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Author Topic: Pickles and other fermented foods  (Read 25391 times)

Offline majorvices

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Re: Pickles and other fermented foods
« Reply #30 on: August 12, 2013, 04:34:47 am »
I make my own fermented hot sauce and can testify that they will spontaneously ferment on their own without any help.

What I do is rinse the peppers, roughly chop them and then puree in a blender with water and about 6% salt by weight. Makes a pepper slurry that will be fermenting within 24 hours at room temp. I do this in a loosely covered mason jar leaving some headspace for expansion. You may have to rap the fermenter on the counter to knock solids back into the liquid as they will be pushed upwards by the fermentation. Any mold that forms can be scraped/lifted away before packaging- I can assure you that this does not ruin the product.

After 30 days or so in primary I puree again with about half it's volume of vinegar added. Strain any bulky solids remaining, package and store at room temp forever if desired. It only gets better...

I made this a couple weeks ago. I simply could not wait the full 30 days. 2 weeks, scrapped the mold off the top and blended it with vinegar yesterday. It's simply fantastic and a "kroger" bag of peppers made almost 2 quarts. I used a blend of peppers, some long green hot peppers someone gave me from their garden.No idea what they are. Jalepenos and habeneros from my garden.

Going to head to farmers market this week to make some more. Very fun!

Offline gmac

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Re: Pickles and other fermented foods
« Reply #31 on: August 12, 2013, 08:07:45 am »
Any reason I couldn't freeze the peppers for hot sauce?  I'm getting some chili's turning red but given how far North I am, and the cool season we are having, things are maturing very slowly.  I was thinking of picking the red ones as they mature and throwing them into a ziploc until I get enough to try this.  Let me know if you think that freezing them would be a mistake.  There will probably be some fresh ones at the end.

Offline erockrph

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Re: Pickles and other fermented foods
« Reply #32 on: August 12, 2013, 08:14:14 am »
Any reason I couldn't freeze the peppers for hot sauce?  I'm getting some chili's turning red but given how far North I am, and the cool season we are having, things are maturing very slowly.  I was thinking of picking the red ones as they mature and throwing them into a ziploc until I get enough to try this.  Let me know if you think that freezing them would be a mistake.  There will probably be some fresh ones at the end.

I'm in a similar boat. My first Serrano just turned bright red, but all the others are still fully green. I guess my only concern is whether there will be enough bugs on the last handful of fresh peppers to get fermentation going on its own. I think I'm just going to roll with it and see what happens. If fermentation doesn't go on its own I'll probably get a yoghurt starter going and pitch that.
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Offline redbeerman

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Re: Pickles and other fermented foods
« Reply #33 on: August 13, 2013, 09:30:05 am »
Hot dill wax beans, pickled jalapenos, and hot and sweet kohlrabi from the garden.  Also did 10 pints of chipotle salsa with tomatoes and last years home smoked chipotles.

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Offline kramerog

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Re: Pickles and other fermented foods
« Reply #34 on: August 13, 2013, 09:54:18 am »
And back to the topic of fermented pickles, is it possible to make a sweet fermented pickle (i.e., gherkin-style) or would the additional sugar encourage unwanted bugs to join the party?

I think you could add the sugar at the same time as adding the vinegar, but I'm no pickle expert,

Offline majorvices

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Re: Pickles and other fermented foods
« Reply #35 on: August 13, 2013, 04:00:51 pm »
And back to the topic of fermented pickles, is it possible to make a sweet fermented pickle (i.e., gherkin-style) or would the additional sugar encourage unwanted bugs to join the party?

I think you could add the sugar at the same time as adding the vinegar, but I'm no pickle expert,

I'm making some sweet pickles now. If they turn out I'll post recipe saturday. No vinegar for my pickles. Salt water brine and natural fermentation.

Offline kramerog

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Re: Pickles and other fermented foods
« Reply #36 on: August 13, 2013, 04:13:45 pm »
And back to the topic of fermented pickles, is it possible to make a sweet fermented pickle (i.e., gherkin-style) or would the additional sugar encourage unwanted bugs to join the party?

