ilostcount said:
I'm trying again. This time more salt. And I will make sure I scoop away any foam fast. And keep a weight on the pickles so they don't float. I'm doing it in an open container with a cloth over it. We'll see how it goes again. I think the mistakes last time might have been letting the foam stay too long and letting them float up.. I think there was plenty salt as it was very foamy and I heard this is proof that the probiotics are active.
Note: how soon can I eat one? If I try one in 2 days before it's done fermenting will it harm me? Is it still packed with probiotics?
I am no expert with these kinds of things, and I have thrown together a lot of different vegetables in different batches over the past few years, and I have never had any of the batches go bad, so far.
I thought that the key in making sure that they do NOT go bad was making sure, as others have mentioned here that the items contained within the batch always stay below the liquid level.
I actually eat everything and I do NOT scrape off the mold.. Sometimes I let the concoction sit for many days in a big roasting oven container in a cool place and with the cover over them but always making sure that there is plenty of liquid in the container and that it is covering everything, and if anything is floating to the top, then I would stir it back in (including anything that appears to be small formations of mold. I suppose if I left it for a few weeks with mold building then I may scrape it off in those kinds of circumstances).
The warmer the temperature, the faster the items contained therein will ferment or pickle (I think fermenting and pickling is the same thing, more or less).. pickling is sometimes discussed by use of vinegar rather than salt, and sometimes I will add some vinegar, but I minimize the vinegar because I was of the impression that vinegar tends to kill more of the potentially good bacterias.. so I tend to be fairly minimal with vinegar additions.
The level of salt that I use seems to vary from batch to batch, and so I do NOT really have any consistent system except to make sure that all items contained within my containers are covered in liquid all the time. If the concoction seems to be fermenting too fast, I will either eat that right away or I will refrigerate it.. .or maybe even add some other fresher items.. it is silly, but I hate to waste anything and I eat everything..(I mean these fermented items)... and I do NOT really get sick. If I am worried about air exposure, then I place in glass containers in the fridge and continue to make sure that all the items contained therein is submerged in the liquid.
The only risk of eating it early, in my thinking, is that it has NOT really fermented yet, so that would be similar to eating the contents raw (or a more raw state or a less fermented state).. in the case of pickles that would be like eating cucumbers or only half fermented cucumbers.
I must admit that I have never done pickles in their whole form and ont their own, I have always chopped up any cucumbers that I have added to my fermentation concoctions, so they are frequently mixed with other random flavors (like onions or cabbage or carrots), and mine tend to come out a little weird but I eat them.. or if do NOT like the exact flavor of a batch, I will make a new batch and add the old ingredients to the new batch, and VIOLA.. better flavors.... which seems to be my flavor enhancing variation of the adage: "the solution to pollution is dilution.."
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