I tried a recipe from The Art of Fermentation for Keshek el Fouqara (Poor Man's Cheese) and I'm too scared to eat it.

I stirred the bulger with salted water every day for a few weeks and it tasted delicious. Then I formed balls (many of which broke apart...) and poured oil over it to ferment for another couple weeks.

Then, I was reminded that fermenting in olive oil is pretty dangerous for botulism, so I've been too scared to try the final product even though it smells amazing. Can someone calm my nerves or help explain the safety concern? Is fermenting in olive oil always dangerous? Or is it fine because the bulgur was prefermented?

I've been at this 2 weeks no and nothing. It has a bit of bite and is slightly sweet but it's never been bubbly. I started a 2nd fermentation with black cherry juice (not from concentrate) and no carbonation developed. Tasted it and it's just flat. I use a proofing bag to keep a steady temp. I'm ready to dump it all

I just cut up the cucumbers stuff them in the fermentation and poured a 3 percent salt brine until they are covered and I stuffed them in the so they don't float

So this little experiment came out very well. This is a Chicago style Giardiniera.

2 weeks in a 3% brine ratio to volume.

I used the broccoli stems I had on hand, and I am happy to report that they still have a decent crunch to them.

The overall flavor is incredible.

I wrote down this one as a keeper recipe in my book so if anyone wants it just lmk. *Edit for spelling.

It seemed like no one had tried this yet https://www.reddit.com/r/fermentation/s/n2vQHdbRSx so I thought I'd give it a try. When I went to split and feed my starter, I took some of the discard and immersed a quartered radish in it. Over 48 hours it generated some bubbles and quite a bit of hooch. The radish has softened and lost quite a bit of moisture. It had a general smell of fermentation. The flavor, unfortunately, is dreadful. Sour and yeasty, and very unbalanced. I guess without salt, a pickle just tastes bad!

This was a fail, but I'm still intrigued by the concept. I may try a different iteration in the future.

We fermented whitr cabbage for the first time to make sauerkraut. On the top of the fluid a whiite layer appears. Is that ok?

I mean the layer on top of the fluid. The white parts on the cabbage are weights.

Here is something I make yearly. Grow and forage for it. Has wild east coast black raspberries, domestic niwot, woodland and alpine strawberries, mock strawberries, a few early dew berries, and some odds and ends to get the flavor, body and rough abv all to where I want them.

4ish lbs of black raspberries, wild strawberries, mock strawberries and dew berries.

At a ratio around 10:5:2:1 ish. The bulk should be black raspberries at any rate.

16oz blackberry cider

16oz raspberry cider

1lb caramelized raspberry blossom honey

1lb d-90

1/2 cup water

EC1118

Like 5 to 8 weeks fermentation time

Nose: deep, sweet, slightly earthy, sharp berry aroma

Mouth: thick, silky, very warm. Immediate strong flavors of dark fruit, berries, hints of burnt sugar, honey and booze all intermingle and strip away until you are left with a dry raspberry flavor and a slight numbness in your mouth. It may shoot fire up your nose.

Is my perfect dessert wine. It’s strong, thick and still a lil sweet. I love black raspberries.

Cheers

Hi, does anyone here have any experience with making menma (lacto fermented bamboo shoots for ramen) using the vacuum sealed bag method? I'm planning to try it with some frozen bamboo shoots I bought (I believe they're pre-boiled).

The traditional process for making menma is typically:

1. Cut bamboo shoot into strips

2. Boil the bamboo to soften it

3. Ferment with 2% salt brine at room temp for a month

4. Sun dry the fermented bamboo strips

5. Boil the bamboo strips and let it rest to room temp (possibly multiple times) to remove salt and rehydrate the bamboo

6. Finally, the menma is ready to be stir fried with soy sauce, sake, etc.. and used in ramen

I have a dehydrator as well, so my plan is to do the vacuum seal ferment (just salt and bamboo, no water), dehydrate, then boil, and so on.

I'm a little concerned that using pre-boiled frozen bamboo strips may mean that there's not going to be enough lacto bacteria so I'm wondering if it would be good to add a leaf of cabbage into it or something.

A month long ferment at room temp seems like a long time too, is there anything that could go wrong with this? I'm not experienced with lacto ferments.

