What are you fermenting today?

[hqueen13]

Sure thing, Cheepo!
If you are interested more in the milk issue, you might want to visit www.rawmilk.org I wouldn't trade my raw milk for anything now! Pasteurized milk tastes gross to me now!

 

[citylife]

I am lacto-fermenting some carrot sticks right now. I put them in a jar with some kefir whey, a bit of salt, garlic cloves and red pepper flakes. It has been doing its thing for 4 days. Tastes pretty good. Next batch I probably will not use the garlic.

update

I think it is finished. Now I dont know what to do? LOL If it sits in the same liquid it will get stronger and that is not at all what I want.
it is good and garlicy so I think I should drain them and put water over them and refridgerate.
Any feed back is appreciated as I am very new to this fermenting thing.

 

[ORChick]

I just made up a jar of horseradish, following these directions: http://nourishedkitchen.com/homemade-horseradish/ I'll see how it tastes in a few days. I say "I", as I am the only one who eats it . I usually make it with vinegar, but thought I'd give it a try fermented this time.

 

[KnittyGritty]

I have been fermenting foods for awhile (sauerkraut, kimchi, sourdough starter), even fermented lemonade from thehealthyhomeeconomist.com, and have been wanting to try kombucha and/or water kefir. Does anyone know if one of these is more beneficial for your body than the other? I know that kombucha uses a SCOBY and sugared tea, and that water kefir uses grains and sugared water, and that you can flavor both of them after the first ferment, but I was wondering which one is better for you. Anyone have any advice for me?

 

[so lucky]

Since the nutritive value levels haven't been actually measured in either, I believe, probably the biggest factor would be taste preference. If water kefir doesn't taste any better than milk kefir, I would definitely choose the kombucha. But that's just me.

 

[KnittyGritty]

Oh, yeah, I hate the taste of milk kefir; that's why I only use it in smoothies to disguise the taste! I'm looking for something for us to drink that's healthy and to steer my husband away from sodas. He's not crazy about drinking just water all the time like I do. The water kefir seems easier, since you don't have to go to the trouble of making the tea first. Thanks for responding!

 

[so lucky]

I have a new scoby I got on Thursday. Made up a batch that evening. I hope to add some ginger to it before it finishes. I would also like to become comfortable bottling it up, so I can keep the carbonation up. But I hate explosions....

 

[ORChick]

Yesterday I made a batch of fermented mayonnaise a la "Nourishing Traditions". I decided to do it with a wire whisk instead of in the blender, as I usually do, just to see how difficult it really is, and because I have read that the violent action of the blades can make the olive oil bitter. Don't know if that is true or not, but the result yesterday was very nice, and while it obviously took longer to make it really wasn't that hard to do. I used 2 egg yolks (fresh plucked from the nesting box) rather than 1 whole egg and 1 yolk; I gather that when hand whipped you don't want or need the dilution of the egg white. It is very nice; I could (and, maybe, have ... ) eat this with a spoon.

I also started a ginger beer starter. 2 to 3 days to start bubbling? No, I don't think so, not in this warm weather (which finally arrived in the PNW a week or so ago ) It is already bubbling away quite nicely, and I look forward to nice, cool ginger beer in a week or so. I use honey rather than sugar, but otherwise follow the recipe as given here: http://down---to---earth.blogspot.com/2012/01/making-ginger-beer-from-scratch.html

And, as a follow up to my last post here, back a few on this page, the fermented horseradish that I made last March is doing very nicely. It has retained both flavor and color, and shows no sign of going off at all.

 

[baymule]

How can I make a sourdough bread starter without yeast? And is it possible to make sourdough bread without yeast?

 

[ilvalleygal]

I used the starter method described at sourdoughhome.com

It's just flour and water that eventually starts getting bubbly.

After using that for awhile, I now make a type of "bucket bread" from a technique I also found online:
http://holleboomkitchen.blogspot.com/2010/09/sourdough-bucket-method.html

I do cut the above recipe in half though.