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pickling First ferment: Basic kraut. Testing out a Japanese pickle press for future hot sauce fermentation.

kraut-start-press.jpg

 
This kind of thing is normally used for quick light pickling, maybe a day or two in rice vinegar. I tried it out as an alternative to ordering mason jars with weights and nipple tops, which would end up being kind of painfully expensive to get to Japan.
 
It wasn't obvious to me when I ordered it, but the lid just sits on the container and has a couple of not-quite-latches that hold it down only if there's enough upward pressure from the spring pushing against whatever is in there. And it's made not to seal. So if my idealistic assessment is right, it should let a CO2 blanket form and easily push the rest of the air out.
 
I guess we'll see how it goes. My pepper plants should start producing within a couple of months, so hopefully this ends up working well.
 
Iv'e got an ohio stoneware crock i use for fermenting my kraut and pickles.  I ferment my hot sauces in wide mouth quart mason jars with lid locks.  Never seen the thing you are using in the picture above.
 
jedisushi06 said:
Iv'e got an ohio stoneware crock i use for fermenting my kraut and pickles.  I ferment my hot sauces in wide mouth quart mason jars with lid locks.  Never seen the thing you are using in the picture above.
Yeah, this like mason jars and lid locks are either impossible to get or way too expensive here, so I'm trying this, which is fairly common.

Think I'm going to end up with a mix of these and mason jars shipped from the US, because this is working reasonably well but doesn't seem ideal (and it's a lot less space efficient).
 
Just a couple days in, but this ferment seems to be going pretty well. I had some concerns about floaters, but while I have a few bits of cabbage that escaped the plastic plunger, they aren't actually floating.
 
kraut-briefly-fermented.jpg

 
I plan on letting this go for at least several weeks, but so far, it seems like the container works better than I'd hoped.
 
Regardless, I kept looking and found kind-of-reasonably-priced mason jars today, so I ordered a couple in pint and quart size. Also ordered weights and nipplids from the US. So I think I'll be able to do a combination of those and these to take care of whatever volume of peppers I end up with.
 
CaneDog said:
Is that juice that's bubbled up through the crank shaft into the small reservoir around the knob?
 
Good eye; I hadn't even noticed that. I had to go check to make sure, but that's kind of an optical illusion thanks to the slight green tint of the plastic. It's kind of hard to see from these angles, but if you look at the big white plastic plunger thing, there's no path for anything to bubble up; there's a good inch or so between the top of the liquid and where the clearish plastic of the lid starts.
 
Looking more closely at the pictures myself now, it appears the cabbage has been compacted a bit. So the spring in the top is certainly doing its thing, for better or worse.
 
SmokenFire said:
I could be wrong but I think they use something very similar for kimchi that might be easier for you to obtain international fish, though what you have seems to be working just fine.  :)
 
Interesting, thanks! I hadn't heard of this. I actually already make a lot of kimchi, which isn't nearly as finicky about its conditions as other ferments, so you don't really need special containers. Although that is a kimchi fridge, which cools the walls instead of the air inside, so I guess I do have one really big special container. :D
 
That sure took a turn for the worse. Going, going, gone.

kraut-failure-white.jpg


The few bits of white-and-less-pleasing-colors mold I probably could've just pulled out. When I left, it had just a bit of red in a couple places. Six days later... yeah.

kraut-failure-pink.jpg


It smells a bit not right. So I'd call this experiment is failure.

Anyone have any idea what the red/pink stuff might be?
 
[edit: Follow-up note: Emptied the container out tonight, and the stuff at the bottom smelled great, so I just need to figure out what the surface issue is. I do have the stuff for the mason jar + nipplid setup now, so I can just use that, but I'd like to get this unique little doodad working reliably as well for more than just quick pickling.]
 
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