Brad's Top 10 Fermentation Tips | It's Alive | Bon Appétit

back the botulism kind of got yelled at for that last comment sorry hey guys today on it's alive we're gonna be doing something a little different I got my top 10 tips of fermentation you're looking to get started or looking up your gear game for fermentation this is for you tip number one ready [Music] [Applause] [Music] tip number one lynnie and this is a nice 1 gallon jar just look up fermentation jars you can get them with just sealing lids or with lids that have these little air locks but what that does is let the gas out lets the gas out and nothing can get back in so that gas doesn't make the jar explode you don't need that but otherwise you have to burp it and then if you're going to be doing anything liquid you want to get like a beer making or fermentation grade glass I've had a couple mostly just one bad accident where I was using glass that was not fermentation grade it just couldn't take the pressure and I mean it thing turned into dust this one I can't stress enough you know and you go to like a cafe and they come up with one of these and they they pour your water it's those usually are just decorative not fermentation grade tip number two of any accessories couple companies to make some really cool products this one's called crowdsource and this just goes right onto your onto your mason jar here you know as it starts to release the gas it just does a little self burping thing another one cool company called mason tops this is just another little airlocks and then it comes with this great little tamper you know when you're making sauerkraut or kimchi everything needs to be submerged a little under underneath that liquid so this helps you know instead of shoving you can't get your hand down there you know I can't say how you say that word Andy golly it's collie Italian scholarly I feel like this day and age a lot of people have digital cooking scales if you don't get one it's really great for fermenting especially when you start dealing with different salt percentages and when you're making Brian's last cool little gizmo that I really like I believe I'm pronouncing it correct a refractometer it reads the amount of sugar that's in the water so you can gauge how much carbonation will take place you can get as much as one but you know having that uh-oh hey Gibbs you paid for it that's fine refractometer great tool terrible case tip number 3 tip number tree Oh whose good produce you know if you go get like a real nice head of cabbage at a farmers market compared to something that's been sitting in some box in a supermarket for god only knows how long the amount that product will ferment isn't very noticeable also when you're buying produce you know get organic when you as much as possible having things sprayed with pesticides and stuff like that that's not going to translate well into when you're trying to grow life in a jar pesticides and no good you want to get fresh fresh fresh nice nice nice tip number four sanitation cleanliness we talked about all these jars and gadgets and and doodads anything that's going to be in contact with what you're fermenting or using you want to have cleans a great food grade sanitizer it's called star sandy it's kind of like the industry standard when it comes to the beer making winemaking fermentation kills everything not harmful I mean you'll want to go drinking it or nothing but diluted it's a good thing always wash your hands always wash your vessels and always wash your produce what's the old saying cleanliness is next to godliness or something same goes with presentation oh what's that what's next finis tip number five it's always good to write things down keep track of your adjustments of your recipes that way you can recreate them you know if you're like me you see you tend to forget things after a while get yourself something like some masking tape label things the more information the better the data data data data data data data data data data data keep track of your information what are we on tip number six we're gonna head over take a little field trip to fermentation station over here you know when you're fermenting things you kind of want to be in like a cool dark spot you don't want to be out in the Sun you don't want to put it on you know on your windowsill we're running at a pretty a pretty cool 69 degrees right now the ideal temperature for I've found is around like anywhere from like seventy seventy-five eighty sixty five to eight it really depends on what you're doing when it's a cooler temperature it slows down most fermentations and when it gets hot it speeds it up I mean if it gets too hot and it'll start to have negative x and can kill a fermentation in certain bacterias and yeasts but the sweet spot for me I have found to be around seventy-five eighty degrees 70 degrees right in that window not too cold not too hot just nice tip number seven Vincenzo we're gonna talk about salt you go you know aunt Susie's house and she's got that like BS iodized salt you don't want to go using that when you're starting to make you know fermenting things you want to get some real nice kosher salt tried and trued been around forever is the diamond crystal kosher salt it's got a great consistency super clean taste and then another one my buddy Ben Ben Jacobs and small company mostly they're known for their big flaky sea salt oh well this come out before or after this comes out before okay are they ever coming out beautiful day we're gonna make some salted okay the Gordon fisherman but he also come that with a great kosher sea salt ever since we started getting it from them I've been using that in all my fermentations flavor just really comes through and you know it's just you got to do quality it's all about quality when you're doing projects like this tip number eight here we're gonna bring up something that people have asked about a lot I'm not very concerned with it but botulism it's a real thing apparently it really strives in an anaerobic environment where there's no zero oxygen I mean who was the last the last person that got botulism I think it was how was that good that was gold right well I just got yelled that for that so if you do want to check your pH levels check it out on Google but I think it's like I really should get that number huh hold on they won't live in an atmosphere 4.7 or lower so if you want to shoot first keep it around for you should be more than fine they make a nice little digital thing where you can put whatever your liquid is you know just also real cheap you can just get them on online is the little pH dipstick that wraps back in the cleanliness I mean botulism do little research but that stuff's everywhere it's just more about the toxin that is released when it's in an an arab anaerobic environment I think the easiest way to get it is putting garlic and olive oil so just don't do that ferment foods you'll be fine next tip number nine mini and that's books you know get out there you know order some books go to a book store for God's sakes I've got two of my favorites here by the good old Sandor cats the fermentation legend anything you could possibly want to know you can get from these guys fermenting is not a new thing it's been around for thousands of years there's a ton of information out there so information you know more the more you know the better and then you know what just go and meet some people you know make some friends in the fermentation world say more like you know the internet kind of changed the game a lot of forums and websites and chat groups I don't know if people do that anymore about go to the farmers market go to a fermenting workshop make some friends there's always some weird guy making pickles in his basement and a bathtub or some go make friends with him and then oh and that's how you learn stuff last but not least tip number 10 go ahead and subscribe to our YouTube channel and we can ferment and learn together if you haven't seen any of the other episodes check them out where we're actually fermenting we're saying how things are made if you have any questions put them in the old comment section tell me what you make what you want to see me make and that's part of the community get involved have fun Bon Appetit what do you think Vinnie three and a half yeah you know it's not in there Vinnie botulism [Music]

Channel: Bon Appétit

Views: 1,327,379

Rating: 4.952765 out of 5

Keywords: fermentation, what is, brad, brad leone, it's alive, alive, fermented, live food, test kitchen, how to make, probiotics, make, bon appetit brad, brad bon appetit, how to ferment, fermentation tips, kombucha, how to make kombucha, kombucha recipe, tepache, how to make kimchi, kimchi, kimchi recipe, sauerkraut, fermenting, food, bon appetit

Id: nJV0mFIfE1w

Length: 8min 30sec (510 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 04 2018