The Complete Guide to Fermenting Every Single Vegetable

it is officially the peak of summer we're entering into the first week of August it's hot outside and this is a wonderful time to be a pro home-cooked because if you go to the local farmers markets you can pretty much get any produce you want things are an abundance we're at the peak of the growing season which is great for getting in the kitchen and cooking up fresh dishes but the question is why am I thinking about winter right now because that's what people did before there was refrigeration before there were supermarkets everywhere humans were always thinking ahead thinking to those colder months when things weren't growing figuring out how they could take this abundance of food in the summer and preserve it so they could have fresh food all winter long and they could survive those colder months so in today's video I'm going to be teaching you one of those preservation techniques I'm gonna be showing you the complete guide to fermenting vegetables so you pretty much can go to the market pick any vegetable you want put it in a jar ferment it so you can have fresh vegetables all year long but first we got ahead to the market to pick up some freshies [Music] [Music] I've got a great variety right here of veggies from the farmers market I'm trying to do as many different types of vegetables as I can for this fermentation project I'm gonna head to the studio for the first ever cooking video there but I've got a very important renovation to take care of first I got to start out the fermentation station one of the reasons I'm so excited about this space is because it gives me so much more room for experimentation for crazy food projects and you know I'm obsessed with fermentation and different food projects like kombucha and beer making sourdough bread fermenting vegetables and miso and all of these things that I haven't tried like cheese making I didn't have room for cheese making and when I saw this little area back here away from the light tucked in the corner it made sense to turn it into an area that was dedicated more to these projects to fermentation to the sciency stuff a place where I could store all of these experiments I'm gonna be turning this into a fermentation station you could call it and really pimping this out for future food projects so the first thing I'm doing for the space is actually the sponsor of the video reclaimed Arbor and what they do is they reclaim pieces of wood and they cut them into thin strips like this for easy installation on your wall for wood paneling and I figured since this wall is white I wanted to create a different feel a different set and I thought having wood panels in there I don't know it just felt right for the vibe of the fermentation station so I'm going to install these wood panels on the firewall back there all the wood is reclaimed wood from California and they actually plant a tree for every box they sell which is pretty cool and you can get the wood in a few different tones and then also either these stick on panels or just regular I'm using regular today because I actually have a brad nailer I figured it'd be a little easier to just Brad nail it right into the wall but you can use these stick-ons no problem if you don't have the proper tools this is looking so crazy right now I'm loving it so I'm having a lot of fun because you get to match up the patterns which is I don't know it's a little bit of creativity all of these different wood grains different types of woods it's pretty random but then it comes together [Music] Wow that is so sick what else can i laser cut it's the question so I ordered a bunch of jars because I've got a new studio and I'm gonna need a ton of these for pantry items for shelving for the fermentation station a lot of projects so the first thing I'm gonna do is pop these in the dishwasher just to make sure you get the the factory settings cleared off any type of dust or residue or chemicals you want to clean that off it doesn't have to be insane but because I have a dishwasher I'll put them in there you can just use soap that will be fine but these jars are perfect the ones with the screw top lid this air seal that's what you want for fermenting it's not necessary but it will certainly help fermentation station looking real good so I took this shelving from Ikea right here and I stained it in a walnut coloring so it kind of goes with the flow of the kitchen since I have a lot of walnut tones in the kitchen it's just one flowing piece over here oh wait till this piece comes in I'm gonna build a cheese cave and a kegerator but let's not get too carried away just yet we got to start fermenting some veggies to fill the shelves before we get started fermenting our veggies I wanted to give you a baseline knowledge of fermentation because I'm sure a lot of you are new to fermentation and it can definitely be overwhelming at first it can be a little scary especially for anyone new to the process and I find when you do have that baseline knowledge when you understand the process when you understand some of the science you're gonna have a lot more confidence when you go to actually ferment your food so the question is what is fermentation well fermentation is pretty much just controlled decay just like human beings food has a life and because it's living it's gonna die it just happens to die a lot quicker than humans so when we ferment our food we get to preserve it we get to make it last a lot longer than it would in its fresh form sometimes months even years when we ferment it it also unlocks vitamins and nutrients in the food that aren't available in its fresh form that can be very healthy for us it can unlock unique flavors as well so that funkiness that acidity that is all from fermentation so delicious flavors are always a bonus and also it can create alcohol in certain forms of fermentation so how does fermentation work well there are millions of microbes in the environment they're in you they're in your food and in fermentation there are certain microbes like yeast bacteria and mold that feed off the carbs in certain foods like sugars and starches and they convert those starches into acid into gas and into alcohol so there's a few types of fermentation 3 specifically you have lactic acid fermentation which you find in sauerkraut and yogurt and kimchi you've seen me do that a lot on this channel there's alcohol fermentation which you find of course in wine and beer and there's also a scenic fermentation which you find in vinegar and kombucha which I make a ton of kombucha so I take advantage of all of these different types of fermentation now the key to fermentation is the environment this is how we control the decay we control the environment because there's good bacteria there's bad bacteria there's good microbes and bad microbes