Easy Fermentation With Kraut Source

Fermentation is a hot topic these days.

Maybe you’ve thought about jumping on the fermentation bandwagon and dismissed it as being too difficult,dangerous, stinky.

Over the past couple of years, I’ve tried pickles and sauerkraut with various levels of success—sauerkraut usually good, classic fermented pickles more of a crap shoot.

I’d pretty much given up on the pickles until read about Kraut Source, which sounded interesting so in the spirit of experimentation, I ordered one.

It’s a spring-loaded top to fit any sized wide-mouth Ball Jar, with a built in “moat” and a cap. The spring holds the contents of the jar below the liquid level, the cap and moat keeps oxygen out and lets carbon dioxide escape.

Accidental Locavore Fermentation SauerkrautSounds complicated but it’s really, really simple and one of those genius kitchen tools you’ll want to own if you’re fermenting anything.

I’ve made the best pickles and two batches of sauerkraut with it so far and everything has been great!

All you need to do is put some veggies in a Ball jar, add brine, screw on the top, fill the moat about 2/3 of the way up with water and let it ferment until you like the taste of it.

When it’s done, you remove the Kraut Source top, put a regular lid on the jar and pop it in the fridge.

Accidental Locavore Fermentation Sauerkraut PreppedDownsides?

You can only do one jar at a time, unless you buy additional kits. For me, this is a good/bad thing.

Good, because doing one at a time means there aren’t lots of jars of fermented goodies vying for space in my overcrowded, cursed-at refrigerator.

Good, because it’s small batch, so you can experiment and come back to the ones that work.

Bad, since I can’t do more than one at a time, so it takes some of the spontaneity out of it; if there’s something great at the farm, I have to pass on it until the current project is finished. Since it’s been taking about 10-14 days to get the flavor I want, that means the gadget is in use for a couple of weeks.

Accidental Locavore Fermentation Sauerkraut FinishedBut batch 2 of sauerkraut is finished (and going to get mixed into batch 1 which had too much caraway seed) so now I’m going to try some kimchi.

And yes, I could just order another kit…

Speaking of which, if you’re reading this on or before August 22nd, they’re having a 20% off sale.

Share

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.