Food preservation - fermentation

I had picked up some Sanfrancisco sour dough starter at Amazon (of all places, believe it or not) and it was really decent stuff. I still have that ferment going. So however old it was when I received it I still have it going from early last yera's Spring.

Before I head out of here I would also suggest to the thread itself a book by Sandor Ellix Katz called "wild fermentation" which goes into the craft of live cultured foods. I also have the complete idiot's guide to fermenting foods, but I havent really sat down with that one, I should have because I am such an idot I have experimented with various fermentations and cultures, whether various bread sponges, water kefir and milk kefir, yougurt, cultured sour cream and cultured butter, home made vinegars and cheeses. I am limited with canning because of our set up. Firstly, when I had purchased a huge pressure canner, but I did not take into consideration the height between the stove and the bottom of the microwave (it did not fit) and so when the microwave died I had that one replaced it with an on the counter model (which I hate) lol. But then I ran into another problem the warning of using it on a glasstop stove (which is what we have) and I was like...great...My husband is sorta getting fed up with the time it takes to heat up and I (personally) have been less then careful dragging my cast iron pans across it and its not looking good (nor can I get it to look that way) so I am hoping to be able to ditch this countertop glasstop. I will say I am torn on this, because I love the easy clean up on it (and I really hate those coily stoves) but prefer a gas range or the wood stoves (but as things are going and not to mention year round cooking with the latter) that might not be such a good idea (cant find a place for it besides). I thought, man, I am never going to use this thing so I gave my pressure cooker to one of my best friend's in Indianna so I need another one now if I would take this up. Besides, I have no cans left so as you can imagine the cost to get this whole canning thing for me has been quite a large one. Remove and replace and relocate microwave, and we need to remove and replace stove and now I need to rebuy the large pressure canner (not to mention get jars)

I still love to watch all fermenting type vids and all canning vids just as I do gardening, even though I cant do one (being physically limited) and the other momentarily being financially limited (at least as it is now).

But this is fun in the areas I have played around in.

I dehydrated my kefir grains, Im sort of itching to see if they can spring back to life, if they do I can send you the rest of mine (because Im done with that)

I can send you a vinegar mother/s, even a year old sour dough sponge starter from Sanfrancisco and the rest of my kefir grains if you would like. I believe the weather might have to be a tad cooler (say October /Novemeber here) if you were interested.

I would also love to test the shipping of these items.

Fantastic thread I will follow.
I think that, to some extent, the American food and diet most likely purges our systems from many of the good things we need. Your body needs many kinds of living things that live in our tummies. Mostly bacteria that assist in the digestive process, but also that provide certain nutrients we could get from nowhere else.

Yoghurt
Tofu
Vinegar
Soy sauce
Sourdough bread

And millions of good bacteria. I dont know about canning but glass jars are good for fermenting/preserving all sorts of food, just make sure you seal it properly.

I think nowadays since so much food is irradiated, microwaved and salted and preservatives added to an inch of its life all the vitamins are lost. So you'd lose all the benefits and vtiamins especially if you microwave it. I would advise just ditch the microwave.

Good points GB. I still like the microwave, but I suspect anything you put in there is likely devoid of any nutritional value.

Didaskalos said:

Good points GB. I still like the microwave, but I suspect anything you put in there is likely devoid of any nutritional value.

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We cant diss the microwave popcorn



(she's too cute!)

I use it for heating up water fast or melting butter

Often I use it to nuke my coffee since I get up way later then my husband (unless I am up when he gets up)

Yep, you might be right, I named nothing of any nutrional value in all of that did I?

Although sometimes I will nute a bake potato. And I did try making mozzarella cheese in the microwave and that worked, but it probably killed any decent stuff that was in either of them.

FreeinChrist said:

I would love it but I live in Belize and shipping and going through customs is a pain. I would have to carry it through after a trip to the US.

I did Water Kefir, but it did not taste as good to me as regular Kefir. The first batch of Kombucha will be ready in 2 weeks. Luckily I found a source for it where I live, so will be trying that, too. I did Spicy Zucchini slices with garlic and onion and it was okay Kimchi is next on my list.

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Oh man, I thought you lived in the U.S. Yeah I would hate to see that shipping huh? Not too far back I had sent a friend a double batch of home made peanut butter cookies in Idaho and it was like $50 to ship them and I had no clue. My husband said, wouldn't it be better if you just found out a bakery in their area (called in an order) and have them both do the work and bring it to their door? And I thought, wow, I am so sorry hon, I had no clue but I will just hand it to him and he ships stuff for me. I never really asked how much shipping it, and he will typically never say anything (even if it was high) but he finally enlightened me with those.

He was like, you know, those were the most expensive cookies I ever sent anywhere

I never got around to making my own Kombucha, I wanted to, was planing on it but when I tasted it, I thought I am not going to complicate things and bring in those things I really dont enjoy. So I havent done that one.

