Comments on: Fermentation, the Home Game

By: Denise

Denise — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 06:00:59 +0000

Please research juniper berries and the effects it could have on your efforts to bear children. It seems to me that it was recommended to bring on labor in pregnancy. Also, was it used as a contraceptivein times past? I seem to recall that women used to drink gin (made from juniper) as a way to cause a spontaneous abortion. Please be careful.

By: Jaime

Jaime — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 08:21:29 +0000

The crock is pretty! Also, I love those $10 credits! We just used another one recently. Actually one of the things I got was a pair of Danskos I’d been keeping an eye out forever so (even though we bought several things that day) I like to think I got the Danskos for $1 or $2, in my size after waiting for-ever. -I’m catching up on my blog reading, sorry about all the late comments tonight.

By: fillyjonk

fillyjonk — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 13:08:09 +0000

My mom used to make sauerkraut when I was a kid. She used (clean, new, purchased direct from the supply house by my dad) 5000 ml beakers. (My dad is a geologist, so he got all the science-supply catalogs). She used a bag full of water as the sealer and even then the sauerkraut sometimes didn’t turn out (one year one of the bags broke…my six year old self may or may not have been involved in that…)

All she used was cabbage and salt, but it was my understanding that a bigger batch was more likely to turn out. I’d love to try making it someday, but I fear my house is too warm (she used the basement) and besides, I live alone, so I’m not sure I could use up 10 pounds of kraut…

By: Knittripps

Knittripps — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 12:08:05 +0000

Two years ago we tried making sauerkraut in a crock pot and something happened around week 3-4 and it turned ugly (there was mold involved). Last year we canned cabbage directly in jars with a few other things (dill, garlic, salt) and after a few months it was pretty tasty. I’d like the try the other method again someday.

By: tish

tish — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 19:38:14 +0000

“Mom” beat me to it – I was also going to say that the brown crock is a bean pot. It would be good for molasses and brown sugar baked beans to go with a hearty brown bread (baked in a coffee can of course and then toasted with a sharp cheddar or Swiss melted on top). I have a blue and white Polish pottery (fraternal) twin to your bean pot. I guess I should dig out my MILs (she’s a New Englandah) bean recipe and put it to use one of these days. (Currently it sits at the top of the wall unit looking pretty.)

By: Mom

Mom — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 18:54:51 +0000

The brown crock is probably a bean pot.
Is your old cobalt blue crock in good shape or with cracks? It may have been used for this same purpose over a century ago.
Love:)

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 13:48:37 +0000

Just de-lurking to say that I really enjoy reading about your Portland adventure I’ve also been making a lot of homemade versions of things we used to buy in the store in recent weeks. Your sauerkraut and sourdough sound fabulous!

By: Cathy

Cathy — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 13:21:26 +0000

My mom made sauerkraut once. The crock was about knee high, the diameter was big enough to use a dinner plate (one of those large earthenware ones) as a weight on top of it, with a linen dishtowel under it to keep things out of the kraut, and she weighted down the plate with something–a brick? a quart mason jar full of something? I don’t remember at this point. I do remember her shredding the cabbage and it took forever–so I would reccomend either a mandolin or food processor for that. The only thing she put in with the cabbage was salt. And that was the best kraut I ever had. It was even better if you ate it “uncooked.” (I know she canned it, so it had been cooked somehow at that point.) It squeeked in my teeth and was awesome. To this day, I really don’t care much for cooked kraut.

By: Jena (the yarn harpy)

Jena (the yarn harpy) — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 04:23:45 +0000

I have a really lame to most people story about sauerkraut, but there is such rare occasion to tell such story that I must at any opportunity. So here goes… feel free to skip or delete if you wish.

At my high school, freshman biology included a lab lesson that, for whatever reason, included making sauerkraut and tracking the pH over time. Everyone had a head of cabbage, some vinegar and a clean pickle jar.
My locker had no top/ceiling to it because it was apparently the way that they could access wiring in the walls if necessary (our lockers were built-ins). This meant that I had extra storage in that I could put stuff on top of the adjoining lockers. I put the sauerkraut jar there on the last day of that particular lab, since we were all sent home with our jars to enjoy with our families, presumably. (You can probably see where this is going.) It stayed there… until the last day of my senior year of high school when I retrieved it and returned it to my biology teacher. He was stunned. I’m told it’s still in the science wing teacher’s room.

And that concludes my silly sauerkraut story.

By: Norma

Norma — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 01:44:41 +0000

I will eat almost anything, but the thought of sauerkraut (right up there with raw fish — therefore sushi — and raw oysters) makes me retch.

However, the sourdough? I’m all about it. Well, except for the whole wheat issue, that is. Darn. I miss my sourdough so much.