so slowly a fantastic tome, "The Art of Fermentation" by Sandor Katz and I love it. The book along with a co-worker it inspired me to attempt my own fermented vegetables. Lucky for me I already had my ingredients before I had my Whey. Once again, super easy, chop veggies, add Whey (and water if needed), wait.

Sour Kraut on the other hand is a bit more involved, not particularly challenging, but nerve racking for me because of this fail last year. After freshly reading up on how its done in my new favorite book, I attempted it again. The process is similar to last year, but different mostly because I'm armed with more confidence.

Step one, cut off the nasty spot that started spurting goo and turned soft.

Step two finely chop. I remembered I did this poorly last year and tried to do better this year.

Step twopointfive. Add salt to your cabbage as you chop, liberally.

Step three. The salt has been busy extracting water from the chopped cabbage, now you have to help it along, smash, pound, twist, mush, and crunch your cabbage until it looks beaten to death. This breaks down the cellular structure and helps extract more water and aids the fermentation.

Step four. PACK! Pack, it into a bowl or jar, really tightly. It should be PACKED so tightly you can hold your jar upside down and none falls out. (Packing it is important)

Step fourpointfive. If you want to add some seasonings or other things to your kraut-to-be mix it in while packing or in your bowl before packing. (one of my jars I added mustard seed, oregeno, and hot peppers.

Step five. Add your whey and top with water if needed to fully submerge your veggies/cabbage. Close your lid to your jar and wait.

This is Whey cool! My yogurt is now thicker.

After your fermentation begins (within the day) don't forget to crack your jar lid a couple of times daily to let off the CO2 that is being produced and give your stuff a good sniff, if you're really curious don't be afraid to sample your work.

Be on the lookout for mold! I'm still leary of this since I'm so new but you can just scrape off your mold and discard it while your veggies/kraut are busy doing their thing. Apparently fun colored mold just means it has gone to spore and you should be extra careful when removing it. Another thing I learned is if you let you mold get too out of control for too long your food (that isn't covered in mold) while being safe to eat will be infused with a moldy taste, yuck. Another fun mold fact, apparently spicy things in your ferment help keep mold away.

That's it! I'm very excited for the results!