Ask Lemmy
A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions
Please don't post about US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion
Rules: (interactive)
1) Be nice and; have fun
Doxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them
2) All posts must end with a '?'
This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?
3) No spam
Please do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.
4) NSFW is okay, within reason
Just remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either [email protected] or [email protected].
NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].
5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions.
If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email [email protected]. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.
Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.
Partnered Communities:
Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu
view the rest of the comments
thanks for the very well written post!!
I make my own fermented hot sauce and ginger bug but haven't done cabbage yet and didn't even think of saurkraut i was gonna do kimchi but my roommates love saurkraut so i'm excited to try this out.
one thing i learned about dealing with headspace is to put a ziplock bag of water at the very top of of the jar. Nothing can squeeze past it except liquid so you don't end up with anything solid poking out and getting moldy! I just did a sriracha that sat for months and it was heavenly. I don't crack my jars though i use the wire bale type that'll vent gas so i just look for the cloudiness from the lactobacillus.
i'm gonna do this very soon.
Was thinking about it today. I want to try making hot sauce. Wonder if you’d share a method?
sure, it's really easy and if you like hotc sauce it's both fun and saves you money.
The only special equipment I use are wire bale jars, a stick blender and xanthan gum for some sauces. Can get jars and bottles cheap at goodwill. I also keep sodium benzoate and add it to sauces i give away but just keep the ones i make in the fridge and they are always gone fast.
My method: Boil a big pot of water and let it sit with a lid overnight to get all the chlorine out. We are counting on lactobacillus to outcompete any other bacteria and to provide us with the lactic acid that preserves the peppers. Don't want to kill the lactobacillus with too much heat or chlorine but she can handle a little salt.
Wash (with some of the de-chlorinated water) and cut a pound or 1000 grams of peppers up (it's easier for me to buy a pound but easier to calculate the additives with a kilogram just go with whatever you got), leaving the stems on a few of them for flavor. You can add in garlic, onion, whatever. i have big jars that can hold this many at once but you might use less peppers or more jars as needed.
Whatever amount of peppers you end up with, stuff them in your jars leaving a couple inches at the top. sprinkle them with 3 to 5% of their total weight of kosher salt. Then top it up almost to the top with dechlorinated water.
Then I put a plastic bag filled with water in at the top of the jar so all the peppers are submerged and clamp it shut.
brine may ooze or even spray out under pressure so i put a towel over the top.
let it sit for a week or a few months and when your're ready separate the brine from the soft pickled peppers, blend up the peppers and add in your cloudy brine until you like the consistency (lean towards watery), then add in 2-3% by weight of xanthan gum to stabilize it, thicken it and keep it from separating in the fridge.
I put mine in those sealable glass bottles with the rubber gasket and wire clamp and they last months in the fridge and are so good! I get all my equipment at goodwill I wait until they are half priced or marked cheap and only pay $1 per bottle or jar unless it's very big or has cool designs.
good luck!
oh yeah if you get farty smells or you just want a more mellow flavor or you are storing it in bottles without a rubber gasket seal you can cook the pepper mash and brine and that'll mellow it out.
Thanks!! Going to share this thread with my brother too.
Kimchi ands sauerkraut really are the same thing from slightly different traditions. I switch back and forth between them. Use Napa cabbage, Korean chilies, and your optional fish sauce/shrimp. I do mine vegan. Talking with lots of Koreans, there really isn’t a right way, you have your family recipe basically. If It’s a vegetable, you can kimchi it and someone does.
Thanks for the tip on the bag, will keep that in mind for later use.