What are you fermenting today?

thefluiddruid

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ORChick said:
I am in the middle of making my first ever raised-only-with-sourdough bread. I've been baking bread on and off since I was 17 - a long time ago :lol: - and have been messing about with sourdough almost as long, but have always only used it as a helper, and flavor enhancer, letting commercial yeast do the "real" work. So last evening I mixed up the dough, and set it to rise overnight - or 12 to 15 hours, as the recipe advised. This morning, after 13 hours, it was at the top of the bowl, and thinking about taking over the countertop - it looks as though my sourdough is even livelier than I thought :lol:! I formed 2 loaves, and they are rising now - 6-7 hours, but I will be checking sooner! I am so pleased with myself that I have got over this hurdle; I have been hesitant in the past to put the work and time into it, and then possibly produce something akin to a doorstop - but I am hopeful that this will turn out well :D.
I remember my first time making an old "sourdough" type recipe, which is where I learned that you really SHOULDN'T add commercial yeast to such things..

My S.C.A. group at that time (White Buck Forest) was hosting Walt Wars. My buddy Ollie told me he had a Journey Bread recipe that was older than the bible, and that we would be making some for the event. He had arranged for us to use the kitchen at the local National guard armory, so we gathered our implements of destruction and set to work.

Journey bread was the medieval equivalent of C-Rations. It was intended to be carried on long journeys and to provide most of the nutrition one would need.

This particular recipe had lots of sweet fruits in it as well as nuts.

The plan was to make a starter batch and use that to make the larger batch rise. Our starter batch made about 2 gallons in a 5 gallon pot. This would have worked out fine, but it was closer to the weekend of the event than we would have liked so we added a little commercial yeast to the dough to make sure the starter would start rising soon.

I know now that was a mistake, but I wasnt very experienced in baking bread, so it sounded good to me at the time. We put a lid on the pan in case it popped a few dough bubbles and went home to let it rise overnight.

The next day my section chief called me over and told me in no questionable terms that I was going to report to the national guard armory after work to clean up my mess. Ollie had received the same message, so we showed up together to clean up any overflow..

We were stunned when we walked into the room. We had no idea how destructive dough could be.

The Journey Bread dough had not just bubbled up, it had climbed out of that five gallon pot and assaulted the room. There was dough everywhere, the table the pot was on, the floor, the walls, the ceiling, the racks of dishes across the room, everywhere!!

We cleaned that kitchen from top to bottom, including all the dishes and utensils in it. After we finished cleaning we decided to try and tame the dough still in the pan. We took all but about half a gallon of it and froze it for future use, and made a batch of dough using the half gallon we saved as a starter in the same five gallon pot. We put a lid on it and agreed to bake it the next night.

The next day I was again told that I would report to the armory after work to clean up my mess.

Now, I would have thought that after the great battle for the kitchen the night before, the dough monster would be too tired to cause any more problems, but I would have been sadly mistaken. When we arrived we saw that it had re-claimed the kitchen (and a bit of the hallway) as its own. We again bravely battled the dough monster most of the night, until we had the hall, kitchen, and everything in it clean.

We decided that the dough was probably too yeasty to use at this point and used a small amount of what remained in the pot as starter for yet another batch, and froze the rest to be use as starter at some future time. (That time hasnt arrived yet, and Ollies spirit has since joined the Great Mystery.)

We put the lid on that five gallon pot, and tied it down to make sure the dough monster didnt escape again.

That time the monster behaved and we made lots of journey bread for Walt Wars (originally Salt Wars) .
 

