fermenting Archives - Simply Me DIY

It’s almost garden season again. Have you thought about how you’ll preserve all your garden bounty yet?

I only recently discovered fermented food and was surprised to find out how much I Iike it.

Fermenting food has been around for centuries.

Historians have found evidence of fermentation dating as far back as 7000BC.

Sauerkraut mixture. — Sauerkraut mixture ready to ferment.

While no one really knows how it came about, it’s likely that our ancestors figured out that they could store foods much longer with fermenting.

And around the time of the turn of the last century, fermented drinks were probably much less likely to make you sick than the water you drank.

There’s some really great benefits to eating fermented foods.

The bacteria that ferments your foods also makes the nutrients of that food much more readily available for your body to use.

The process of fermentation also produces additional vitamins for your body and enzymes that are highly beneficial for your digestion.

And good digestion can support everything from great skin to a strong immune system.

Some of the supplies you need to ferment.

It really doesn’t take much to get started fermenting. Here’s a list of the basics, in no particular order.

Canning jars. I have found wide mouthed jars easier to use.
Some kind of lid. There are several to choose from. You can be as basic or as fancy as you like. I’ve used sandwich baggies and I have special fermenting lids.
A sharp knife for chopping or (as I just discovered recently) a food processor. It all depends on what you’re fermenting and what you like.
Some kind of masher comes in handy if you’re making something like sauerkraut.
Water or apple cider vinegar. You probably won’t want to use city water from your tap if it has added chlorine or fluoride. See more on that below.
Salt for preservation
Veggies.
Last but not least all kinds of herbs and spices or onions, garlic and peppers. Be creative and try what you like. Make smaller batches with different mixtures to determine your favorite.

Pushing a puck down on sauerkraut. — I’m pushing a “puck” down over my sauerkraut to make sure my veggies stay submerged.

Now there are several types of fermentation. You can ferment grain or fruit as in beer or wine. You can ferment tea as in kombucha. And I’m sure you can ferment a number of other things but, what I’m talking about here is preserving your garden harvest and creating different flavors from all the veggies you’ll get from your garden.

A little about the water you use.

I have well water, so I never thought about this until I did the research.

City water generally has several additives like fluoride and chlorine. Some places add a chemical called chloramine too. Chlorine is not to much of a problem in that you can just let the water sit out for about 24 hours and it’ll evaporate. Or you can boil water to get rid of chlorine.

But, that doesn’t work with fluoride or chloramine. You can’t boil or charcoal filter these out of your water either.

If you have a home filtering system you can check what it says about what all it removes from your water. Otherwise, bottled water might be your best bet.

The fermenting process.

Fermenting takes a little time, but it’s not a hard process. It’s a great way to help preserve all of that garden bounty and give a your veggies a variety of tastes.

Step One

Clean whatever veggies you want to ferment well then chop them into bite sized pieces. In the case of a sauerkraut type ferment, you can shred them with a knife or better yet, with a food processor. I’m embarrassed to say I just realized the food processor thing. I’ve almost never use it….until now.

Step Two

Salt is the key. In most cases you’ll add 1-3 tablespoons of salt to a quart of water and allow it to dissolve. In the case of using cabbage or another high water content veggie you can use some of it’s own water content in place of what you would otherwise use. The salt will also help release the water from your veggies. I’ve got a recipe for sauerkraut here, if you’d like to give it a try.

Step Three

Fill the quart jars with your veggies. You can combine many different kinds, or not, it’s entirely up to your tastes. Experiment with different batches to see what you like best. Add your spices and herbs now too.

Step Four

You want to make sure the salt water mixture you pour over the veggies covers them completely. The point is to not allow any air to reach your veggies during the fermentation process.

Step Five

Next your going to add a lid to keep critters out, BUT you need to allow the resulting gases to escape. If you’re highly diligent you can just put a lid and ring on the jar very loosely and remember to just kind of lift it once a day to let those gases out.

Fermenting Kit. — There are several brands.

I know myself better than that, I’m not that diligent and would never remember to do that. So, I bought a kit. It comes with what’s called pucks and breathable lids. These kits aren’t real expensive and it makes the process so much easier.

They run as low as $20 and you can probably spend as much as you want. There are several kinds, so you can decide what works best for your.

When I first started making sauerkraut I didn’t have the kit. I found a method that used sandwich baggies covering the veggies and then filled with water. I got to say it really was pretty inventive. You can see this method here.

Once you have prepared your veggies and got them in your jars, filled it with your salt water and situated a lid, now you wait.

Make sure you set it on a plate of some type because most of the time it will bubble over and will make a mess. Ask me how I know this 😉

How long do you wait?

As a rule you let your ferment sit from a few days to 6 weeks. The warmer it is the faster your food will ferment, but ultimately the amount of time is entirely up to you.

Sauerkraut. — Sauerkraut ready to ferment.

The taste will continue to evolve the longer it sits. Different foods have a different suggested minimum amount of time to ferment. Each recipe will give you timelines to follow. The trick to getting the taste you like is to test it periodically once you get to that minimum amount of time.

Once it gets to the flavor you like, put it in the fridge. The cold will slow the fermentation process to almost a stop and it will stay pretty much like it is. I’ve never had a ferment go bad in the fridge. So far, I’ve had sauerkraut sit in there for several months and catsup longer than that..

