Fermented edibles

[mccann51]

Since I started brewing last Oct, I've begun to take a strong interest in not just fermented (alcoholic) beverages, but fermented food and drinks in general.

Kimchi and kombucha are the only two I've dabbled in outside of mead and beer, though I'm hoping to delve deeper ("we have to go deeper") into fermented edibles. Right now, sourdough bread and the whey brew (either w kefir or yogurt, or both, my sour lactomel being the prototype) are on the immediate horizon for me.

I was hoping this thread could be something of a reference for fermented edibles in general. Searching for information online about fermented foods often brings up a huge amount of dissociated info. Being that we have such a varied, experimental, and passionate group of users here at Gotmead.com (whose fermented-adventures, I know from reading peoples' posts, does not stop at mead, beer, and wine), I figured if we all brought a little to the table, we could have a nice jump off point for a lot of different fermented edibles.

Here are the Wikipedia articles on fermented foods and drinks, which I found a valuable resource in simply making me aware of the great variety of fermented traditions there are. As well, here is Akueck's kombucha thread and the Mad Fermentationist's kombucha blog post (his blog in general has a lot of great info on fermented edibles), which I feel provide a very solid start for kombucha brewing.

For kimchi, my girl and I have been using a recipe from Taste of the East by Mark Reinfeld and Jennifer Murray. Looking online, this seems like a pretty standard recipe. I don't have too much experience with eating kimchi, but the stuff we're producing is very tasty; others have enjoyed it too. Adapted from the book:

For 4 to 6 cups,
1 large head green or napa cabbage (we've used green, but I think napa is the traditional)
2 tablespoons sea salt, or to taste (the salt inhibits bacterial growth; Lactobacillus is very saline tolerant, so this is the active organism in kimchi ferments)
0.25 cup minced garlic
2 inches peeled and minced ginger
1 minced and seeded hot pepper
1 tablespoon ground hot chile powder, or to taste
1 tablespoon unpasteurized miso paste, optional (we've always used miso)
1 tablespoon agave nectar, Sucanat, or sugar (or why not honey?)
1 cup diced mixed vegetables, optional (carrots and onions are our mainstay for this, but you can pretty much use any vegetable from my understanding; looking forward to trying it with broccoli)
1 cup water

1. rinse cabbage (and vegetables) well and remove outer leaves and roots (save outer leaves for later use). Chop the remaining leaves into 0.5 inch strips and place in 2-quart jar. Add 1-2 tablespoons of salt and fill with water. Allow to site for 1-2 hours.
2. Combine remaining salt and all other ingredients in a bowl with just enough water to create a creamy paste.
3. Drain and rinse the cabbage (and vegetables) well. Add to bowl with paste. Mix until everything is well coated.
4. Return mix to mason jar, add water to cover, and top with the outer cabbage leaves. Loosely place cover on jar to allow for gas escape. Allow jar to sit at room temp for 3-5 days (to taste, also depends on ambient temps). Place in fridge where it will continue to ferment (the taste will alter as time passes).

This is definitely not a definitive recipe, but it works great and is a good starting place for experimenting. We've done some alterations, and friends have done slightly different procedures with slightly different ingredients, all good. Like brewing, there's a lot of room for variation.



So, please, add your recipes (yogurt, sourdough, dairy kefir, tibicos [aka water kefir], kumis, sauerkraut, kimchi, kombucha, ginger beer, vinegar, miso, cheese, tempeh, natto, etc, etc), your thoughts, your experiences, your ideas, whatever.

 

[AToE]

One of my favourite all time foods is tempeh, I've got packets of start cultures ready to go, I just have to get my hands on a pile of soybeans and get started. Once I get some basic ones done I'm going to start smoking them (smoked tempeh is seriously one of the best food products ever) and experimenting with adding ingredients.

It gets dangerous though, because under similar conditions to those that the tempeh mould grows in, also some deadly things can grow - usually this happens if you add something like coconut into the mix.

For those who haven't had it, tempeh is (I believe) the only traditional soy product that didn't originate in China or Japan, it is from Indonesia - and it is awesome. It's soybeans cooked (never eat raw soy, poison) then fermented with a special mould, which grows and connects all the beans together into a cake of sorts (it doesn't seem like mould, it just seems like more soybean that's connecting the beans, but it ain't!). Also don't eat raw tempeh, bad idea.

It's fantastic, it's deep and nutty flavoured, almost mushroomlike in some ways. Higher in protein than any tofu (because it uses the whole bean), high fibre, high nutrients, has some extra nutrients added by the mould... it's seriously just too die for. I like to cut it into strips then fry it in oil and serve it on stirfry, or in a salad (great in ceasar salads), or use it as the "meat" in a sandwich... can't say enough good things about the stuff! ;D

 

[Chevette Girl]

Huh, I'll have to see if the Asian superstore carries tempeh.

