OT- Lacto Fermentation Fun- Peppers and Sriracha

caliking

lkapigian said:

Fermented some milk Sous Vide , made some Jajik ..Armenian cold Madzoon ( Yogurt) soup with cucumbers, garlic and mint 

I liked this over on the other thread, but it deserved another one

How did you SV the milk to ferment it? I've played around with making yogurt a fair bit, but always looking for tips.

lkapigian

caliking said:

show previous quotes

lkapigian said:

Fermented some milk Sous Vide , made some Jajik ..Armenian cold Madzoon ( Yogurt) soup with cucumbers, garlic and mint 

I liked this over on the other thread, but it deserved another one

How did you SV the milk to ferment it? I've played around with making yogurt a fair bit, but always looking for tips.

Thanks @caliking… I just use whole milk , bring it to 180 for a few minutes, cool it to 110 , add some of the milk to my Magart  ( starter , I keep some in the fridge but you can use a Greek yogurt with active culture ) mix starter with cooled milk , Sous vide at 110 for at least 12 hours … 

made Tanabour last week ( with Perl barley instead of cucumber)

Ozzie_Isaac

@The_Buffalo any chance this can move to the main forum?  This is such a fantastic thread, and one that gets lost in this den of iniquity that is "off-topic" section.

lkapigian

Ozzie_Isaac said:

@The_Buffalo any chance this can move to the main forum?  This is such a fantastic thread, and one that gets lost in this den of iniquity that is "off-topic" section.

Thanks @Ozzie_Isaac

Botch

Yesterday I finally bought a big bunch of green beans at the farmer's market.  Cut up some of them and poured in some leftover pickling juice, for refrigerator pickles.  
The rest I put into commercial pickle jars I had, for fermenting.  But again, the glass weights I had purchased still didn't fit the jars, so the tops of the beans floated above the brine.  I set the lids on top, to keep the dust out, and thought about what to do.  
Then I got a Botch-Idea (tm).
I let the jars sit, overnight.  Then, I tightened the lids, and turned the jars upside down.  My thinking was, the exposed bean ends above the brine were now fully submerged in the brine, and the bean ends at the bottom were now exposed to the same air.  Tomorrow morning, I plan to "burp" the lid, and then orient the jar the other way around, again, so any mold that forms on the exposed veg gets dunked/killed every day.  I know the bubble of infected air will always rise to the top, but eventually all the Nasty Bacteria in it will realize what they're up against, and die peacefully.  
 
Has anyone else tried this, or can think of something I hadn't considered?  I'm only on Day Two of this experiment, and if it all goes south I'm out some saltwater and $2-worth of green beans.  I plan to go for seven days, give 'em a taste (and I have no idea what fermented green beans should even taste like) and will either refrigerate, let them go longer, toss them, or die in my sleep that night.  I'll provide an update next week.  

lkapigian

@Botch that will work, I never use weights in jars, just give things a stir, I have weights in my crocs but that’s it, never had an issue 

Botch

lkapigian said:

@Botch that will work, I never use weights in jars, just give things a stir, I have weights in my crocs but that’s it, never had an issue 

Thanks!   
I have learned one thing already: I need to burp the jar maybe twice a day, not just once.  When I got back from my walk this morning I noticed some water had been expelled onto the countertop; thank goodness the jar didn't shatter!  I topped the jar off with more water, added a pinch more salt, shook it a couple times and will continue.  

lkapigian

Botch said:

show previous quotes

lkapigian said:

@Botch that will work, I never use weights in jars, just give things a stir, I have weights in my crocs but that’s it, never had an issue 

Thanks!   
I have learned one thing already: I need to burp the jar maybe twice a day, not just once.  When I got back from my walk this morning I noticed some water had been expelled onto the countertop; thank goodness the jar didn't shatter!  I topped the jar off with more water, added a pinch more salt, shook it a couple times and will continue.  

That is one very active ferment 

lkapigian

 Never fermented eggplant before so we will see how this goes, was gifted the eggplant, figured I’d toss some other veggies in, 3% brine, all cut roughly .25” discs 

fishlessman

Will the Xtra water in them screw with the brine percent

lkapigian

fishlessman said:

Will the Xtra water in them screw with the brine percent

good point @fishlessman , I was going to salt and draw the moisture out first but just tossed them as is, they fermented nicely and the eggplant has a nice bite to it 

poster

I have a bunch of peppers and want to make a curry flavored sauce. In the past, Ive added strong spices such as cumin after fermenting, and the results have been good. Would my best bet be to add some curry powder just before bottling or try something at the start of the ferment?

fishlessman

poster said:

I have a bunch of peppers and want to make a curry flavored sauce. In the past, Ive added strong spices such as cumin after fermenting, and the results have been good. Would my best bet be to add some curry powder just before bottling or try something at the start of the ferment?

theres a few fermented curry paste recipes online like this one

https://ferment.works/blog/2020/10/21/aged-fermented-thai-red-curry-paste

caliking

poster said:

I have a bunch of peppers and want to make a curry flavored sauce. In the past, Ive added strong spices such as cumin after fermenting, and the results have been good. Would my best bet be to add some curry powder just before bottling or try something at the start of the ferment?

Neat idea! 

Some spices can have antibacterial or bacteriostatic properties (e.g. turmeric), which may affect fermentation. 

First thoughts are that you should probably add the spices after fermentation, but it's surely worth a shot to try adding them before fermentation, and see what the difference may be.

poster

caliking said:

show previous quotes

poster said:

I have a bunch of peppers and want to make a curry flavored sauce. In the past, Ive added strong spices such as cumin after fermenting, and the results have been good. Would my best bet be to add some curry powder just before bottling or try something at the start of the ferment?

