The Great Sauerkraut Experiment Has Begun

Discussion in 'Food & Drinks' started by Yvonne Smith, Aug 14, 2016.

  1. Krystal Shay

    Krystal Shay Very Well-Known Member
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    I love garlic! Pickled garlic is really good too. When I canned my dill pickles, I would add a garlic clove to some of the jars. I ate raw garlic daily for years; crushed and minced, and down it with a full glass of water. (no garlic smell leak;)) It is a natural antibiotic and is good for so many other things. I kind have gotten away from eating the raw garlic. Like a lot of things I use to do, I must have gotten lazy about it. :confused:
     
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  2. Beth Gallagher

    Beth Gallagher Supreme Member
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    Here's my first jar of dill pickles. Hope they taste as good as they look.

    pickles.jpeg
     
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  3. Beth Gallagher

    Beth Gallagher Supreme Member
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    My fermenting crock arrived today and it's really nice. I was surprised that it is so heavy... weighs 7 lb 1.15 oz empty and it's a one-gallon capacity. I had so many cucumbers left over earlier that I put them in the crock instead of jars.

    crock.jpeg

    crock2.jpeg

    Weights...

    weights.jpeg
     
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  4. Mary Stetler

    Mary Stetler Veteran Member
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    So,it came with the stone?
     
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  5. Beth Gallagher

    Beth Gallagher Supreme Member
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    Do you mean the weights? This particular "kit" came with the crock, lid and the weights, but you can buy each piece separately. I think a lot of people just own the crock and use a plate or something as the weight, then cover with cheesecloth or a clean dish towel.

    The crock makes a nice utensil holder for next to the stove when not being used for fermenting...

    utensils.jpeg
     
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  6. Don Alaska

    Don Alaska Supreme Member
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  7. Don Alaska

    Don Alaska Supreme Member
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    We have a couple of the smaller crocks for the purpose of utensil holding, and one larger 5 gallon crock that we no longer use for much, although I used it for fermenting sauerkraut years ago.
     
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  8. Beth Gallagher

    Beth Gallagher Supreme Member
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    Thanks, Don. I understand that the brine will get cloudy as the fermenting progresses. That's the one thing I don't like as compared to "canned" pickles. These are supposed to be ready in 5-8 days.
     
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  9. Mary Stetler

    Mary Stetler Veteran Member
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    Hubby's crock is an old one his mother had that came with a piece of wood that fit perfectly but I wonder what is in the grain after all these years.
     
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  10. Beth Gallagher

    Beth Gallagher Supreme Member
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    You may be able to find a replacement top but that original one is probably fine. How great to have an old family heirloom crock! I'd love to see a picture of it.

    I was looking at the Ohio Stoneware products last night and ended up ordering a 2 qt. covered beanpot. I seldom make baked beans but having a "Made in the USA" crock sucked me in... again.

    And I realized last night that I made a big boo-boo with my first attempts at fermenting. I used regular tap water in my pickles, which is chlorinated city water. :( I had planned to use bottled water but I totally forgot!! It seems like the carrots are fermenting well with lots of bubble action, so maybe it will work ok after all. All of this is a learning curve.
     
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  11. Beth Gallagher

    Beth Gallagher Supreme Member
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    I checked my pickles earlier and they are fermenting... it smells quite "dilly" in my pantry. The gingered carrots have lots of bubble activity so I suppose the panic over tap water was another tempest in my teapot. :D
     
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  12. Beth Gallagher

    Beth Gallagher Supreme Member
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    Pickle Update: Ugh. My jar of pickles and the crock o'pickles have both been fed to the garbage disposal. Not sure what went wrong... but the pickles smelled weird and were getting soft. I'm not sure if it was the tap water, my technique, or the fact that I sliced the chunky cukes into spears but something went terribly wrong in the pantry.

    I have ordered two books on fermenting and won't try anymore pickles until next summer when I can buy fresh cucumbers.

    The gingered carrots still smell good thanks to the ginger. They were also made with chlorinated tap water so their status remains an unknown.
     
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  13. Mary Stetler

    Mary Stetler Veteran Member
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    I make refrigerator veggies sometimes--not canned. The secret is to put them in the fridge for a week before eating. They keep in there for months. But, if your hubby takes them out and leaves them on the counter fore ease of eating, the water gets cloudy and I bet the veggies would get soft.
     
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  14. Beth Gallagher

    Beth Gallagher Supreme Member
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    I'd be interested to hear more about your refrigerator vegetables, Mary. I thought I followed the fermenting instructions to a "T" but obviously I failed somewhere. According to most instructions, the ferment is to sit at room temp for 2-3 weeks and once the pickles have reached the desired "sour" level, they are moved to the refrigerator to retard further fermenting.

    @Yvonne Smith , do you ferment pickles or just sauerkraut?
     
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  15. Don Alaska

    Don Alaska Supreme Member
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    We make refrigerator pickles all the time. We fermented some for a while, but didn't particularly like them, so we no longer do pickles, although we do ferment other things. You can simply boil the water to remove most of the chlorine if you don't have bottled water--some of which is also chlorinated so be cautious.
     
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