What Are You Preserving, and How Are You Doing It? (2016–)

[curls]

My eggnog is pourable and I followed Nina Gluck’s recipe and only used egg yolks.

[DesertTinker]

6 hours ago, curls said:

My eggnog is pourable and I followed Nina Gluck’s recipe and only used egg yolks.

My 2nd batch is pourable, no clue what caused the thickening in the 1st batch. Identical ingredients, both were carefully measured, the heavy cream is from the same container. Temperature of ingredients was the same, only difference was hand beating the 1st, KitchenAid stand mixer for the 2nd. Maybe I didn’t beat it well enough by hand?

Edited November 25 by DesertTinker (log)

[haresfur]

On 11/24/2024 at 6:46 AM, Shelby said:

I am going to have to search for ideas for using up egg whites again.

 

Ugh I know.  I have to go though to pick up Ronnie's meds.  

 

Pavlova is traditional Christmas dessert in Australia and New Zealand

[Smithy]

Sometime late in the fall, when the growing season was winding down, I bought the last few (small) heads of red cabbage from my local farmer. I put the heads in the outside refrigerator. Occasionally I remembered them...but only today got around to doing something with them. Sauerkraut was always the plan.

 

Well, it's an experiment. I decided during an earlier test that 2% by weight salt was probably the right proportion, and that's what I did after shredding the cabbage. The salt is mostly Morton's fine sea salt, but there's a bit of coarse kosher salt there too. That isn't really the experiment, though.

 

1. The poor cabbage heads were already semi-frozen. (It's been well below freezing for more than a week.) I couldn't tell it while shredding them, but when I started mixing in the salt I could tell that there may have been partial freezing. At any rate, it's all cold!

 

2. I postulated during my last test that too much headspace in the jar allowed black mold to develop. This time, I was sure to submerge the well-packed cabbage, but there was a lot of headspace. I topped it off with a 2% mix of water and salt. You can see in the photo where the cabbage stops and the brine begins. I'm using a leaf of cabbage, topped by one of the cheese mats inspired by @FauxPas, to keep the kraut submerged. (Her recommended mesh isn't quite the same as what I bought, but I got the idea from her here.)

 

 

So. Will the brine topping help or hinder? Will the partial freezing hurt? How long will it take this incipient kraut to come to room temperature and start fermenting? Time will tell.

 

I'll report back.

[FauxPas]

2 hours ago, Smithy said:

Will the brine topping help or hinder? Will the partial freezing hurt? How long will it take this incipient kraut to come to room temperature and start fermenting?

 

I don't think topping up the brine will hurt. Freezing may change the texture a bit but so does the fermentation process, ha.  @Senior Sea Kayakertalked about starting his ferments with frozen produce, peppers in this case:

 

 

[Bernie]

physics knowledge needed here 😀

 

You probably need to make sure you keep it somewhat agitated if it is getting close to freezing

 

The advantage of using brine as a freezing medium is that it will freeze at a lower temperature or more importantly at below the freezing point of water, so it can be circulated to cool down product to water freezing point much quicker.

(normally you use brine external to the product for short enough time - if it is in direct contact so you may get salt transfer)

 

But I seem to remember (and that facility is indeed fading😒) if it is kept still some water may freeze releasing its salt. (that's where the physic knowledge is needed).

[Senior Sea Kayaker]

@Smithy

In my opinion the addition of additional brine will not do any harm as it's much more important to ensure the fermenting cabbage remains in contact with either brine or a CO2 saturated headspace. The partial freezing pre fermentation shouldn't hurt.

My original post, as quoted by @FauxPas, was concerned with frozen hot peppers destined for hot sauce, where after a post fermentation puree and straining out the solids, texture did not matter.

I'm also curious to how this will turn out.

 

 

 

Edited December 5 by Senior Sea Kayaker (log)

[lemniscate]

12 hours ago, Smithy said:

 

1. The poor cabbage heads were already semi-frozen. (It's been well below freezing for more than a week.) I couldn't tell it while shredding them, but when I started mixing in the salt I could tell that there may have been partial freezing. At any rate, it's all cold!

 

In our kraut related family knowledge, the best kraut was made after the first frost hit the cabbage.  It made them sweeter and fermented better.

 

 

Also Penn State:

 

The best sauerkraut is made from cabbage that is harvested after frost. Cool weather increases the production of natural sugars in the cabbage that are needed for fermentation. It is best to wait until the first frost to make your sauerkraut.

Edited December 5 by lemniscate (log)

[Smithy]

I appreciate the comments about freezing, both from a texture and flavor standpoint. I should have made it clear that the cabbage was partially frozen in my outside refrigerator. i'm not sure whether it had been harvested before or after the first frost.

 

This morning, I'm impressed with the way the juices are permeating and circulating without any help. I haven't shaken the jar, though I probably will every once in a while. Look what it's done, simply sitting on the counter!

 

 

I have to look carefully to see the cheese mat, because the brine topping is now so dark. For comparison's sake, and to spare y'all from scrolling back up, this is what it looked like last night:

 

 

No bubbling visible yet, but I wouldn't expect that so early in the process.

[Smithy]

No visible change to the kraut this morning, nor would I expect it. But I did finally remember that the word I wanted yesterday to describe what happened overnight to the brine is "diffusion"! 

 

Edited to add: actually, I can see some surface bubbles and I'm gettting a bit of tart kraut smell out of the pickle pipe. I think we have ignition!

Edited December 6 by Smithy (log)

[haresfur]

It looks like one of my cucumber plants might survive but I don't have my hopes up. My dill is getting rangy and flowering, so I decided to start fermenting some pickles using over-packaged, over-priced "Qukes." They are marketed as a snack for kids, which I suppose isn't a bad thing. It probably would have been cheaper to buy Polski Ogorkis.

 

 

Started with a mix of black pepper, allspice berries, and brown mustard seeds along with a grape leaf and 6 small bay leaves. I mixed up a 4% brine including the cucumber weight. About 6 lightly smashed garlic cloves (not shown)

 

 

And some dill

 

 

Trimmed the blossom ends of the cukes. Hope I cut enough off to prevent the pickles turning to mush. Turns out they didn't pack into the 1 liter jar so I had to repack them into a 2 L, which was a bit of a mess. and I spooned out some floating spices, Added more brine and topped with a plastic bag full of brine as a weight.

 

 

It's been hot and humid here so the house is warm so I tucked everything into an evaporative cooler to try and keep the fermentation temperature down. Now I wait.

 

[Smithy]

On 12/5/2024 at 10:17 AM, Smithy said:

I appreciate the comments about freezing, both from a texture and flavor standpoint. I should have made it clear that the cabbage was partially frozen in my outside refrigerator. i'm not sure whether it had been harvested before or after the first frost.

 

This morning, I'm impressed with the way the juices are permeating and circulating without any help. I haven't shaken the jar, though I probably will every once in a while. Look what it's done, simply sitting on the counter!

 

 

I have to look carefully to see the cheese mat, because the brine topping is now so dark. For comparison's sake, and to spare y'all from scrolling back up, this is what it looked like last night:

 

 

No bubbling visible yet, but I wouldn't expect that so early in the process.

 

I've never seen evaporation like this before, especially given that there hasn't been any visible overflow.

 

 

The "bubbles" are an almost rigid foam near the top of the jar.

 

 

I tasted some of the foam. It tasted more salty than pleasantly sour last night. I hope the kraut itself tastes better, but I didn't check. I topped it all off with tap water and went to bed. 

 

It may be time, actually, to remove that topper and try some of the kraut. As of yesterday, when I took these photos, it had been 10 days since I mixed the kraut.