ORChick

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thefluiddruid said:
ORChick said:
I am in the middle of making my first ever raised-only-with-sourdough bread. I've been baking bread on and off since I was 17 - a long time ago :lol: - and have been messing about with sourdough almost as long, but have always only used it as a helper, and flavor enhancer, letting commercial yeast do the "real" work. So last evening I mixed up the dough, and set it to rise overnight - or 12 to 15 hours, as the recipe advised. This morning, after 13 hours, it was at the top of the bowl, and thinking about taking over the countertop - it looks as though my sourdough is even livelier than I thought :lol:! I formed 2 loaves, and they are rising now - 6-7 hours, but I will be checking sooner! I am so pleased with myself that I have got over this hurdle; I have been hesitant in the past to put the work and time into it, and then possibly produce something akin to a doorstop - but I am hopeful that this will turn out well :D.
I remember my first time making an old "sourdough" type recipe, which is where I learned that you really SHOULDN'T add commercial yeast to such things..

My S.C.A. group at that time (White Buck Forest) was hosting Walt Wars. My buddy Ollie told me he had a Journey Bread recipe that was older than the bible, and that we would be making some for the event. He had arranged for us to use the kitchen at the local National guard armory, so we gathered our implements of destruction and set to work.

Journey bread was the medieval equivalent of C-Rations. It was intended to be carried on long journeys and to provide most of the nutrition one would need.

This particular recipe had lots of sweet fruits in it as well as nuts.

The plan was to make a starter batch and use that to make the larger batch rise. Our starter batch made about 2 gallons in a 5 gallon pot. This would have worked out fine, but it was closer to the weekend of the event than we would have liked so we added a little commercial yeast to the dough to make sure the starter would start rising soon.

I know now that was a mistake, but I wasnt very experienced in baking bread, so it sounded good to me at the time. We put a lid on the pan in case it popped a few dough bubbles and went home to let it rise overnight.

The next day my section chief called me over and told me in no questionable terms that I was going to report to the national guard armory after work to clean up my mess. Ollie had received the same message, so we showed up together to clean up any overflow..

We were stunned when we walked into the room. We had no idea how destructive dough could be.

The Journey Bread dough had not just bubbled up, it had climbed out of that five gallon pot and assaulted the room. There was dough everywhere, the table the pot was on, the floor, the walls, the ceiling, the racks of dishes across the room, everywhere!!

We cleaned that kitchen from top to bottom, including all the dishes and utensils in it. After we finished cleaning we decided to try and tame the dough still in the pan. We took all but about half a gallon of it and froze it for future use, and made a batch of dough using the half gallon we saved as a starter in the same five gallon pot. We put a lid on it and agreed to bake it the next night.

The next day I was again told that I would report to the armory after work to clean up my mess.

Now, I would have thought that after the great battle for the kitchen the night before, the dough monster would be too tired to cause any more problems, but I would have been sadly mistaken. When we arrived we saw that it had re-claimed the kitchen (and a bit of the hallway) as its own. We again bravely battled the dough monster most of the night, until we had the hall, kitchen, and everything in it clean.

We decided that the dough was probably too yeasty to use at this point and used a small amount of what remained in the pot as starter for yet another batch, and froze the rest to be use as starter at some future time. (That time hasnt arrived yet, and Ollies spirit has since joined the Great Mystery.)

We put the lid on that five gallon pot, and tied it down to make sure the dough monster didnt escape again.

That time the monster behaved and we made lots of journey bread for Walt Wars (originally Salt Wars) .
:yuckyuck

... but the description of the Journey Bread sounds interesting :drool
 

thefluiddruid

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I don't have the recipe anymore, that was around 20 years ago.
However if you Google "Journey Bread" I'm sure you will find some recipes.

Today's project is Buttermilk Sweet Potato rolls.
The first batch just came out of the oven.
I use buttermilk because of the cultures in it and it works well with the yeast so that a mixed fermentation happens while the dough is rising.

I've been fermenting stuff for years, although the vast majority has been Meads, Methaglins, Melomels, Wines and Beers..
(I can also make a pretty decent homemade Root Beer if I have fresh Sassafras and Birch roots..)
My wife Dragonlaurel and I spent quite an amount of time living in the wilds and off of the land when we were younger, and I had grown up with my family doing a lot of stuff in the old fashioned ways.
I'm trying to get back to doing things that way as much as I can, especially since we are fairly low income.

