The Fermented Foods Thread: Better Than Juicing?
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This forum never ceases to amaze me.
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Sombro: Nothing comes CLOSE to natto for vitamin K2.
It is a love/hate kinda thing. Instead of soy, the few times my chicks have made it, they used chickpeas.
We discovered that, at least for us, it becomes more palatable when we mix the natto with saurkrauts or kim-chi together in large, covered bowl or jar. Just mix together well and let sit together overnight. The coming together of tastes definitely helps the natto.
Tastes much better that way, to me.
But for the elusive vitamin K2, I generally opt for a good supplement and high vitamin butter oil, rather than chow down on natto every day.
It is a love/hate kinda thing. Instead of soy, the few times my chicks have made it, they used chickpeas.
We discovered that, at least for us, it becomes more palatable when we mix the natto with saurkrauts or kim-chi together in large, covered bowl or jar. Just mix together well and let sit together overnight. The coming together of tastes definitely helps the natto.
Tastes much better that way, to me.
But for the elusive vitamin K2, I generally opt for a good supplement and high vitamin butter oil, rather than chow down on natto every day.
Great thread man!
Sauerkraut is great. It's a nice sour addition to a lot of dishes. It can really "dress up" boring chicken breasts and is fantastic in omellettes or as a side dish with eggs.
You can make a "hash" of sorts. It's low-carb and nutrient rich. Fill a bowl with some kraut. Cook eggs over easy.
Put the over easy eggs on top of the kraut, pop the yokes, and mix it all together.
Add some spicy curry powder for a taste and antioxidant and anti-inflammatory boost.
Sauerkraut is great. It's a nice sour addition to a lot of dishes. It can really "dress up" boring chicken breasts and is fantastic in omellettes or as a side dish with eggs.
You can make a "hash" of sorts. It's low-carb and nutrient rich. Fill a bowl with some kraut. Cook eggs over easy.
Put the over easy eggs on top of the kraut, pop the yokes, and mix it all together.
Add some spicy curry powder for a taste and antioxidant and anti-inflammatory boost.
I've been making kombucha for a few years and it seemed intimidating at first, but now it's so routine I don't even think about it.
Kombucha is a good way to start experimenting with fermented foods because it's cheap and easy: all you need is water, sugar, a few tea bags, and a bottle of kombucha to use as a starter (or you can order a SCOBY online, but it's not necessary).
My routine is to boil around 2 liters of water (64 ounces) on Wednesday mornings, then add 130 grams sugar (3/4 cup) and 3-4 tea bags. In the evening, when it's all cooled down I take out the tea bags and pour it into a big glass jar along with some of the previous week's batch and the "mushroom". I put a paper towel over the jar and put the jar under the sink. Next week I pour the liquid through a sieve into a couple of plastic bottles (along with flavor extracts sometimes) and let the bottles sit for another week or so. After that, it's usually good to consume, although sometimes it needs to sit a bit longer.
Instead of paying $4 or more per bottle of kombucha, I can make a two week supply for under $1. You can add different fruit extracts before bottling and make all kinds of crazy flavor variations, as well as use different types of teas.
Also, I'm surprised nobody's brought up kvass. It's made from fermented rye bread and is huge in Eastern Europe/Russia. Any Russian lizard would know about it, although I've found women tend to dig kefir more.
Kombucha is a good way to start experimenting with fermented foods because it's cheap and easy: all you need is water, sugar, a few tea bags, and a bottle of kombucha to use as a starter (or you can order a SCOBY online, but it's not necessary).
My routine is to boil around 2 liters of water (64 ounces) on Wednesday mornings, then add 130 grams sugar (3/4 cup) and 3-4 tea bags. In the evening, when it's all cooled down I take out the tea bags and pour it into a big glass jar along with some of the previous week's batch and the "mushroom". I put a paper towel over the jar and put the jar under the sink. Next week I pour the liquid through a sieve into a couple of plastic bottles (along with flavor extracts sometimes) and let the bottles sit for another week or so. After that, it's usually good to consume, although sometimes it needs to sit a bit longer.
Instead of paying $4 or more per bottle of kombucha, I can make a two week supply for under $1. You can add different fruit extracts before bottling and make all kinds of crazy flavor variations, as well as use different types of teas.
Also, I'm surprised nobody's brought up kvass. It's made from fermented rye bread and is huge in Eastern Europe/Russia. Any Russian lizard would know about it, although I've found women tend to dig kefir more.