Back before I neglected my starter to death, I did sourdough breads for about a year before I mostly stopped making breads at all (hence the starter's neglect). If you've made bread before you'll have a general idea of the consistency well-kneaded dough is supposed to have. I'd start with a cup of starter and a cup of warm water and mix in a cup of flour and let it sit somewhere warm for a couple hours till I know it's working, then I add flour to the right consistency and knead the heck out of it, cover and place somewhere warm until doubled in size (I like turning the oven on just till the element's red then turning it off and turning hte interior light on, that keeps enough heat that it's perfect for rising bread), punch it down and then usually I have to add a little more flour (maybe 1/4 cup but it differs) because the yeast actually digests the flour and everything ends up stickier, or so I've found, put it in two loaf pans, cover with waxed paper or parchment paper, let rise again, then bake till they're done (usually about 1 min after my oversensitive smoke detector starts blaring, handy, if annoying). let cool until you can handle the pans and then turn out onto rack, don't put into plastic bags until it's all the way cool.

I like using about half and half white and whole wheat, I start with a cup of whole wheat for the first part so the yeast chews on it for the longest.

 

[AToE]

Huh, I'll have to see if the Asian superstore carries tempeh.

If they don't then just go to superstore, should be in the cooler with the vegan cheese, free range eggs, stuff like that. They'll probably only have it marinated in something, but it'll still give you a really good idea of what it's like... it's a very hard to describe taste... subtly tangy nut-mushroom-beef?

 

[wildoates]

One of my first batches of mead was pumpkin, and I ended up with way too much mead-infused pumpkIn to just toss, so I froze it in ziplocks. I use it just like I would canned pumpkin in any pumpkin bread recipe, decreasing the liquid by a bit and adding a bit more sugar to compensate for the lack of it in the fermented pumpkin pulp. Top it with a streusel topping, bake, and voila! Drunk Pumpkin muffins or bread.

Not for children. Sometime I am going to try alcoholizing regular canned pumpkin by adding some rum and trying that as well. Why the heck not?!

 

[AToE]

Good idea.

I'd love to make my own kim chi (spelling?...), on the list of things to try some day.

 

[TheAlchemist]

Top it with a streusel topping, bake, and voila! Drunk Pumpkin muffins or bread...Not for children.

But if you've baked your drunkenPumpkinTreat, there shouldn't actually be any EtOH left, just the yummy essence of EtOH.

 

[AToE]

But if you've baked your drunkenPumpkinTreat, there shouldn't actually be any EtOH left, just the yummy essence of EtOH.

Cooking out alcohol is actually pretty difficult to do, takes a long time and it's never really all gone (which is why even de-alcoholized beer is still 0.5% ABV).

EDIT: That said, the small amount in something like this should be fine for anyone, not likely to get anyone tipsy!

 

[wildoates]

It loses some, no doubt, but not all.

 

[Brimminghorn]

I make sauerkraut every year usually 30 to 40 lbs worth.To every 5 lbs of cabbage I add 3 Tblsp. pickling or sea salt. I like to add a few juniper berries to the mix as well for extra flavor.

Jon.

 

[ZwolfUpir]

I made a jam from the fermented peach and ginger from the mead I recently made. It's rather good and I'm fairly sure dang near all the alcohol would be out of it for as long as it cooked. I made it sans pectin, so it was incredibly simple to make...

2 c Fermented Fruit and Such
1 1/3 c Sugar
1 Tblsp Lemon Juice
Spices if you like, I through a Cinnamon stick in while boiling down.
2 Tbls of water or what ever, I used some mead

Strain fruit bits over a bowl for about 15 min to get some more of the fluids out. It'd just be boiled off anyways.
Put into medium sauce pot with sugar, lemon juice, water/mead, and spices.
I think it was Julia Child who said, "A little for the pot and a little for me." Though I'm probably wrong, I'm always miss quoting... But yeah, drink off the rest of the mead, only a sip or two came out for me, but waste not want not.
So anyways, now the long part. Stir, stir, stir, and stir some more. I would recommend a silicon scraper spoon thing, makes it easier to get the sticky off the side and stirred in. Do not use a metal spoon, you could scorch your jam. It's at this point you convince one of your kids how much fun it would be to stir the goop. Mine are 17, so they don't fall for it so well...
While this is being stired, and please remember to stir since you don't want it burnt and stuck to the bottom, get some spoons in the fridge to chill. You'll be stirring a while so be patient. When it's starting to look thick and... well... jammy grab one of those spoons and scoop a bit out. You'll need to be quick and don't scoop to much cause you'll heat your spoon up to much. What your doing is called the spoon test and what your looking for is for it to stay blobed like jam should lookish. I say lookish cause the stuff you buy in the store has pectin and doesn't get cooked this long nor will this firm up as much as the store stuff.
When your done you will, at least i did, end up with something that your mead will taste like with an extra carmely nuttyness to it for the prolonged cooking. Oh! Almost forgot, you cook it on medium heat, like 5 or 6 depending on your stove.
I got 1 and 3/4 pints... or half pints... I dunno, the jelly jar size... My wife does the canning and would know the size but she's asleep. But I did the recipe with 2 cups cause that's all the fruit my batch produced, but you can scale up just fine. Though you will be stirring longer since more stuff in the pot.
Thinking about adding some of the lees next time for the vitaminy goodness.