I'm really looking forward to fermenting all kinds of stuff over the winter, which is my main "cooking season"..

Oh, and thanks for the welcome!!

the Fluid Druid



Edited to fix typo...
 

thefluiddruid

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I'm working on a Mock Kimche project, and I was wondering if anyone knew if the whey from active yogurt is the same bacteria used to ferment Sauerkraut and Kimche?

My veggies are cabbage (not nappa though, just regular head cabbage), onion, garlic, celery, bell pepper, and dried hot peppers from Dragonlaurel's garden.
My instructions had the fish sauce providing the culture, but I'm not sure that my commercial fish sauce is active culture, and after about 15 hours of it sitting on the kitchen cabinet I still don't have any signs of fermentation.
 

ORChick

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thefluiddruid said:
I'm working on a Mock Kimche project, and I was wondering if anyone knew if the whey from active yogurt is the same bacteria used to ferment Sauerkraut and Kimche?

My veggies are cabbage (not nappa though, just regular head cabbage), onion, garlic, celery, bell pepper, and dried hot peppers from Dragonlaurel's garden.
My instructions had the fish sauce providing the culture, but I'm not sure that my commercial fish sauce is active culture, and after about 15 hours of it sitting on the kitchen cabinet I still don't have any signs of fermentation.
Yes, you can use the whey from active milk ferments (yogurt, kefir) to kickstart the kimchee/Sauerkraut process. The cabbage itself should have the organisms necessary to start the process, but the whey will help it go faster.
 

rd200

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Okay, so i want to lacto-ferment something. im not sure yet, but i was thinking like Carrots or maybe some sauerkraut?? I dont even know if i like Sauerkraut, but id try it.Anyways, i was reading in NT and it said i needed Whey. And so i turned to the section in the book on Whey. And it said i could just leave Raw milk on the counter for 1-4 days and when it seperates, drain out the curds, which turns into cream cheese(according to the book) and the juice left over is the whey. Well, that just doenst sound right to me. If i leave the milk on the counter for 4 days its just going to be bad isnt it??? Its been out there for 36 hours now and it doesnt look like its doing anything yet.....

Also any suggestions on what a "beginner" fermenter should make???
 

so lucky

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RD200, your post is exactly what I came to this thread to post about this evening! I have been making kraut just using salt, but after reading how to make whey in NT, I made some whey to use in kraut. You can tell when the milk separates, the white solid stuff from the water. Anyway, I made a gallon of kraut using the whey plus salt. It looked and smelled right for about the first week, so I left it for a month, thinking it would continue to get more sour, and lose the saltiness, as my last batch had done. I retrieved it from the basement yesterday, and much to my dismay, found fruit flies all over the top of the container. The top inch or so of kraut was darker than the rest. It smelled bad, and the top of the cabbage layer was slimy-white, gooey. In an attempt to rescue my kraut, I made a half-hearted attempt to skim off the top two inches or so, but it smelled so bad, I had to dump the whole mess. Uggh!
So I, too, am wondering if real whey can be made from plain milk, or if it has to be cultured, as in yogurt.
Since I have been waiting impatiently for that batch of kraut, I made another batch last night, using just salt. Made only a quart this time. I used a cabbage leaf to keep the shredded cabbage from floating, and firmly screwed down the lid. I hope it doesn't explode! Previously, I have put a baggie full of brine solution on top of the cabbage, to keep the air out, and the cabbage under water.
I have found that eating just a bite of kraut before supper helps my digestion. Specifically, it keeps me from getting so bloated after eating. I don't ever want to be without it again. Am thinking of taking some with me when we go spend Christmas with relatives.
Good luck on your fermenting!
 

thefluiddruid

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I started a batch of Sauerkraut, and a batch of Mock-Kimchi today, and I will be doing some Corned Venison soon.
I've never done a lactic fermentation with meat before, so I'm looking forward to seeing what the venison turns out like!
 
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