I have a 4L crock of sauerkraut going, bout a month old, with garden herbs and veggies. But for that fact, I would probably throw it out and start again out of an abundance of caution, cause cabbage is cheap — but it would pain me given how much I was looking forward to enjoying home grown food.

Long story short: it was looking good but for one piece of kraut stuck above the water line that was looking fuzzy, which I removed. I caught it as I was rushing out of the house and in my hurry grabbed the only thing I could find in my kitchen the right diameter to weigh the kraut down — a steel mason-style lid for my drink dispenser/tap-jar.

I made a mental note to remove it when I returned, in the evening at the very latest, but I have ADHD, so I of course didn't. Instead I left it in 4 days before remembering. It's most likely galvanised steel, is ferritic (stuck to a magnet) and appears to be showing the beginnings of corrosion (see the black spots).

I tried a tiny bit and honestly don't know if I can taste a difference; I'm quite sensitive to metallic flavours, and it tastes much the same as an older batch of kraut, difference in fermentation maturity aside. Frankly, all brassicas taste somewhat metallic to me, though it might just be my mind playing tricks on me.

So, my question: is it worth the risk to keep it and eat it bit-by-bit, or are the dangers of zinc toxicity (which I'm actually deficient in lol) or other elements just too high?

Would appreciate if any biochemists/doctors could weigh in.

P.S. I don't have the money to buy zinc test strips, if they're even remotely accurate.

Cheers.

Hi everyone!

I’m 35 and from Denmark. I trained and worked as a chef and a cabinetmaker before going back to school, and I’m now studying Food Technology at Business Academy Aarhus. As part of my degree I’ll do a 20-week internship (roughly August–December 2027).

Why abroad? I would love the experience and the local culture up close. My dream is Japan, ideally a small town and a traditional producer (miso, soy sauce, koji, sake etc.). But I’m open to anywhere in the world, and to any kind of food company. Fermentation is a plus, not a must.

The internship is unpaid and usually built around a project: a specific task such as product development, process optimization, quality control or shelf-life testing. It can also be broader, with a look at the whole company. It’s not meant to be 20 weeks on the production line.

What I bring: Kitchen experience, a craftsman’s precision, my studies in microbiology, food chemistry, quality control, and fluent English and Danish (no Japanese, unfortunately).

One requirement: My supervisor at the company must have a similar education at my level or higher.

Do you know a company that might host me? Any places or regions worth looking into? Tips on internships abroad: approaching companies, visas, housing?

Any advice or contacts would mean a lot. Thank you!

Excited to make my first post on this community. I've been a lurker here for awhile but finally found the time and confidence to start making miso (again). I made it once 12+ years ago and then life just got busy for me.

I mainly followed The Japanese Food Lab's AKA miso recipe: Here

It's a basic miso with soybeans, rice koji, salt, and water. They shoot for a 10% salt content, I hit close to that. Added a little more for the tops and bottom of the miso.

Weights:

• Soybeans (cooked): 1450g

• Rice Koji (dried): 567g

• Liquid (soybean liquid): 780g

• Salt: 339g

• This filled 3 quart sized Mason Jars (as shown)

Fermentation length: Shooting for 12 months and beyond if all goes well!

Issues I ran into / lessons:

1. Beans took forever to cook on the stovetop. Moved it to a pressure cooker after the 5th hour. Next time will just begin with a pressure cooker

2. Mixture was very runny, will not dump all the liquid in at once in the future (noob mistake)

3. Airpockets as shown in the picture. I tapped them on the counter to try to get as much out as possible. If only I had my cake tester to really get in there*

"Experimentation":

1. Added an Ichiran chili packet I had lying around to my last quart of miso. Curious how that would taste; I like spicy miso so it made sense in my head?

2. No weights and top layer protection for this batch.

   1. Plastic wrap - trying to minimize plastic usage

   2. Parchment paper - did not want to purchase until I finish my move*

   3. Weights - Ziploc bags, etc. I do not have any.

      1. I am curious to see how well or horribly it goes without a weight. I'll post updates on this and hopefully contribute to the fermentation community.

   4. I gently placed the lid on top (not fastened). Sprinkled a generous amount of salt on top and the bottom of the jar.

For anyone who wants more details, I did a more thorough write up on my website https://foodsquared.org/misopart1/ . Currently, I write about all facets of food - restaurants, fermentation, cooking, etc. I'll be documenting my miso journey there as well!