 

[mccann51]

Haven't had tempeh in years, and I don't have an distinct memories of it. When I learned it was fermented, though, I knew I had to go back, haha. Do you have a recipe you could post?

It gets dangerous though, because under similar conditions to those that the tempeh mould grows in, also some deadly things can grow - usually this happens if you add something like coconut into the mix.

Any idea of what the indicators are for it going bad?

I've always been a bit on the prudish side in terms of questionable food due to a weak stomach growing up. As I'm getting older, though, I realize that questionable food is the best way to "exercise" said stomach (this "exercise" reasoning is also a favorite excuse of mine for drinking; gotta keep the ol liver on it's game). I've also been coming to the realization that we've gotten this far without refrigeration, how'd we do that except by relying on our olfactory system and certain hardwired responses to this-or-that scent (certain odors I don't feel one needs to learn to dislike). I now trust my nose if I'm gonna try something, if it's not an obvious objectionable odor, I take a nibble. If it passes the taste-bud test, then I figure my yeast and bacteria happy belly can take care of it. Haven't had a noticeable issue since implementing this approach.



ZwolfUpir, I like the idea of making jam from the spent fruit from a ferment. Of all the the crap I throw away after fermentation, the spent fruit always seems the thing I should most be using for something else (I usually throw it in the fridge thinking I'll get around to using it, and throw it out a few weeks later; it still smells good, haha, but it just seems like a lost cause at that point).

 

[AToE]

I don't think there's really a recipe to basic tempeh, you need the specific starter culture (can be ordered online) and then I think you boil the shelled soy beans, squeeze them to break them all in half, then their skins float up and you get rid of all those, then strain the beans. Then you add a little vinegar to get the pH right for tempeh-mould and wrong for bad-mould, mix the starter in thoroughly - put it in ziplock bags with a zillion holes punched in them, and let it ferment at a certain (very warm) temp for a day or two...

... I'd recommend reading an online tutorial to get it right though.

If you make it with just soy beans, right temp and such it should be safe, just don't eat it raw. The kind with coconut is actually illegal in Indonesia now (people still make it at home though sometimes) because it's seriously dangerous, whatever that coconut can make grow will kill you dead!

 

[JSquared]

I'm all for this kind of thing. I have a crock of pickles fermenting right now. Kefir in the fridge. Also love making sauerkraut, tons of different pickles, and of course cheese!

I love making cheese, last one I did was a really good cows milk blue. Also love Charcuterie! it has a close relationship to fermentation/bacterial foods. Hanging and aging salumi and hams and such are brothers to cultured foods, walking hand in hand... Ok now I'm hungry.

 

[ZwolfUpir]

...(I usually throw it in the fridge thinking I'll get around to using it, and throw it out a few weeks later; it still smells good, haha, but it just seems like a lost cause at that point).

That's the best part. By the time I'm done racking over I have noooo interest in stirring up a batch of jam so I put it in the fridge. I can come back to it much latter because of the alcohol in it keeps it preserved. I'm not sure how long would be too long to keep it, but this first clump of used fruit sat in the fridge long enough for wifey to nag me on it a bit, so I'm figuring a week or so between rack and jam.

 

[TheAlchemist]

I make sauerkraut every year usually 30 to 40 lbs worth.To every 5 lbs of cabbage I add 3 Tblsp. pickling or sea salt. I like to add a few juniper berries to the mix as well for extra flavor.

Jon.

Juniper Berries! Definitely worth a try!

 

[mccann51]

I'm all for this kind of thing. I have a crock of pickles fermenting right now. Kefir in the fridge. Also love making sauerkraut, tons of different pickles, and of course cheese!

Could you extrapolate on the cheese ferment? I've read about cultured cheese, but know nothing about it.

 

[Braxton]

I also love making fermented foods. I learned largely from the book "Wild Fermentation" by Sandor Katz. My favorite book on food. There is a good section on making tempeh in there. A friend of mine has a small cottage industry making tempeh, and the fresh stuff is incredible.

I enjoy juniper berries in sauerkraut, too. I also love caraway, but it is not for everyone. The kimchi I've made with napa cabbage has been a lot better than the stuff I've made with the big heads of cabbage, in my opinion.

One thing I love to make is lacto-fermented hot sauce. I buy a variety of hot peppers in the fall, food process them up with the seeds and some garlic, then put them in a salt brine with a weight to keep them submerged. It makes a really nice and nuanced hot sauce, better than I think I would get by using vinegar.

 

[JSquared]

Could you extrapolate on the cheese ferment? I've read about cultured cheese, but know nothing about it.

Its cultured cheese, most cheese has a bacterial culture added and then some also have mold as well (blue, white, or red) depending on the style of cheese you are making. So its all about microscopic little friends doing the work to make something delicious.

 

[AToE]

"Fermentation" when applied outside of alcohol production (or even within making booze, look at MLF) is a pretty wide term, more of a "microbes ate something in this and turned it into something else which is tasty" kind of a definition, rather than a strict scientific definition.