This is day 7 of my ginger bug and I'm seeing no bubbles at all. I fed it the first three days, then I read you should leave it for a bit if it tastes sweet, then only fed it every other day. Added sugar yesterday. Today I tasted it and it's .. not good. Has a slightly garbage smell. It's my first try. Is there any saving this?

Don’t ask me why a naturally anxious person is fermenting food okay.

I made my first batch of pickles from my garden, I only did % of water weight and did several jars. Now I know I should have done the total weight.

I used grey Celtic sea salt and a scale. My water brine % ranges from 4-5.6%.

I tastes them this morning, some little bubbles (honestly expected a bit more but they are in a 71 degree closet so nothing too warm) nothing crazy (I’m about 36/38 hours in), and I messed up and didn’t weight them until 9 hours on. No mold when I added weights.

Tasted my jars this morning- didn’t taste incredibly salty, but tasted kind of like a slightly salty cucumber.

Thoughts on if I’m going to be dead in 12 hours and if I should just scrap this lot?!

Made 13 lbs of vegan kimchi on Sunday. I used tamari soy sauce, mushroom powder, and kelp for some nice umami in place of fish sauce and brined shrimp. It’s going in the fridge tomorrow. I am excited to give it a proper taste test.

This is my first kimchi. I hope that I wasn’t overly enthusiastic with the amount made. less

Decided to make a ginger bug for the first time after I had some leftover ginger looking a little tatty. This is day 4. Day 1: 2 tablespoons of chopped ginger and equal parts sugar with 500ml filtered tap water (filter on the tap), then 1 tablespoon of ginger and 1 tablespoon of sugar every day with a good stir.

It’s starting to look a little active now, with foam on top and very, very slight bubbling. It smells quite nice — not too gingery, sweet, and almost floral. I’m guessing this is going in the right direction and looks OK? Still not sure what I’m going to do with it.

Is this safe to use? I've made red wine vinegar a couple of times. But I've never had success with white wine vinegar. Figured it was the sulfites. But tried again with this leftover cava & used more mother than previously. Thought it was doing good until I looked today. I'm question the safety of using.

Hi all,

I'm wondering if raw garlic in fermented salsa is safe?

I'm new to fermentation and read that raw garlic can cause botulism.

My recipe was:
Tomato
Cilantro
Jalapeno
Lime juice
Salt (2% of total weight)

I then let it sit on the counter for 3 days untill it's bubbly when I open it.

I now put it in the fridge and tasted it, it tastes good (bit garlicy, but I added a lot on purpose) and according to the recipe this will last months.

But I want to avoid food poisoning and Botulism doesn't show on spoilage, so how do I avoid any issues? Taste is great btw!

I thought I had had bottle bombs before. I was incorrect. My elderflower flavored water kefir, I went to burp it 18 hrs in and *poof* it was gone and my kitchen was raining. Didn't even get to see a geyser!

I have my plans for preventing this: my apartment was rather hot, and my kefir was new so I gave it a little ginger love which wont happen again. Note: I know folk say open under a bowl or in a bag... I think Id have a bowl embedded in my ceiling Another note: so struggling w my water kefir because the 2 bottles that didnt get ginger are barely puttering

But now I need to clean. I spent a good 40 min swiffering my ceiling, mopping the ground, wiping all cabinets with ample water, cleaning my water filter pitcher... but a lot of things still feel sticky

Anyone have special tricks for removing the stickiness?

I live in San Diego and picked some madrones (Strawberry Tree Arbutus unedo) this morning from some neighborhood trees. I mashed them to make vinegar and a few hours later saw what looked like worms/larvae floating. I pulled a couple out and zoomed in.

Question: can I continue as is and just filter them out in two weeks after the main fermentation is done? Any concerns?

I eat these fruits off the trees all the time so I'm sure I've already eaten many of these worms over the years.

Picked a bit chanterelles recently and decided to ferment it for the first time.

1. Cook in boiling water with a pinch of lemon acid (i believe it helps to keep the color of mushrooms) for 10 min.

2. Make a 3,5-4% brin. I use the water in wich i cooked the chanterelles.

3. I added garlic, hot chili pepper, black pepper, clove and dried herbs. I think there's no rules.

4. Left for 5 days in room temperature. Then put chanterelles in a jar with spoon of oil and black pepper. That's it. Keep it in fridge.

I like the result. Chanterelles are juicy, a bit crispy. Next time maybe will add less garlic and more chili.

I make a batch of kimchi every few months but I think this is my first time posting about it.

The warm weather in the UK recently has made it very active!

I’m not very experienced with fermentation, but I’m quite comfortable making this now after a few goes, so it’s probably a good place for beginners looking to start.

I think it was loosely based on a Brad Leone recipe, but here’s how I made it (my quantities filled two 1 litre jars):

• 2 Napa cabbage, quartered lengthways, rinsed and then sliced (mine came to 1200g)
• Salt (5% weight of chopped cabbage including any residual water on the leaves from washing, so 60g for me)
• Other vegetables. The total weight of this veg should be around 50% of the weight of the washed cabbage, but up to 100% should be fine with these levels of salinity. For example I used:
  • Two carrots (peeled and julienned)
  • 1 daikon (peeled and cut into 1cm cubes)
  • 1 small bunch of spring/green onions. Trim both ends and cut into ~inch-long segments.
  • 6-8 cloves of garlic, finely sliced (for the allicin)
• 30g Korean chilli flakes - I got these from a local Asian supermarket (I use Taekyung brand but others should work well). Feel free to reduce this for your first batch if you’re unsure about the spice level.
• Approx. 1 tbsp of starter liquid. I use the last bit of liquid from my previous batch, but for my first batch I used a bit of liquid from a jar of kimchi made by a local supplier. Importantly this should be a live culture, so unpasteurised. If you don’t have this, the ferment should still be fine but will take longer to get going which also opens the door slightly for other stuff to grow, but the salt helps protect against that too.

