Sour and fermented

What the microbes do for the kitchen, in sauerkraut, pickles, vinegar and the sourdough.

15 documents · 1 chapter · 8 dishes · 46 rows

In the chapters

Chapter 13 Sour
At the Bench: 1. Sauerkraut, the master recipe for every fermented vegetable Safety, 3. Cider vinegar in the Orléans manner Safety, 4. Sour milk, two ways Safety
Numbers to Carry: 18 to 22 degrees until clearly sour and still, two to four weeks, then the cellar

Documents 15

On the Menu

Wood-fired wheat sourdough Rye sourdough Pickled eggs Spreewald dill pickles Sauerkraut and lacto-fermented vegetables Sauerkraut braised with apples Eisbein with sauerkraut Vinegar and fruit vinegar

Sources

Book Toldrá (ed.), Handbook of Fermented Meat and Poultry
Book Katz, The Art of Fermentation

All the sources

In the log 46

24 confirmed
17 amended
2 partly confirmed
3 unresolved
18 marked for safety

W4 confirmed Safety Bare copper plus acid (vinegar, wine, tomato, apple, whey) gives verdigris, an emetic; every pan that meets acid is tinned
F71 amended Safety Tomato seed ferment 24 to 72 h, never over 72 (sprouting), pH 3.8 to 4.2; hot-water seed treatment 50 °C (value lost, standard) 20 min brassica, 25 min carrot and …
B17 unresolved Safety Kochwurst safety: blood sausage cooked at 80 °C never boiling 60–90 min until it weeps clear; keeps a week in the cold, longer smoked; bursts if boiled or filled tight; …
E5 amended Safety Both parasites killed by cooking to 60 °C at the bone, by freezing at −20 °C for 24 h through, or by heavy long salting; not by light brine, vinegar, dill or cold smoke
S5 confirmed Safety Light brine 3.5 to 5 % of total weight for lacto-fermentation
S6 amended Safety Cheese brine: saturated, soured with whey or vinegar, calcium salt added; unsoured brine gives slimy rind; 6 to 12 h per kg
C1 amended Safety Water bath: 10 min for jams and pickles in half-litre jars; 20 to 25 min for whole fruit and acidified tomatoes in litre jars; 5 min more per 300 m altitude; tomatoes …
R1 amended Safety Sauerkraut 20 g salt per kg (18 to 30 range); brined vegetables 35 to 50 g per kg total; 18 to 22 °C first week then cellar
R2 amended Safety Vinegar must reach 5 % acetic acid to preserve; cider at 5 to 8 % alcohol; "wait two weeks beyond" rule
M10 amended Safety Mascarpone: cream about 25 % fat to 85 to 90 °C; vinegar 20 to 30 ml/l; drain 20 to 24 h; eat within 3 days; about 700 g per litre
M4 amended Safety Mozzarella kept at most 3 days in light soured brine (15 to 20 g/l); Listeria grows in the cold and endangers the pregnant and the old
M5 amended Safety Cheese brine: saturated, soured with whey, calcium added, skimmed, never discarded; wheel 12 h per kg
M9 amended Safety Calf vell: salt at 15 % of its weight plus half its weight in water, 18 to 21 °C, 3 to 7 days; dry below 21 °C; grind 1:8 in sour whey with 4 to 5 % salt; keeps 6 months …
D11 amended Safety Weisse variant: sour unboiled wort with a handful of crushed raw malt and a spoonful of sour-crock brine at 35 to 40 °C for a day, then pitch beer yeast
T1 amended Safety Lye (KOH/K2CO3 from ash, causticised with lime) burns skin slowly and painlessly at first, blinds in the eye; strong clear lye looks like water; first aid water in …
T2 confirmed Safety Potash/lye into water, never water onto potash (exothermic spitting); eye covering, sleeves, mittens, vinegar jug and water bucket before starting; nobody under twelve …
T4 amended Safety Lead glaze melts at pit temperatures (700–800 °C) and leaches into acid food (vinegar, wine, kraut, fruit); Devonshire colic (cider), saturnism; unknown or chipped …
J7 amended Safety When the last canner gasket hardens canning is over; low-acid food is salted, smoked, dried, soured or cellared, never sealed (botulism)
W18 confirmed Anneal at dull red about 600 °C (forge 600 to 800); water quench does not harden copper, spalls the black cupric oxide, red cuprous oxide remains; pickle in 10 % citric …