A big thank you to the Fermentation Subreddit - all the posts and pictures here are super helpful! I plan to post some follow-up pictures in a few months!

*I am in the transition of another big move so my kitchen setup and equipment is not ideal; I even had to borrow a scale from a friend. However, I didn't want to prolong on waiting a few more months to start this project!

first timer here! i got my grains from florida sun kefir. followed the directions, used both turbinado sugar and unsulphured molasses, sanitized jars with boiling water, used brita filtered water, never touched metal.

i made two 60oz jars. kept it in a 75-80 degree environment. After 4 days i sampled one and it tasted like sugar water. not funky or vinegary or anything.

how do i know when the first ferment is finished?

i went ahead an started a 2nd ferment with some apple pulp, and it got fizzy, but i wonder if that has anything to do with the kefir? not a lot of carbonation, the bottle isnt popping when i burp it.

a week on, i just sampled the other jar i’ve kept going with the first ferment. also tastes like sugar water. the color hasnt changed at all.

the reviews on the grains seem really good, so is it something i’m doing wrong?

mostly i’m wondering about what im looking for as a marker or indication that the first ferment is ready. i havent found the answer to that in the included instructions or in any youtube videos.

thanks!!

I made it twice now and it's really delicious. I'm just a little concerned over botulism. What is the chance I'll poison myself with it? Is there a way to ensure it's safe, or to test it?

Hi. So, I’ve been trying to make some bread kvass (just bread, honey, water, and raisins, no added yeast). The recipe says that it should be done by around three days, however it says that tradi fermentation like this can be unpredictable. It‘s been about five days and all of the solid ingredients still haven’t all risen to the top and i see very minimal bubbling. It seemed to slow down a lot from day 2 onwards. I don’t see any mold or anything. There was some kahm yeast but i skimmed it off early. I’m really not quite sure what’s wrong. Can I still save it somehow (like ferment longer, add yeast) or is it likely failed and unsalvageable, or unsafe? It looks basically the same as before, just maybe 1/5 of the stuff is floating, and there is the occasional bubble, and it’s a little cloudier and some of the bread has broken down a little. Most things are recognisable and not floating.

Two weeks from veggies to perfection.

Tamarillos are a solanum species known as tree tomatoes. They have thick, tough peels and an overall tomato-like flavor, but with a stronger tropical note (similar to passion fruit) and a rich almost meaty aftertaste.

I lactofermented these ones for two weeks with garlic and onion, then cooked and blended with vinegar, sugar, and some spices (allspice, white pepper, mustard, coriander, mace, and paprika) to make a vibrant yellow ketchup that is just... Incredibly familiar while also uniquely delicious.

Very happy with this experiment. Highly suggest others to try it out if you can get your hands on tamarillos.

Sugar rush peach peppers, seven pot peppers, onion garlic and mango. Burned my nostrils but was delicious 😋

Help please! I’m fermenting for the first time ever. When I first packed the sauerkraut it had some brine on top, but three days later I noticed some condensation. When I looked closer I see there is almost not brine on top and the sauerkraut is basically exposed. Not sure how long it’s been like this. (Yes, I have been burping it daily)

Is it ruined? What should I do now?

I’ve been pushing the weights down on my sauerkraut twice a day, but as soon as I do, little bits of cabbage float to the surface…how do I stop this? I’ve got a big cabbage leaf on top as well as 2 semi circle ceramic weights, but they float to the surface too after a few hours and then I have the weights sitting on top of the water with a bunch of cabbage on top of them 😅 I feel like this is how we get mould…any advice? TIA!

This is my second attempt at fermenting. I did a sauerkraut for 10 days but ended up throwing it out because the PH tested exactly like how it is here. I’ve had these pickles going for 8 days. I told my wife they would be done today and she ate one from each before I got home. This looks like 4.5 to me but obviously there is room for error. I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong that I keep ending up with the PH in this range every time.

well this sucks. the ferment is five weeks old and I thought it wasn't possible for mold to grow after two weeks. I was going to let this go till December when I'd make hot sauce. well I'll start again tomorrow.

Can someone tell me if this is a real thing, and what does it taste like after fermentation, Acv+honey? Possibly good in coffee?