Aliblahba said:
The other night I was watching the Atlanta episode of The Layover with Anthony Bourdain, and a few minutes of the show was dedicated to that place. If I lived in the ATL I'd probably never shop for groceries anywhere else.
...
One fermented food this thread has neglected thus far... Cheese.
Aliblahba said:
There's also the Super H Mart which is like an Asian Sam's Club.
One in Doraville and one off I-85 in Gwinnett. I think there's another somewhere closer to ATL.
A Whole Korean deli section devoted to pickled goods sold by weight.
Food court area. Massive fish market.
Some stuff is expensive while lots is really cheap.
One of the few places I can find Makgeolli.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Makgeolli
Sonsowey said:
You need to order kefir grains or get some from a friend. I used http://kefirlady.com . Website is a bit of a disaster and you need to send her a $20 dollar bill in the mail, but the grains have worked great for me. She sends you a packet that includes directions and recipes along with the kefir grains.
Once you receive the grains you basically just cover them with milk in a bowl and leave it on the counter for 24 hours, then you strain the kefir grains out of the milk and you have kefir.
The grains will keep multiplying, so you'll have enough kefir grains indefinitely if you keep them alive, which just entails making sure they are always covered with milk.
basilransom said:
Yogurt is quite easy to make. You just would "inoculate" your base to give it new beneficial bacteria.
You can make cultured butter along the same lines also by just adding yogurt to fresh cream and letting it sit for a day or two.
This is a great thread. Fermented foods and gelatin are my two health food-Heath journeys for 2014. Every culture in its classic form has a fermented food as a staple. Only Westerns have not and we are easily the most unhealthy in history.
Aliblahba said:
Pasteurized milk is dead. With yogurt though the pro bacteria has to be added to get the yogurt constancy unless its pumped full of binders. The bacteria feed of the milk fat and then sours into yogurt.
Another benefit of fermented food is that, since they help to optimize intestinal flora, they play a key role in estrogen metabolism. If the "good"-to-"bad" bacteria ratio in your gut is off, you will likely have excess levels of estrogen, which of course, will result in lowered testosterone.
I thought about this thread as I was working on my e-book lastnight. Here's a quote from the e-book that relates to this topic:
"Of great importance in this fight against chemical castration is healthy intestinal flora. The first phase of estrogen-detoxification by the liver consists of a process called hydroxylation. This means that a hydroxyl (-OH) group is added to one of the carbon atoms on estrogen. When the intestinal flora is imbalanced (more putrefactive ['bad'] bacteria and yeasts than 'good' bacteria), the -OH group is added disproportionately to the '4-carbon' (creating 4-hydroxyestrone) and the '16-carbon' (creating 16-alpha hydroxyestrone). As we have seen, both these estrogens are considered bad estrogens, being linked to uncontrolled cell division—cancer. When gut flora has a higher friendly bacteria-to-bad bacteria ratio, it is the '2-carbon' that receives the –OH group in higher numbers. This creates more 2-hydroxyestrone, which protects against cancer.
If you have ever taken antibiotics or if you regularly shower in chlorinated water and/or drink chlorinated tap water, it is a virtual guarantee that you have imbalanced intestinal flora. Pharmaceutical antibiotics do not discriminate; they kill both beneficial and disease-causing bacteria. The key is the proper balance of good-to-bad bacteria... The optimal balance is 85 percent good bacteria to 15 percent bad bacteria. The scales will quickly tip in favor of bad bacteria if friendly bacteria get too low, which is what happens with a course of antibiotics. Chlorine also kills the friendly bacteria. Of course, chlorine is found in tap water, so if you drink this water regularly, you are killing your friendly bacteria. Furthermore, research has revealed that during a warm, ten-minute shower in unfiltered water, you will absorb more chlorine (in the form of inhaled chloroform) than if you were to drink eight glasses of tap water."
So here is another reason to include more fresh, homemade, fermented/cultured foods & drinks in your life.
AND QUIT WITH ALL THE GODDAMN UNFILTERED TAP WATER!!!