G40 unresolved Fizz tests: vinegar on a rainwater paste fizzes above about pH 7.5 (free carbonate); bicarbonate fizzes well below 6; tap water gives false readings
F41 confirmed Tomato seed fermentation 2–3 days
O20 confirmed Malus sylvestris: smooth leaf underside, small sour fruit, sometimes thorny; ~30 % hybrids in N. Britain, ID fails 36 %
A24 amended Rumen ~150 l, microbial fermentation and the cow digesting the microbes; ~40,000 chews a day; DMI 3–3.5 % BW, 650 kg → 19.5–22.75 kg, 450 kg → 12–16 kg; rumen movement …
A72 confirmed Goat milking 70 to 90 strokes a minute, pre-dip thyme and sage, post-dip sour whey with tallow or rosin, canal open 30 min, healthy milk pH 6.4 to 6.7; buck 150 m …
B26 confirmed Schlachtfest: home pig slaughter common in Brandenburg villages into the 1970s, between first frost and Christmas; Hausschlachter ~20 pigs a season for a fee and a …
B38 confirmed German seam cuts and uses: Hals/Kamm goulash and Kochfleisch; Bug: Schaufelstück, Falsches Filet, dicker Bug (Sauerbraten); Hochrippe roast; Querrippe and Brust …
B43 confirmed Wellfleisch: head halved, brain out; head, feet, tail and belly trimmings simmered 1.5 h in salted water, eaten at noon with sauerkraut; cheeks, head meat, rind, tongue …
B44 confirmed Blood sausage / Grützwurst: per litre blood 1 kg boiled rind and head meat, 300 g scalded back-fat dice, 18 g salt/kg of whole, marjoram, pepper, allspice, boiled barley …
B57 confirmed Broth: bones cracked, roasted ~200 °C 30–45 min (62: 204 °C 35–45), water 1:2 by weight (own), 1 tbsp vinegar/l (own; 62 names acid without dose), 85–95 °C (62: 85–96) …
R11 partly confirmed Orléans vinegar guild chartered in the 14th century (1394)
R15 confirmed Industrial vinegar made in 24 hours by submerged aeration
R6 confirmed Quick yeasted wholemeal keeps 60 to 70 % of phytate; sourdough unlocks minerals
R7 amended Pasteur, lactic fermentation memoir 1857 (Lille); vinegar studies for Orléans 1864
R8 amended Dutch settlers brought cucumber pickling to the Spreewald in the 14th century; Fontane on Spreewald pickles (1860s)
R9 confirmed Cook, Resolution 1772 to 1775, sauerkraut, no deaths from scurvy
M39 confirmed Quark: skim milk soured overnight, warmed to about 40 °C, hung 12 to 24 h, eaten within 4 days
D19 confirmed Ferment at 18 to 22 °C 5 to 7 days; 20 l at 4 to 5 % ABV from 4 kg malt; skim second-day froth as next yeast, keeps a fortnight cold
D26 confirmed Wild yeasts on fruit skin give up at about 5 % alcohol; true yeast present in tiny numbers takes over; vinegar bacteria wait for air
D28 confirmed Cider ferments by itself in a fortnight; dry cider about 6 % ABV; wild ferment 2 to 4 weeks at 15 to 20 °C; rack within a day of bubbling stopping; keeps a year cold
D30 unresolved Keeving: juice at 8 to 12 °C, brown cap in about a week, siphon from beneath, ferments a point or two a week, stops sweet in two or three months
D32 partly confirmed Cistercians at Lehnin 1180 and Zinna a few years earlier planted vines; vineyards at Werder, Potsdam and the Kreuzberg by the 14th century; thin sour wine; died in the …
D40 confirmed Country wine by the same rule; Solaris or Regent grapes need nothing added; ferment on skins a week
D43 confirmed Copper strips sulphur compounds as black copper sulphide; a steel still makes a spirit that smells of the ferment
T43 confirmed Household of four: 10–15 kg soap/yr, ~7–8 kg tallow, one winter's beech ash; hard water 14–25 °dH by Berlin district turns soap to scum; wash in rainwater or rinse with …
T49 confirmed Lime test: 20 g dry clay and 5 ml vinegar, hard fizz means over 5 % CaCO3, unfit for pottery; lime pops swell about 300 % on slaking weeks after firing; sieve slip to …
T57 confirmed Bleach cycle: lye with lime 8 to 12 h, grass 7 to 14 days wetted every 2 h, buttermilk sour 1 to 10 for 24 to 48 h, repeated 4 to 8 times, lye never over 3 % on cloth; …