The one drink I have been dying to try is home made root beer ready to go (I never drink it but I do love root beer) and it will likely flop as I start out (which deters me). But in that one I am stuck with using an artificial ingredient because the Sassafras root is illegal to obtain. I have the bottles and all I just havent done it. Same with wine (I have the equipment I just havent done it). I have an area of my home tied up at the moment where I would like to grow in there (which I cant) while it may be growing other undesirable things (although I hope not). I wouldnt want to contaminate one thing in the other.

Now that zucchini garlic sounds interesting, how was that? Any good?

Garlic makes everything taste good.

Ever have pickled onions? If so what do they taste like?

Are they worth making to store in such a way? Because I wonder if they can be used the same way regular onions are used. I am sort of doubting it, because I dont much like that vinegary taste too much. The taste in pickled eggs (I dont like that). Although I do like sauerkraut (and thats fermented)

I tried that copycat recipe for KFC coleslaw, and it was better then KFC's I never liked coleslaw, I do now.

posted: "The benefits of making my own yogurt is that I will not have to buy containers that then become waste, and it will be cheaper."

No doubt a machine to make yogurt would be nice but I have made yogurt successfully using an ice chest and jam jars. There's several websites with the details.

Fireinfolding said:

I had picked up some Sanfrancisco sour dough starter at Amazon (of all places, believe it or not) and it was really decent stuff. I still have that ferment going. So however old it was when I received it I still have it going from early last yera's Spring.

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I have had probably more than a dozen different sourdough cultures over the years. But the first one I had in college (and now almost 40 years later have again) is by far the best: SourDough Jack's Alaskan starter. It was collected from the wild at the turn of the last century (1900) and is still going.

I've been making yoghurt for many years. I use a cheap 5 litre slow cooker. It is delicious, creamy and not sour at all. Our yoghurt is less 1/3 of the price then in the shops and tastes far better.

Recipe

(Boil all utensils before using.)

Heat 4.8 litres of full cream milk to 180 degrees (80 Celsius) We do it by putting the milk on low at night before we go to bed and this warms it to about 160 degrees in the morning when we get up. It seems like the longer it takes to heat the milk the sweeter the yoghurt is.)

add 1 1/4 cup of full cream milk powder, stir well

re-heat to 180 degrees

let cool to 110 degrees (41 Celsius)

cream top

add 300 ml starter yoghurt (we use Greek style natural yoghurt for the first batch)

put in Esky (cool box) with two warm water bottles and a towel over the top of the crock pot

leave to culture for 8-9 hours

drain whey

stir yoghurt well and pour in container.

Refrigerate stays good for 10-12 days.

(we freeze our own starter yoghurt 5x 300 ml is enough to make yoghurt for about a year.)

DaveW-Ohev said:

I have had probably more than a dozen different sourdough cultures over the years. But the first one I had in college (and now almost 40 years later have again) is by far the best: SourDough Jack's Alaskan starter. It was collected from the wild at the turn of the last century (1900) and is still going.

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Okay now that is amazing They get better with age too so I bet you have some decent bread from that. You must keep yours in your fridge (or dehydrated in your freezer) and not on your counter right?

Well, I dont know I killed the one in my fridge because out of sight for me is out of mind for me and so I forgot to feed it. I have maintained this other daily on the counter, but I cant imagine for that long

Thats awesome

Fireinfolding said:

You must keep yours in your fridge (or dehydrated in your freezer) and not on your counter right?

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In the fridge with a backup dried and in the freezer. Since it is from Alaska, it handles the cold fairly well.

FreeinChrist said:

I mis-wrote. It was spicy cucumber slices. I got it from the Complete Idiot's Guide to Fermenting Foods.
It is basically :

Spicy Cucumber Pickle Slices
Add a few of these to the sandwich or burger of the person who likes a little spice. They’ll be thanking you! 3 medium cucumbers, ends trimmed 1⁄3 medium onion (any type), sliced thinly 4 cloves garlic, cut into thirds 5 peppercorns 1⁄4 tsp. red chili flakes 1⁄2 tsp. mustard seeds 1⁄4 tsp. celery seed 1 TB. grated fresh gingerroot 2 cups Basic Brine (recipe in Chapter 4), plus additional as needed
1. Submerge cucumbers in ice-cold water for 30 minutes, unless using just-picked cucumbers.
2. Slice cucumbers into 3⁄8-inch slices. Pack into a wide-mouth quart jar or other fermenting container with onion. Add garlic, peppercorns, red chili flakes, mustard seeds, celery seed, and gingerroot.
3. Pour brine over all, but keep below 1″ of the jar rim. Put a regular-mouth lid on top of cucumbers to hold down below brine. Cover the jar tightly with lid or airlock.
4. Leave at room temperature for 3 days. Transfer to cool storage.


Harmon, Wardeh (2012-10-01). The Complete Idiot's Guide to Fermenting Foods (p. 69). DK Publishing. Kindle Edition.

Zucchini relish is popular here and that is something I would try, but local folks do a good job.

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Thats the book I mentioned that I had in my earliest post, although I hadnt tried any of those recipes out of it yet lol

Could have saved you time in typing all of that out for me, because I just wanted to know how you liked it (if it was any good).

Thanks