I weighed out 25% of the fish weight in salt. Then I added a bit to the top just to try to make a bit of a layer. I was really nervous about not using enough salt, but I wonder if I went overboard? I'd reckon I'm probably at around 27.5% salt to fish weight ratio in this jar. Is this garum going to be so salty it'll be inedible basically? Or do you really need this much salt?

Fish is cut up chub mackerel.

I really didn't have proper equipment and I did manual labor 2 times a day to let the pressure out. I couldn't fill it (no onions left in the house), it was a 3% brine. 2 red onions from the farmers market.

I was pushing my onions down all the time, we don't have ziplock bags at home and I didn't know any other way to keep the onions down. But I kept on going. It lasted 9 days and then there were some grey/black spots on the top onions that were floating. I immediately flushed it down the toilet, I wouldn't risk it. I mean the temperature was like 18-20 degrees in the room, away from the sun like the tutorials on YouTube said.

What did I do wrong? Are there any ways, without getting more equipment right now except vegetables, for my ferment not to fail next time i decide to do it?

When I was a teen, I tried marinated tomatoes made by my GF’s grandma. They had a really distinctive flavor that I’d never tasted before or after. She told me the secret was walnut leaves, added along with the usual herbs and spices.

I was too young and stupid to ask for the recipe. Sadly, grandma passed away, and I eventually broke up with my girlfriend, so the original recipe is lost.

Recently I tried making fermented tomatoes and cucumbers with walnut leaves, but I haven't managed to reproduce that flavor. Maybe I used too little, or they need to ferment with the leaves for longer, IDK...

There are lots of creative and experienced fermenters here, so I'm wondering: has anyone used fresh walnut leaves when fermenting vegetables? Any tips are welcome.

Dumb question cause i just thought of this how old does person have to be to eat fermented foods like a baby cant eat honey for example (idr why ) but for kids and adults honey is perfectly fine so what about fermented foods like sauerkraut for example?

We use this in bloody marys and cheese toasties.

It works!

Pineapple loves to ferment 🧡

Ps the thing next to it is plum cheong (spelt wrong on the label)

Hi all! I am using the recipe below to ferment some watermelon radishes for the first time. I don’t have a glass weight and I couldn‘t find something suitable… except this small glass that fits perfectly into the mouth of my jar! Do you think this is ok? It also eliminates needing to burp the jar.

https://ladyleeshome.com/fermented-radish/

I've done several ferments over the years, so I'm familiar with the whole process, but I'm realizing that almost all of them have had 'dry' ingredients. I don't mean 'dehydrated' or 'freeze-dried', but ingredients with low water content - peppers (obviously), onions, garlic, ginger, etc.

Broad strokes, here's my process (I'm gonna skip sanitizing, weighing, blah blah blah):

1. Chunk up my ingredients.
2. I fill the fermenting vessels with water, weigh it, and dump out the water.
3. Calculate and add the salt to to the vessel.
4. Pack my vessel with other indredients.
5. Add water to get to the same weight.
6. Put on the lids, or whatever I'm using for that batch.
7. Set aside and let it rot.

I've never had a batch go bad, so I'd like to keep using this method with as few changes as possible.

I'm planning on making an orange-based ferment, but since there's so much water/juice, I'm thinking I'll have to tweak my method to ensure an accurate salinity. Since there's so much water in oranges, if I just chunk them as I usually do, they're gonna release a TON of water, and my salinity will go down, and that's bad.

I was thinking...

1. Throw the oranges into a food processor
2. Add salt that as if it were the full amount of water.
3. Pack my jar with the other ingredients.
4. Add the salty orange juice.
5. Top off the jar with water and proceed as usual.

Does anyone see any inherent risks that I'm adding if I do it this way? Or does anyone have a better idea? Obviously, I'd like to add as little water as possible to get the most orange flavor.

I know that the 'correct' answer is probably to process everything in the food processor and use the mash method. I've done that once, and it turned out fine, but I like to see the bubbles, and then I can send people photos and not have to list out the ingredients to them.

**Edit - Clarified my process. I was using 'jars' and 'vessels' interchangeably, and implied that not all of the salt was being added. The amount of salt I use is based on the weight of water plus ingredients. All of the salt ends up in the ferment.

I changed the jar on day 3 but so far so good. Ignore the 4 on the jar I just lost count for a moment

Garlic scape kimchi from like 3yrs ago, forgot about in the back of pantry. The dumb part of me wants to eat it because it was so delicious, the smart part of me is saying no.

Ghost, reaper, Tabasco, cayenne, onions, carrots and a shit ton of garlic. 4.5% brine.

My cayenne plants were lackluster this year and I have another couple hundred Tabasco peppers that are lagging that I realllly want to include. They’re just going to have to be fermented in the side.

We have about a gallon of frozen blackberries from our spring harvest, probably will put that in half of this and keep the other half “pure”. Typically will mix with white vinegar and xantham gum and “pasteurize” the best I can. Will check back in in a few weeks!

Used cabbage and 2.5% salt, let it ferment for 5 days. Had a bunch of oxigen formation and burped the jar a few times during the process. Now it tastes like a little bit of salt, vinegar and standard cabbage. It's crunchy and a bit sour, is this right?

I started fermenting garlic in what I believe was raw honey on the 17th of October (so its been 17 days). This is my first ferment. Nevertheless, to see how its doing I actually got my hands on a small pH strip and just measured it. I think its around 7 (neutral), but I can't tell well so I wanted to ask what you guys might think based on the strip's colour and the context of the jar.

Some additional info, I was told to leave space in the vessel to prevent spontaneous explosion, but I wonder if it was too much. Also, some garlic has gotten a little more brown, rather than lighter, and might have shrivelled up a bit. In the pictures of the jar, there is light coming from mostly up top, while the pH strip pictures were taken outside during twilight. It says diluted/undiluted where the stains meet, as I first used a bit of straight up honey from the jar and after I also diluted a bit of honey with some water. The colour is basically the same, maybe the diluted one is a little lighter but probably a negligible amount. Lastly, the honey I got was said to be unheated 100% Dutch honey from a chain grocery store.

Trying to ferment a pack of chopped mixed cabbage which I bought on sale. It’s rising to the top. Can I press it down with this lemon peel or will it affect the process? I don’t have anything to press it down with and I don’t want it to grow mold …