I thought about this thread as I was working on my e-book lastnight. Here's a quote from the e-book that relates to this topic:
"Of great importance in this fight against chemical castration is healthy intestinal flora. The first phase of estrogen-detoxification by the liver consists of a process called hydroxylation. This means that a hydroxyl (-OH) group is added to one of the carbon atoms on estrogen. When the intestinal flora is imbalanced (more putrefactive ['bad'] bacteria and yeasts than 'good' bacteria), the -OH group is added disproportionately to the '4-carbon' (creating 4-hydroxyestrone) and the '16-carbon' (creating 16-alpha hydroxyestrone). As we have seen, both these estrogens are considered bad estrogens, being linked to uncontrolled cell division—cancer. When gut flora has a higher friendly bacteria-to-bad bacteria ratio, it is the '2-carbon' that receives the –OH group in higher numbers. This creates more 2-hydroxyestrone, which protects against cancer.
If you have ever taken antibiotics or if you regularly shower in chlorinated water and/or drink chlorinated tap water, it is a virtual guarantee that you have imbalanced intestinal flora. Pharmaceutical antibiotics do not discriminate; they kill both beneficial and disease-causing bacteria. The key is the proper balance of good-to-bad bacteria... The optimal balance is 85 percent good bacteria to 15 percent bad bacteria. The scales will quickly tip in favor of bad bacteria if friendly bacteria get too low, which is what happens with a course of antibiotics. Chlorine also kills the friendly bacteria. Of course, chlorine is found in tap water, so if you drink this water regularly, you are killing your friendly bacteria. Furthermore, research has revealed that during a warm, ten-minute shower in unfiltered water, you will absorb more chlorine (in the form of inhaled chloroform) than if you were to drink eight glasses of tap water."
So here is another reason to include more fresh, homemade, fermented/cultured foods & drinks in your life.
AND QUIT WITH ALL THE GODDAMN UNFILTERED TAP WATER!!!
kosko said:
What I got is working, and I'm assuming they add pro bacteria after the pasteurization process. On a side note, ACV helps with the good bugs in your gut. They go hand in hand. Who would've thunk it?
http://www.livestrong.com/article/508833-is-apple-cider-vinegar-a-probiotic/
Sombro said:Though I've been to Japan and love the food I've never had the opportunity to try natto.
Anyone?
From what I've heard, you either love it or hate it.
First: The above looks like marshmallow rice crispies to me. Temperature - HOT with melting marshmallow!
Second: one of the confusing points to me is that the acidity of the gut may kill off some of the beneficial effects of fermented foods. Accordingly, recently there has been a lot of discussion of the benefits of resistant starches.. in order to allow the passage of the beneficial materials (the pro-biotics) into the lower gut.
K Galt started a thread on resistance starch:
http://www.rooshvforum.com/thread-31408.html
Third: I have been pondering over some of this in the context of the ACV thread, and that is regarding the roll of vinegar in fermenting. My understanding is that fermentors do NOT use vinegar b/c vinegar would kill off the beneficial bacteria in the fermenting process. But, how about using ACV - ACV is fermented vinegar? I am just wondering b/c it seems to me that there still may be some health benefits in NON fermented vinegar, as long as it is NOT used in large quantities.
Bacteria (acetobacter) covert ethanol (the alcohol in apple cider) into acetic acid (vinegar).
I make my own apple cider (hard cider) but not the vinegar...well, I try to avoid it turning into vinegar.
Technically ACV would be twice-fermented. The first fermentation is when the yeast converts the sugar (in apple juice) to ethanol. Second is done by the bacteria mentioned above.
Just to make it clear, by apple cider I mean the fermented alcoholic beverage. In the US you can buy unfiltered apple juice called "cider" which isn't really a cider, until you add yeast to it...
I make my own apple cider (hard cider) but not the vinegar...well, I try to avoid it turning into vinegar.
Technically ACV would be twice-fermented. The first fermentation is when the yeast converts the sugar (in apple juice) to ethanol. Second is done by the bacteria mentioned above.
Just to make it clear, by apple cider I mean the fermented alcoholic beverage. In the US you can buy unfiltered apple juice called "cider" which isn't really a cider, until you add yeast to it...
germanico said:
Bacteria:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acetic_acid_bacteriaAcetobacter
Total non-sequitur here but this reminds me of that Ukrainian TV show with Roosh on it...the way they said "why you no longer study bacteria?" or something in that strong accent was just so funny.
Anyway, in wine and cider making you go through a lot of effort to avoid contamination by acetobacter, and also make the environment as unfriendly for them as possible (i.e. minimize contact with oxygen).
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