I think you could add the sugar at the same time as adding the vinegar, but I'm no pickle expert,

I'm making some sweet pickles now. If they turn out I'll post recipe saturday. No vinegar for my pickles. Salt water brine and natural fermentation.

Won't the sugar ferment out?

Offline morticaixavier

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Re: Pickles and other fermented foods
« Reply #37 on: August 13, 2013, 04:27:31 pm »
And back to the topic of fermented pickles, is it possible to make a sweet fermented pickle (i.e., gherkin-style) or would the additional sugar encourage unwanted bugs to join the party?

I think you could add the sugar at the same time as adding the vinegar, but I'm no pickle expert,

I'm making some sweet pickles now. If they turn out I'll post recipe saturday. No vinegar for my pickles. Salt water brine and natural fermentation.

Won't the sugar ferment out?

I would expect so. I would think you would need to either refridgerate to halt the lactic fermentation or can/pasturize
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Offline majorvices

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Re: Pickles and other fermented foods
« Reply #38 on: August 13, 2013, 04:35:14 pm »
Well, gosh, I didn't think about that. But I'll post my results Saturday.

Offline morticaixavier

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Re: Pickles and other fermented foods
« Reply #39 on: August 13, 2013, 04:36:56 pm »
Well, gosh, I didn't think about that. But I'll post my results Saturday.

you will probably be fine refrigerating them. lactic bacteria don't like the cold.
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Offline majorvices

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Re: Pickles and other fermented foods
« Reply #40 on: August 13, 2013, 04:38:20 pm »
Might back sweeten but going to finish fermentation first. I had planned on possibly  back sweetening anyway since I went with only about 3 or 4 tsp for the quart.

Offline HoosierBrew

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Re: Pickles and other fermented foods
« Reply #41 on: August 13, 2013, 04:55:11 pm »
I'm gonna make Euge's fermented hot sauce recipe this week.  I can't believe I've never done it. I make all different kinds of hot sauces normally (most of them hot as hell), but have never done a fermented one. Can't wait.
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Offline gmac

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Re: Pickles and other fermented foods
« Reply #42 on: August 13, 2013, 05:01:51 pm »
So my first few spontaneously fermented pickles turned out OK, not great.  But they were pretty big cucumbers so I ended up cutting them to get them into a jar and that was a mistake. They went pretty mushy.  Plus, I was afraid of them going bad, even though they were going in the freezer so I added about 50% by volume of vinegar to the brine and holy cow are they sour now.  My 6 year old is still eating them but then he's also the one to eat the lemon out of the ice tea too so his tastes are suspect.

Kitchen is all torn out so nothing happening now despite all the green beans going bad in the garden.  All my cucumber plants got some sort of wilt (likely verticillium) and died so I have big plans for next year.  I'm thinking of just buying a box of jalapenos and scotch bonnets and doing Euge's hot sauce anyway.  No idea when my peppers will be ready.

Offline thatgeekguy

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Re: Pickles and other fermented foods
« Reply #43 on: August 14, 2013, 12:34:12 pm »
I've got a easy go-to recipe for hot and sweet dills:

- 1 gallon jar of sliced dills, any brand works fine
- 4 pounds sugar
- Peppers, chopped garlic etc based on your preferences.

1) Drain all the liquid from the pickles.
2) Remove all but an inch of pickles from jar.
3) Put drained pickles back into the jar in 1 inch layers, interspersed with sugar and the hot/garlicky stuff.
4) Tighten lid securely, place jar in refrigerator.
5) Turn jar upside down after 12 hours. Place jar in large bowl in case of lid leaks.
6) Turn jar rightside up after another 12 hours.
7) Repeat 4 & 5 for a week or so, allowing all the sugar and goodies to go into solution and become liquid.
8) Open jar and enjoy.

I also keep the liquid drained off from step 1 to use in cold pickling other things like beans/garlic/carrots/onions, why waste?
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Offline gmac

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Re: Pickles and other fermented foods
« Reply #44 on: August 14, 2013, 04:53:11 pm »
I also keep the liquid drained off from step 1 to use in cold pickling other things like beans/garlic/carrots/onions, why waste?

I'm thinking pickle shots with vodka but maybe I'm crazy...