Add the washed and chopped cabbage to a large mixing bowl along with the salt and massage together. Let it rest for 2 hours, massaging every 30 minutes; the cabbage should release quite a lot of liquid.

Mix in the rest of the ingredients and transfer to your jars, including any liquid.

Let it sit at room temperature (away from sun or heat sources) for a few days until the bubble production peaks and drops. In winter this can be a week or more, but for me in summer this will likely be 3-4 days.

Open it regularly to prevent it from overflowing and to push the surface veg below the surface of the liquid like I’m doing in the video.

Once it’s done, transfer to the fridge and it should keep for months, if it lasts that long!

Sorry if the formatting is bad, I did this all on mobile.

First-time fermenter very scared of accidentally poisoning my family 😅 TLDR: Can someone please tell me if I can safely split my sauerkraut to give to my mom to take home to continue fermenting without giving her botulism? Haha

Process so far: I think just about everything is going right given the research I’ve done, except I used kosher salt as directed only to discover afterward that I ALSO should have ensured it didn’t have an anticlumping agent, which this brand did 😖 my water is very murky / kinda chunky right now for that reason (I assume). It’s been 10 days at room temperatures between 70-74 out of direct sunlight. Smell doesn’t seem rotten and a little piece I ate just tasted super salty, but the cabbage still has some crunch so I guess the sour will take another few weeks at this temperature.

My mom is very excited to try some during her visit this week, but I assume it is nowhere near finished. Is there a way to throw some of this into a mason jar for her to take home and let it finish under her care, or would the transfer expose it to too much oxygen / possible contaminants and ruin it? I’m leaning toward keeping it at room temp the next two weeks and then I can safely transfer to smaller jars in the fridge and let her try it over the holidays.

Thank you for any guidance you can provide!

Created my 1st ginger bug pop. It was suppose to be rootbeer, however im getting more of a cola flavor profile. I did not use sassafras and that could be part of the issue.

Overall it isnt bad, but not exactly what I was looking for

I let this one sit for 2 days and It has some nice effervescent going on.

I have another bottle, I am letting sit longer to compare the carbonation.

Does anyone have a GREAT rootbeer recipe?

I am going to try Guava next...

I want to make some pickles for the first time. IIUC, the standard formula is water + vegetables × .03 = salt. I just mix everything together in a glass jar with some dillweed/dill seed and a crumbled bay leaf (to help avoid mush) and leave it on my counter for a week in a closed glass jar (ensuring cucumbers are fully submerged) and then store in the fridge up to six months.

Is this right?

Can I use an old pickle jar from store-bought pickles and the corresponding metal lid?

Is this safe for alcoholics/recovering addicts due time possibly creating alcohol (I've read it's not an issue but if I gift this to someone sensitive, I need to know)?

Can I ferment in a zip lock Tupperware bottle?

Fermented pear. I recently showed you my fermented apples with cinnamon and cloves. And here are the pears... 40g of salt per liter of water, unspiced, if I remember correctly. The pear is a classic Polish variety, narrow, sweet, and firm. They fermented quickly, gradually losing their sweetness and acquiring a slightly salty flavor. A truly interesting addition, for example, to vanilla ice cream. But I think they'd also be great with meat. I'll definitely make them again.

I'm making Mugolio for the first time and the syrup level is below the uppermost pine cones. I know with brine fermentation it would need to be submerged entirely, is this the case for Mugolio too? If so, should I be putting in more sugar until completely covered?

Thanks!

My first try of gingerbug soda turned delicious. I had jostaberry and blackcurrant from garden, the blueberry was store bought. I forgot tu burp last bottle that was left for more than 24h and luckily I was opening it very cautiously and in a bath.

Sadly I won't be able to make more as the berries season is over so hopefully I'll gather more next year. 10/10 would recommend.

My cider seems to be turning into vinegar unfortunately. I have done some reading and can't seem to find a way to save it.

Since it's barely vinegary, could I potentially pasteurize it and back sweeten + age to potentially get some alcohol out of it? Or is just a lost cause?

I don't throw away the fruit and vegetables after making koso. I dehydrate them and give them a second life. Some become delicious snacks, while others, like my dehydrated clementines, are used later to flavor a new batch of kefir.

i am making vinegar for the first time! i started these 2 days ago and i am so happy with what i am seeing :) i’ve never fermented anything before but i was very interested to try it. i am doing a wild fermentation. my strawberry banana jar is bubbling and it’s starting to smell like it’s fermenting. my apple jar has an alcohol smell so i know it’s doing something but it doesn’t have the bubbles like my strawberry banana jar. i plan on getting some wine or champagne yeast later this week to experiment with a two step fermentation on another batch. i’m going to get good at this and have really awesome and cool homemade vinegar to give to my friends/family for christmas

Starting off with carrots w/ caraway, garlic and Kalugeritsa pepper