Are my sauerkraut and kimchi fermenting yet?
I got a huge (10-12 lb) head of cabbage at the farmer's market and I'm on day 3 of my first attempt at making sauerkraut and kimchi. My kitchen is about 60-65 degrees, with a little more warmth for a couple hours when I've been cooking. Everything's been sitting for about 3 days. Both are doing some of the things that they are supposed to- the amount of liquid in the sauerkraut jars is steadily increasing, the cabbage in both is getting wiltier and a bit translucent- but I can't tell if actual fermentation is happening. There's no scum on top of the sauerkraut brine, no bubbling in the kimchi. So how do I tell if stuff is fermenting, and if it isn't, can I still get it to?
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4 Comments:
You know it's okay to sample it. If it tastes sour, it's fermenting.
If you followed the recipe correctly, using neither too little nor too much salt, didn't kill the all-important natural bacteria with tap water or some other sanitation procedure in prepping your cabbage, and your temperature is a nice 60-65 degrees, it's pretty much foolproof. It WILL ferment.
Lorenzo at 1:03PM on 10/14/09
I don't have any answers however, I just caught the tail end of an Alton Brown "Good Eats" episode recently and he was doing homemade sauerkraut. You could probably find info at the foodtv website. If you're lucky, you may be able to catch the show, as they rerun stuff often.
dmcavanagh at 5:58PM on 10/14/09
I just tasted some of the sauerkraut and it's definitely not sour yet, but it's also not slimy or "off"-tasting like I would expect if it were developing mold, so I'll just be patient, I guess
thatgrrl at 6:55PM on 10/14/09
The most important thing is to keep the cabbage covered with brine. Add more water if you have to. The biggest mistake with Kimchi or Saurkraut is fermenting at too high a temperature, kraut must not be warmer than 70 degrees. 65 degrees seems to be ideal. If you ferment at too high a temp, the kraut will not taste right. Cover it with a plate weighted down by a milk jug filled with water. Skim the scum (if any, sometimes there is very little) once a week and transfer the whole batch into a new container, thus evening out the batch. Kraut improves with time, I ferment 5-6 weeks (in the dark) Taste it every week, for done-ness. Raw kraut is a great probiotic and will keep in the fridge for about a month. Heat canning kills the probiotic bacteria but then you can store it for over a year.
Kimchi is another story, I ferment with no weight or plate on top, jars covered with cheesecloth. The volume of the mash increases when fermentation starts. In a quart jar, I leave about 2" headspace. I usually ferment Kimchi for about a week before it goes in the fridge.
tinytim at 10:28PM on 10/14/09