so we're always trying to keep in the good microbes that are gonna ferment our food properly that are gonna give us a healthy product and we want to keep away the bad stuff that's going to create the mold and the decay that we don't want in our fermented foods now specifically for our veggies we're dealing with lacto-fermentation and the byproduct of lacto fermentation is lactic acid which is why we have that Tang eNOS from this fermentation process like when your yogurt tastes super tangy or pickles that comes from lactic acid and there are two key elements to create the perfect environment for lacto fermentation number one is we want to cut off the oxygen so aerobic like aerobics class means with air you're using your breath you're using oxygen to work out we do not want anaerobic environment when it comes to lacto-fermentation we want an anaerobic environment where there's no oxygen involved because the oxygen is where those bad bacteria will come into play but when there's no oxygen in the environment we're promoting the good bacteria that we want so you can see right here when we are fermenting our veggies if this is our water line of our bottle you do not want any of the veggies poking through like here any veggies that are in contact with the oxygen above the water line are going to be susceptible to mold so we have to make sure we keep them under the water where there's no oxygen available so we can have a proper fermentation and I'll go over that process a little bit later now the second key element in lacto fermentation is the addition to salt not only does salt make our food taste delicious but it also keeps away those bad bacteria that we do not want in our food so by adding salt to our veggies and keeping them submerged in water we're gonna create the perfect environment for the lacto-fermentation to take place now there's a really simple equation that works great for fermenting veggies all you have to do is find the weight of your vegetable that you're fermenting plus the weight of the water that's going to be in the jar as well and then you're going to multiply that by 2.5% or a point zero o to five which would look something like this this would be an example of how it goes say our veggies weighed 400 grams and our water weighs 200 grams at 600 grams for both the veggies in the water times 0.025 gives us 15 which means we need 15 grams of salt added to the water for the perfect fermentation environment poof you know what let me just show you how it works all right I'm going to break this down for you really quickly so we're gonna put our scale on and we're going to zero it out with the jar on top and we're gonna pile in our veggies okay so we are at 86 right here but we're not done we have to pour on our water so pour that up to not the top cause we're gonna weigh that down a little bit right there so that takes us to 339 so that is the weight of the water and the veggies we're gonna go three thirty-nine times 0.025 which is 2.5% eight point five grams not what I'll do is I take this water and I pour that water out keeping the veggies in there place that water back on there zero it out again and we're gonna add at eight point five grams of salt so we're just gonna keep adding adding all right it do it we're gonna put the lid on this give this a shake please all and then now that our salt has dissolved all we and we have the perfect ratio of salt and every time for our fermenting veggies a little complex at first but I'm telling you it's so simple once you master that equation there you go you understand the fermentation equation and you can pretty much apply that to any bed you want well not any veggies some veggies don't ferment that well but a wide variety of veggies and I'm gonna show you some of my favorite combinations in this video that worked great for lacto-fermentation but there are just a few more key tips I need to go over before we start fermenting one is the salt can definitely range between two to three percent I'm saying 2.5 because that's worked for me it's a nice average I'm sure it will work for you but you can adjust accordingly and always weigh this salt get yourself a scale and weigh the salt because some salt is super light and flaky and some is dense so when I give you the actual volume that's not always going to work the best your temperature that is very important try to find a range in your house your apartment wherever you're fermenting between sixty and seventy five degrees if it's colder than that it's gonna be very slow the fermentation process if it's hotter than 75 degrees it's gonna be very quick and you really need to keep an eye on it or things can go bad very quickly I've been there many times so try to find this range and last but not least give your veggies a really good wash before you start the process of fermentation just water on the line [Music] first up for the fermented veggies are going to be some Tomatoes some cherry tomatoes which is a great fermented product so to the jar I'm going to add a little bit of onions I'm gonna add some Tomatoes then some more onions then a little bit of oregano I really like adding the addition of some hearty herbs like oregano or thyme and you don't need much because that flavour is going to intensify and then I add some more Tomatoes add my water to the jar and I poured the water off weigh out the percentage of salt give that a shake and then pour that salt back over and you're good to go next up is some corn on the cob well actually corn off the cob because the first thing I have to do is slice the corn off the cob so it can fit into the jar then to the jar I added a little bit of onion some jalapeno for some spiciness I piled in that corn and added some more onion jalapeno a little bit of thyme as well for some extra flavor and then I poured over my water took the weight of that pour the water back out added my salt percentage and then shook that up and poured that back over the veggies and you are good to go peppers are one of my favorite fermented veggies because they're so versatile you can turn them into a sauce you can add them to whatever dish you want they can be sweet they can be spicy they're delicious I'm gonna use some bell peppers today but I'm actually gonna spice them up with a chili and I start off by just chopping up my peppers into little bite-sized pieces then I add some peppers to the jar and I added a little bit of coriander seeds some garlic cloves a little bit of dried chilies to add some spice and then or peppers and I added my water over took the water al added the 2.5% of salt shook that up and poured it back over the peppers another really fun fermented veggie is cauliflower it holds up really great in the fermentation process and also it's just so much better than raw cauliflower from mentok cauliflower is delicious and all you have