Sauerkraut & fermenting veggies

littlesapphire wrote:I wonder if you could use yogurt whey, or whey from store bought kefir...  thanks for the link, LM!

littlesapphire,  Your welcome.   Ultra pasteurized products like most of what is sold in supermarkets will kill a lot of the very good bacteria we want for culturing veggies.  I would read carefully, and also stay away from UHT - ultra heat treated.  Same problem, kills the good stuff.  You can find more info online.  I like the detailed explanation online from Snowville Creamery website from Pomeroy, Ohio.  Their milk is lightly pasteurized, which saves much of the nutrition and the taste is outstanding, very delicious.

llama momma wrote:Hi !

Here is the exact recipe I used for cultured Apple Kraut, it uses dairy kefir whey which I strain from my dairy kefir.
I highly recommend this site also,  Donna Schwenk has been making these recipes for years!
Enjoy!  Hope some of you will try and enjoy this method of (no heat)  preservation and nutrition-

http://www.culturedfoodlife.com/apple-kraut/

littlesapphire wrote: a ginger bug last year!    They just kept dying.

littlesapphire wrote:I tried about five times to make a ginger bug last year!    They just kept dying.  I'm torn between trying that again or getting some water kefir grains (which I guess make a lovely fizzy drink).

llama momma wrote:I am really excited to try out this recipe of kraut with pineapple, ginger, turmeric, etc.   The anti inflammatory properties of ginger and turmeric, (could help arthritis) plus the probiotics and prebiotics(pineapple) sounds like a winner to me.  There is a very nice article that introduces the recipe which appears about half way down the page.  I am going to start up a batch even though pineapples seems to be at a winter high price of $4.00 each.


http://www.fermentedfoodlab.com/pineapple-turmeric-sauerkraut-gut-shots/

llama momma wrote:What do you mean by that, Greatgranny?  What should not be done to kraut for purposes of probiotics?  Thanks,  I'm fairly new at this, I've made only one batch of cultured kraut so far.

llama momma wrote:Greatgranny,

I see where she heats up one cup of water to dissolve the salt.  But then 3 more cups of unheated water is added afterwards.  Looks like she was speeding up the process by dissolving the salt that's all.  Everything else was done at room temperature, then put into the fridge days later.

greatgranny wrote:

llama momma wrote:Greatgranny,

I see where she heats up one cup of water to dissolve the salt.  But then 3 more cups of unheated water is added afterwards.  Looks like she was speeding up the process by dissolving the salt that's all.  Everything else was done at room temperature, then put into the fridge days later.

Yes.  I think some people think that kraut is a heated dish when serving.  That is what I meant and so did the author of the blog.  Yes, sometimes I do heat the kraut when I make one of my favorite meals (pork chops smothered in kraut) which is cooked together and the pork is so tender one does not need a knife.  But, if I am eating it for the purpose of the probiotics, I never heat it.  Her heating the water to dissolve the salt is not an issue.  That is done before the fermentation process. 

Very important to read all of the directions when we are trying something new. 

littlesapphire wrote:I guess some people can't eat things any differently than they always have.  I bet you could gently warm it without hurting it, like to 90 or 100 degrees.  I keep my yogurt at 115 when I make it, afterall.

llama momma wrote:I use milk kefir whey to speed up the process, and kefir in general cannot handle temperatures around 85 degrees or 80 F. The good bacteria die off, defeating the purpose of faster culturing.