Fun Fermenting

I love kitchen stuff. I’m like a kid (and some adults) with a comic book when the William Sonoma, Sur la Table, or Chef’s Catalogs arrive. I browse them over and over, dog-earing pages of interesting new kitchen equipment and gadgets. Just writing this reminded me of one of my favorite new tools that Lauren gave me for Mother’s Day. I hadn’t planned to talk about it, but I’m so excited about it and this is the perfect forum. It’s called a Kuhn Rikon Smart Lid. The lid snugly fits both our 10” and 12” fry pans, but also may be used with smaller pans; it's clear on top so you can see what’s happening in the pan and it has a venting system that allows you to let the steam escape or it may be closed tight keeping moisture in. It’s a bit expensive at $30, but well worth the price. Check it out.

Okay, back to the point of this story. During my MFP training, we learned about fermenting and made sauerkraut as an example of that technique. It was incredibly easy and turned out well. It was while I was eating the sauerkraut at our graduation dinner that a fellow-MFPer told me she’d bought her father a fermenting system from a store on Etsy. He hadn’t used it yet, but the design she described sounded interesting. I wasted no time and ordered a starter kit from the shop, Primal Kitchen. The starter kit included a glass crock with a special lid (Kraut Kap) with a hole in the middle and an airlock device that securely fits into the silicone seal surrounding the hole. The design is unique, because it allows the carbon dioxide to escape, while not allowing oxygen to enter the system (or anything else while it sits in a closet for over a month fermenting). Also included in the kit was a crock rock Mason jar weight, which keeps the kraut submerged in brine. It sounded good and looked impressive and I ordered it. We started our first batch in August and not being able to wait any longer, we ate it this past weekend. This story isn’t really about the recipe we used, but this is a perfect time to share it, so I’ll digress again. 

This is a recipe a friend shared with us and includes our changes. Place a quart of sauerkraut in a Dutch oven. Top it with a layer of sliced onions (I can’t stand partially cooked onions, so we lightly caramelized them). Next, add a layer of sliced apple that has been cored and peeled and a layer of sliced potatoes (Yukon Gold are my favs). Finally, top with a couple of fresh sausages (for example, Apple Sausage from Lockeford). Pour over these stacked ingredients about 4 ounces of beer or white wine and cook on the stove top for about 35 minutes or until done. At the end of the cooking time, remove the sausages and either quickly brown them in a frying pan or grill pan. Serve. It’s an easy one-pot meal and very tasty. The sauerkraut was the star and it didn’t disappoint.

Back to the fermenting jar. Our results were perfect. Never had a problem with loss of brine, slime, or scum and no bad smells in our pantry where it resides; all problems that can occur when making sauerkraut. We spent no more than 30 minutes total preparing the cabbage for the fermenting process. That’s it.  After that we just checked it weekly to make sure the cabbage remained submerged. The closed system seemed to keep the brine from evaporating and the level actually increased slightly at first and then remained constant. It couldn’t be simpler.

What’s the point of fermenting? Aside from the incredibly beneficial bacteria created, lactobacillus, I find the process absolutely fascinating. To think that two ingredients, cabbage and salt…

…placed in a fairly warm room (68° to 72° F) for a month or more result in something edible is beyond me. We happen to love the taste, so that’s a bonus. Now, if you don’t like the taste of sauerkraut, but do like a good dill pickle, then there’s still an opportunity for you to begin fermenting. Before we started our second batch of kraut today, we started three quarts of Kirby cucumbers fermenting in a salt-water brine and a few other non-essential additions to the fermenting process, dill weed, garlic, red peppers, cabbage leaves, and grape leaves for crispness. 

Preparing the pickles for the fermentation process was very similar to making sauerkraut. This time, though, we just used a 1-quart large mouth canning jar. The extra Kraut Kaps came with my second order from Primal Kitchen. I know what you’re thinking (second order?)…LOL! Here’s the web address: www.etsy.com/shop/PrimalKitchen.  Order a starter kit and have a little fun fermenting.