First Lacto

[SoHot]

Started some jalapenos a month ago and they turned out great! Good flavor and still nice and crunchy. I used some of the brine to start a new one with some penos, garlic, onions and carrots. Trying a new type of waterless lid on this one. Completed one on the left. I did a quart and divided them into 2 pints. 
 
Did a 3% salt brine. On avg how long do y'all let your lactos before you start to eat on them?
 
 

 

[austin87]

Started some jalapenos a month ago and they turned out great! Good flavor and still nice and crunchy. I used some of the brine to start a new one with some penos, garlic, onions and carrots. Trying a new type of waterless lid on this one. Completed one on the left. I did a quart and divided them into 2 pints. 
 
Did a 3% salt brine. On avg how long do y'all let your lactos before you start to eat on them?
 
 

 
I just did this here: http://thehotpepper.com/topic/67064-austin87-getting-funky-with-fermentation/
 
Finally tasted the peppers today (3 weeks). You should let it go 3-4 weeks, minimum, before moving to the fridge. You can let it go longer before moving to the fridge, but after about 3 months the probiotic lacto-bacteria population will start to decline.
 
For more repeatable results, weight your veggies add 2-2.5% salt by weight, then top with a brine of equal % salt by weight.
 
For example, if one batch has 700 grams of peppers and the next batch has 800 grams of peppers, the 3% salt brine won't give you the same saltiness in each batch. It may not be a huge difference, but if you want it the same every single time, weight out your ingredients.
 
*I learned this AFTER I set up these ferments, but I'll be weighing salt for everything going forward.

 

[SoHot]

Thanks for the link. Your ferments look great! Just so I am clear on the salt. For the salt on the pepper weight you just add it onto of the peppers undissolved and then add the salt brine on top of that? If so do you just swish it around some to get the salt in the jar dissolved then pop on the air lock?

 

[patrad]

Thanks for the link. Your ferments look great! Just so I am clear on the salt. For the salt on the pepper weight you just add it onto of the peppers undissolved and then add the salt brine on top of that? If so do you just swish it around some to get the salt in the jar dissolved then pop on the air lock?

 

There are two methods.  What I'd call wet brine or dry brine.  For whole sliced vegetables I usually make a water/salt brine (wet brine) and pour it over.  So I usually take a liter of water, put in on a scale, then measure the appropriate amount of grams to hit the percentage of salinity I want in the water.  (30 grams would be 3%)
 
For pepper mashes where adding water is not needed (dry brine), I measure the weight of the ground/processed pepper/veg mash.  Then do some math to figure out how much salt to add.  (Let's say you have 1234 grams of mash and want 5%: 1234 times .05 = 62 grams of salt to add.  I think metric is easiest for all this) I like to salt in a mixing bowl, mix it up then pack it in a jar.  Wait an hour and usually the salt draws out enough liquid to pack the mash down below the liquid line.  Then I weight it down and if I need a little more liquid I'll top it off with some spring water (or beer or wine if I'm feeling adventurous) but not factor that into my salt calcs.

 

[austin87]

Thanks for the link. Your ferments look great! Just so I am clear on the salt. For the salt on the pepper weight you just add it onto of the peppers undissolved and then add the salt brine on top of that? If so do you just swish it around some to get the salt in the jar dissolved then pop on the air lock?

 
Yes. Salt will naturally draw moisture out of your peppers or other fermented vegetable. To make sauerkraut, salt is added to sliced cabbage and manually bruised by squeezing and mixing. With sauerkraut you'll often have enough juice that once it's packed into a jar and the liquid from the bowl poured over the top, there won't be a need for additional brine.
 
So I would recommend putting your weighed veggies in a large bowl sprinkling with your desired percentage of salt. Toss it around to coat evenly and start drawing out moisture. Then pack the veggies and the brine in the bottom of the bowl into a jar. Top with brine of the same salt percentage.
 
You don't NEED to do this... but it's the only way to make sure that every single batch has the same amount of salt as previous batches.

 

[SoHot]

I opened them and tasted them today. Very good flavor. But on this batch the penos and carrots are not crispy. They were more mushy. First batch I did was just penos and salt water. They were very crispy after a few weeks. This batch I lowered the salt a little and added the carrots, onion and garlic to the penos. What changed? Why is this batch not crispy?

 

[Snyiper]

Could it be the sugar from the carrots fermenting changed the amount of time needed to ferment?