to do is take your cauliflower and chop it up into bite-size little pieces and then to the bottom of the jar I added some time I added over the cauliflower I poured over that water and poured it out added the 2.5% salt shook it up and poured it back over the cauliflower the last fermented veggie is carrots which I love because they're naturally sweet so when you add the acidity of the fermentation it creates a really nice sweet and sour balance so first we got to take our carrots and peel off the outer skin then chop them into bite-size pieces to the jar I'm gonna add some thyme a little bit of mustard seeds a few cloves of garlic then I added the carrots and topped it off with some onion pour it over the water poured out the water add in 22.5% so shook that up and poured that back over the veggies so now one of the most important factors is creating this anaerobic environment how do we create that environment how do we keep the veggies under the water well there are ton of different techniques my two favorite techniques are one just using a weight to weigh everything down a weight that fits in your jar that's going to keep those veggies submerged and you can create a weight out of different materials just make sure those materials won't leach out into your liquid another great technique is taking a plastic bag filling it up with a little bit of water and then plopping that down in the veggies so it keeps everything submerged but you're still going to be able to get co2 releasing through the side of the bag which brings up another good point do you cover them do you keep them uncovered well there's a few different ways to go about it if you do put the cap on over the jar you're gonna keep in that co2 which is fine but your veggies will probably be a little more fizzy if you like that if you like that carbonation trapped within your fermentation that's fine another way is to just put your jar on very loosely so the co2 can just release out the sides of the jar or just keep it uncovered and as long as things aren't getting in you should be fine this is very exciting the first fermented food in the fermentation other than my Scobie hotel but that doesn't really count because that's been going for a while now boom let's load it up step one can please our veggies are in the perfect environment they're ready for fermentation but the fermentation has not happened yet that's gonna happen over the next few days and I'm gonna take you along on that journey so you know what to look for but there are three main stages to fermentation just to keep in mind stage one we have the microbe setting in in the first 24 hours really just killing off all of those bad bacteria and once we get through stage one that's when the lactobacillus start kicking in and converting those sugars into acids and that will happen after around two to three days you might see a little bit of bubbling happen you might smell some more acids a little more tanging this coming off your ferment and then finally stage 3 the aging process and this is really when the acids take over and your firm it gets super tangy you'll see a ton of bubbles that's the co2 that is formed from the fermentation being released trying to escape and your fermentation can be done around for days that would be the earliest the earliest possible you could pull it it's not going to taste good before that because you haven't built those acids it will actually taste quite bad in the first few days but that can go all the way up to weeks even months some people like to ferment and really get that thing tang get extra nutrients in there fermentation if you like it funky if you like it acidic then let it go longer these I would say I don't know we'll go around seven days to ten days maybe I'll let a few go two weeks that's the fun part about fermentation this is living right here every fermentation project is a little bit different all right so I have an update for you I've pulled a few ferments from the shelf over there and we have some interesting results I'm definitely seeing some carbonation bubbles which is a great time that the fermentation is happening co2 is a by-product from fermentation so you'll see some tiny bubbles that will like form down here and shoot up and just to give you a look inside for instance the cauliflower looks great pretty much everything is submerged you can start tasting the sourness we're not totally there yet but it's happening whereas a day you know two or three it doesn't taste good at all tomatoes let's take a look at that this is interesting right here so as you can see there's a little bit of white cloudiness and that's totally fine that's just a yeast buildup on the top as long as it's not colored you're good there over here we have the peppers totally submerged we do have a few floaters but you know my hands are clean I'm gonna try this delicious starting to get nice and tangy now here this is where things got a little crazy on me so check this out and I'm actually happy this happened so the green beans I just like didn't submerge them I guess I forgot and this is what you're gonna get now that is a problem and that is a great example of if the green beans are not submerged under the waterline and they're exposed to oxygen you get this fuzzy mold stuff growing so although I didn't mean to ruin the green beans I'm actually happy this happened because that's part of fermentation things will mess up from time to or you will mess up just like this and it's fine you know I lost a few green beans but I learned my lesson and all of the rest are good to go so you're gonna lose a few soldiers it's not the end of the world make sure everything is submerged and check it daily because this stuff will get out of control pretty quickly there you go we've got all of our fermented veggies in the fridge which is just a beautiful sight because I can take these out at any point and throw them on a dish I can turn them into a sauce or just eat them raw they're delicious as is and they'll age in the fridge obviously at a much slower rate and they can stay in here for months I mean obviously if they start looking weird or smelling bad then get rid of them but they should age in here slowly and be good for a while and yes this project took some time but I will be enjoying these four months [Music]

Channel: Pro Home Cooks

Views: 2,048,650

Keywords: fermenation, how to ferment vegetables, fermenting vegetables, preserve vegetables, lacto fermentation, beginners fermentation, what is fermentation, fermentation science, fermented carrots, fermented tomatoes, preserving tomatoes, how to preserve food, healthy fermentation, pro home cooks, mike greenfield, mike g

Id: ZghX4Mrg7kw

Length: 22min 47sec (1367 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 15 2019

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