The fermenting process adds a tang to your food. But recently, someone told me they had tasted sauerkraut that had sit for 6 months and it was the best and mildest they’d ever tasted.

Now I can’t attest to that yet, but you can bet I’m going to try it.

Share what you know.

Leave a comment below to let us know what food you’ve fermented and how you did it. I would appreciate any inspiration you can leave.

If you haven’t yet, but you plan to try, let us know what you come up with. I can’t wait to hear!!

Until later-

Health, Wealth & Blessings ~ Tracey

Grilled burger with homemade catsup and grilled banana peppers. — Homemade catsup on my grilled burger with my homegrown grilled banana peppers.

Either way homemade catsup is really easy and really good.

Recently, I’ve been on this theme of trying almost everything I can find homemade. Hint – coming soon, mustard and crackers among other things.

My goal is to make as much as I can from scratch and buy as little as I can from the store.

Just like garden grown veggies have so much more flavor than their store bought counterpart, in my opinion so does homemade condiments like catsup and homemade sweet pickles.

Regardless of what it is if it’s homegrown or homemade, it’s always so much better than what you get in the stores.

And if it’s homemade it’s a bonus, or maybe it’s the point of it, that you know what every single ingredient is you put into it.

Store bought tomatoes or home grown

In this spirit, every homemade catsup recipe I came across called for tomato paste. I rarely have tomato paste since you usually only use a tablespoon or 2 and I end up throwing it away.

But, this year I have a garden and I’m beginning to get a TON of tomatoes.

A batch of tomatoes getting ready to dehydrate. — Tomatoes that I’m getting ready to slice and dehydrate.

And, this year for my birthday, my awesome husband bought me the Cadillac of dehydrators, an Excalibur Dehydrator. I’ve wanted this thing for years, but it costs so much I wouldn’t buy it for myself.

Anyway, this means I’ve been dehydrating tomatoes. I knew there had to be a way to use those for this recipe.

So I searched the net and finally found a ratio method for mixing dehydrated tomatoes to water for paste and for sauce.

Just so you know…..it’s a 1:1 ratio for paste and a 2:1 water to dehydrated tomatoes for sauce.

So now I’m excited. Dehydrated tomatoes take up WAY less space than canned tomatoes. And this means I don’t have to can so many tomatoes….BONUS!!

Okay, back on track for homemade catsup.

To ferment or not to ferment

A jar of catsup with a fermenting lid. — My jar of homemade catsup with one of my new fermenting lid.

Most of the recipes I found said I could ferment them or not. As a general rule, we don’t use a lot of catsup, so I kinda wanted to ferment just so it would last longer.

Recently, I also bought myself some fermenting lids so I could ferment more. So since I had those I thought I would go ahead and give the fermented catsup a try.

From what I was reading, the recipe is no different either way. So, that made it easy.

Homemade Catsup

Making homemade catsup truly is one of the easiest things you could ever make. And best of all it can be made to suit your tastes. As you mix the ingredients, all you have to do is continue to taste it and adjust it to what you like best.

Although I read through about 3 or 4 different recipes, this is the one I settled on. First because I liked the ingredients and second, because I’ve liked most of the recipes I’ve found on her site so I trusted it would be good.

This recipe comes from theprairiehomestead.com. If you haven’t been there yet, you should check it out. She had a ton of great stuff there.

Ingredients:

12 oz or 1.5 cups of tomato paste
3 TBL of maple syrup or raw honey
3 TBL of raw vinegar
2 TBLS of whey or brine from an existing ferment***
1/4 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/8 tsp black pepper
1/8 tsp allspice**

*** You only need this ingredient if you plan on fermenting your catsup. I had just made some sauerkraut, so I used some of the brine from that.

**I didn’t have allspice, so I found a mixture you can use to make a homemade version. To make 1 tsp of allspice you use 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon, 1/2 tsp ground clove and a pinch of ground nutmeg.

Instructions:

Mix all of your ingredients in a bowl. If you are not going to ferment it, then put it in the refrigerator and your done. I’d let it sit for a few days just so all the flavors blend well.

A bowl full of ingredients to make catsup. — Mix all of your ingredients into your bowl and mix well.

If you’re going to ferment, then put your catsup in a pint jar, cover it with a fermenting lid, an airlock or a regular lid. If you use a regular lid, you need to remember to burp it either daily or a few times a day to let the fermenting gases escape.

Let it sit on your counter for about 3 days and then put a regular lid on it and move it to your refrigerator.

That’s it. It just doesn’t get any easier.

Another thing you’ll notice with this recipe is there is no sugar. I suppose you could use sugar if you wanted to in place of the honey or maple syrup. I wouldn’t know why, but you could if you wanted to.

You can adjust these spices to whatever taste you like. You could even add a touch of hot sauce if that’s something you might like. The possibilities of the different tastes you could come up with are endless.

So there you have it, really easy homemade catsup. I hope you give it a try. I know I’ll not be buying it from the store anymore. You may decide the same thing.

If you find you want to make your own catsup, let me know in the comments below how it turns out. If you change up the recipe, I’d love to hear how. I’d love it if you would post pictures of what you make.

Be sure to subscribe to get something new in your inbox every week. Canning season is coming up, I have a new dehydrator and I have several new recipes I’m itching to make, you won’t want to miss what’s coming.

Until next time-