Neat idea! 

Some spices can have antibacterial or bacteriostatic properties (e.g. turmeric), which may affect fermentation. 

First thoughts are that you should probably add the spices after fermentation, but it's surely worth a shot to try adding them before fermentation, and see what the difference may be.

I never thought about the antibacterial properties, good point.

I have some mix left from your masalawurst which I think I will add after fermenting. If all goes well I will try some before in the next batch for comparison.

poster

Here we go, ginger, onion, mango,  lots of garlic, yellow pencil peppers(a couple turned red) carrot, armageddon peppers and a yellow bell pepper cap to keep things from floating up.

lkapigian

poster said:

Here we go, ginger, onion, mango,  lots of garlic, yellow pencil peppers(a couple turned red) carrot, armageddon peppers and a yellow bell pepper cap to keep things from floating up.

beautiful 

Legume

I bought these airlock lids over three years ago because of this thread, just got around to use them today.  Peppers from the garden supplemented by some bought.  These have sweet peppers, Arbol, something called “chile red” that’s just a little larger than Arbol, jalapeño, habanero, garlic, carrots, onion, garlic.  I think I overpacked the jars a bit, but we’ll see how it goes.  Sure makes for a colorful pic.

lkapigian

Legume said:

I bought these airlock lids over three years ago because of this thread, just got around to use them today.  Peppers from the garden supplemented by some bought.  These have sweet peppers, Arbol, something called “chile red” that’s just a little larger than Arbol, jalapeño, habanero, garlic, carrots, onion, garlic.  I think I overpacked the jars a bit, but we’ll see how it goes.  Sure makes for a colorful pic.

That will pack a punch !

Legume

lkapigian said:

show previous quotes

Legume said:

I bought these airlock lids over three years ago because of this thread, just got around to use them today.  Peppers from the garden supplemented by some bought.  These have sweet peppers, Arbol, something called “chile red” that’s just a little larger than Arbol, jalapeño, habanero, garlic, carrots, onion, garlic.  I think I overpacked the jars a bit, but we’ll see how it goes.  Sure makes for a colorful pic.

That will pack a punch !

That was my fear, habs in only one of the jars.

poster

Legume said:

I bought these airlock lids over three years ago because of this thread, just got around to use them today.  Peppers from the garden supplemented by some bought.  These have sweet peppers, Arbol, something called “chile red” that’s just a little larger than Arbol, jalapeño, habanero, garlic, carrots, onion, garlic.  I think I overpacked the jars a bit, but we’ll see how it goes.  Sure makes for a colorful pic.

Don't worry about over packing. In a week or 2 the jar will look 3/4" full. Expect some leakage out the top valve in a couple days. Mine always do even with 1/2" head space. I also either place a weight on top or save a large piece of pepper bigger than the opening and stuff it in to keep anything from floating up. You shouldn't have issues if something does float up with these tops, but I tend to peak and taste way too often so I inadvertently add O2.

Botch

I've never understood using a pepper, or a cabbage leaf, to hold the other veggies down; wouldn't any mold just grow on it, instead?    

HeavyG

I've used those and had the same problem with liquid bubbling thru the nipple and making a bit of a mess.

The glass weights you can buy that are sized for those jars are worth having.

The very first one I used I cracked by overtightening. Didn't think I was muscling it closed too much but the loud pop told me otherwise.

caliking

Botch said:

I've never understood using a pepper, or a cabbage leaf, to hold the other veggies down; wouldn't any mold just grow on it, instead?    

Everything should be fully submerged in the brine... using weights, cabbage leaf, even a paper towel works well. You may see some Kahm yeast form, which is fine. Anything fuzzy that looks pink, black, green, etc. is mold, and no good. 

lkapigian

Botch said:

I've never understood using a pepper, or a cabbage leaf, to hold the other veggies down; wouldn't any mold just grow on it, instead?    

The cabbage prevents the small stuff seeds etc from floating to the top but it to should be submerged 

Botch

lkapigian said:

show previous quotes

Botch said:

I've never understood using a pepper, or a cabbage leaf, to hold the other veggies down; wouldn't any mold just grow on it, instead?    

The cabbage prevents the small stuff seeds etc from floating to the top but it to should be submerged 

Okay then I should just get a glass weight or rock to begin with, it sounds like.  

Legume

I’ve got the weights but overfilled. I’ll drop them in in a week.

lkapigian

Another use for Brine Buckets, 15 pounds in each jalapeño and Thai 

Botch

 
One of my food channels referenced this book, I looked it up on amazoid and it was going for $25, on sale from $40.  This damn tome is a textbook, 455 pages.  Lots of color photos and so far it reads really well.  Just got it this morning.
 
My first attempt at salsa went okay.  My first and second attempt at pickled cukes did not, shattered glass/mold.  I made up two more jars this afternoon, we'll see how it goes.  
 
On a somewhat related note, Grillo's seems to have modified their plastic containers a bit, much easier to open/close; but I still don't like paying $7~8 for a stupid jar of pickles.  Hopefully this book will fix some things for me.  

lkapigian

Botch said:

 
One of my food channels referenced this book, I looked it up on amazoid and it was going for $25, on sale from $40.  This damn tome is a textbook, 455 pages.  Lots of color photos and so far it reads really well.  Just got it this morning.
 
My first attempt at salsa went okay.  My first and second attempt at pickled cukes did not, shattered glass/mold.  I made up two more jars this afternoon, we'll see how it goes.  
 
On a somewhat related note, Grillo's seems to have modified their plastic containers a bit, much easier to open/close; but I still don't like paying $7~8 for a stupid jar of pickles.  Hopefully this book will fix some things for me.  

Have not seen that, thanks for sharing