There are SO many opinions and techniques around fermenting it's crazy. After reading for a couple weeks, I decided to try my first batch with chunks and will puree after. This was primarily to avoid the surface nasty risk on my first try. The ferment is in a liter jar with airlock. Ingredients are roughly 300g jalapenos, 100g serano, a sweet onion (300g) and a carrot (50g). (I like the Tabasco Green on eggs, but would like it better with a little more heat and less tart... thus my interest here.) The peppers were halved and seeded, the onion and carrot quartered. The onion and carrot are partially for flavor and partially some extra sugar/lacto to encourage natural fermentation. I covered it with 2% brine (to weight of pods/veggies) and weighted the top down below the surface with some glass "pebbles."
It's been a week, there's bubbles but it's definitely not bubbling. When I give it a little shake, quite a few bubbles surface. The brine has turned cloudy so it looks like it has taken off. There's nothing suspect on the surface of the brine. The head space is less by maybe 5/8-3/4 of an inch. House is pretty constant 78-80F.
First question is this... not knowing where the pH is, will it be safe for a while? Not sure when to move it to the fridge. Some say 7-10 days... others say a month or more. Almost all of the "ferment vegetable" how-to's suggest the ferment has pretty much consumed all the sugar in 4-10 days. I'm not really marrying flavors at this point since its chunks. I figure they can get happy once I grind them all together. Any thoughts as to where this batch of chucks would put the pH?
So, when fridge and what is pH? Thanks in advance.
It's been a week, there's bubbles but it's definitely not bubbling. When I give it a little shake, quite a few bubbles surface. The brine has turned cloudy so it looks like it has taken off. There's nothing suspect on the surface of the brine. The head space is less by maybe 5/8-3/4 of an inch. House is pretty constant 78-80F.
First question is this... not knowing where the pH is, will it be safe for a while? Not sure when to move it to the fridge. Some say 7-10 days... others say a month or more. Almost all of the "ferment vegetable" how-to's suggest the ferment has pretty much consumed all the sugar in 4-10 days. I'm not really marrying flavors at this point since its chunks. I figure they can get happy once I grind them all together. Any thoughts as to where this batch of chucks would put the pH?
So, when fridge and what is pH? Thanks in advance.
