Easy Lacto-Fermentation Part 1 - Sauerkraut, Kimchi, Dill Pickles, Jalapeno Hot Sauce

Today on this , we are getting pickled .

I have been interested in lacto fermentation for quite a long time .

Uh lacto fermentation if you're not familiar is essentially the process of using salt to create a brine in order to pickle things essentially in their own juices .

So things like sauerkraut , Kimchi pickles , those are all examples of lacto fermented things .

So a couple of weeks ago , a company reached out to me with these fermentation lids , which are these little silicone lids that um pretty much kind of just like a baby bottle nipple on top of a silicone disk .

Uh And these go onto wide mouth jars , drop one , these go to wide mouth jars and they help to release the gasses that are created during the lacto fermentation process .

So you can turn any wide mouth jar essentially into a pickling container .

So we're going to be in this video today .

Um This is a two part video .

Um Today , we're going to be setting up a few different types of lacto fermented pickles .

We're going to be doing a sauerkraut and a Korean spiced sauerkraut .

Not quite a full kimchi .

I'm going to be trying to make a jalapeno hot sauce and we're going to be pickling some full size um mini pickles .

So stick around and uh we'll get this set up .

We're going to start out with the sauerkraut and kimchi .

Um So I have a large head of cabbage here and I've removed the outer leaves and I'm going to be saving a couple because these are gonna help us when we jar up the cabbage later , I'm gonna try to get two of these types of c crowds out of one head of cabbage .

So I'm going to be working in halves .

This one is a pretty dense cabbage here .

So I'm going to be um cutting these up a little bit smaller , removing the core and then I'm going to shred up one of them in the food processor or one half in the food processor and that's gonna go in the traditional and then the other half will go in the Kimchi spiced one .

And right now what I'm doing here when I'm quartering these is taking out the core .

Sorry , if you hear a rattling , I already have bowl set up here ready to go for everything .

All right .

Um I think I need to cut these in half once again and then I will be able to put them in the food processor .

I'm just using the food processor in order to make my life a lot easier .

But you could do this by hand if you wanted to , half of the cabbage has been shredded up in the food processor and I'm going to remove this to a fairly large bowl .

Hopefully , this bowl is big enough and , uh , I'm gonna definitely need a larger bowl .

I'll switch that out in a second .

But , um , I'm just gonna get basically the other half of the cabbage shredded up so that I'll have the two halves , then I'll salt them and season them up .

I have my cabbage divided into two large bowls for the Kimchi seasoned one .

I'm going to be adding a carrot also .

So I'm just going to process this .

Um , I've also changed the blade .

This is a grating blade now .

So this just goes in to this one , which is going to have my Kimchi seasons sauerkraut .

All right , we're ready to start salting and seasoning to make the basic sauerkraut .

I have a big bowl of the half head of cabbage and I'm going to add about a tablespoon , maybe a little bit more of salt to that .

And then I'm going to just work my hands in here and massage it for a minute or two .

And the same thing is gonna happen with the other one .

I'll just be adding some seasonings in after that and to the next one , I'm going to add the same amount of salt and then I'm actually gonna add a few sliced onions .

They're a little bit big for this , but that's ok .

And a couple of cloves of garlic and then we massage again for a couple more minutes .

Once these have been massaged , they're gonna basically hang out for a few minutes and they're going to be releasing a tonn of water and that's what's going to be pickling this cabbage and turning it into our sauerkraut .

Oh , also when I'm done massaging , this is when I'm gonna add the seasoning .

Um , I just didn't wanna add it at the beginning because I didn't want to get it all over my hands .

So by just doing the salt portion first and then adding the seasoning later , I can avoid getting it all over my hands and avoid having to use rubber gloves .

So Kimchi normally takes a longer process .

We're just kind of expediting that .

So I'm gonna be adding a tablespoon of Korean chili flake .

Let's add a little bit more .

And then I'm going to be adding some go probably a similar amount , kind of a heaping tablespoon or so .

And then like I said , I'm gonna be using the tongs to mix this through .

All right , everything looks fairly well mixed through here .

So I'm just gonna let this set aside with the basic sauerkraut version and we'll , we'll move on to the next pickle .

The next thing we're gonna be pickling are these mini cucumbers and we're gonna be pickling them whole .

Now , the sauerkraut and the last thing I'm gonna be pickling today is gonna go in these jars with those lids that I told you about .

Uh , but this is another option which , um , I'm gonna be using for these large cucumbers just because I can fit more in here .

And , uh , it's essentially a similar thing .

You have the holes here that allow gas to escape and you have this valve here .

Basically , it's full of water so you can see the bubbles coming out .

But , um , basically this allows gasses to escape as well .

So similar thing , this is just a little bit larger .

Um And this is actually quite a bit more expensive because it does have a weight , um which I'll talk about weighting these a little bit later .

But um yeah , so I'm gonna be doing the larger pickles in this one today and I also have a link to this below if you are interested in .

Uh it's from a place called Farm Steady .

So , um yeah , let's start cutting up or at least trimming these cucumbers so we can start to pickle them in here and I'm just gonna be cutting off the very end and this just helps the brine penetrate a little bit .

And uh I'm cutting off the end that has , I guess where it was attached where the flower was and you could either snack on these or compost them for these .

We're going to do just kind of a traditional garlic dill pickle .

So I'm going to be adding a few sprigs of dill in here into the bottom .

Also , a couple of onions just for flavor and a couple of cloves of garlic just kind of breaking them up a little bit .

All right .

Now I'm going to layer the cucumbers into the jar .

Now , the place that I got this , um , jar , I actually bought this at home goods , I think .

Um , but their website has a few other kind of pickling options as well .

I just wanted to test this one out and originally I was gonna do these pickles in the smaller jars , but decided to just go with this because I had it all right , top with a couple more springs of garlic or sprigs of , uh , dill some more garlic .

And , uh , we're ready to add the brine , which I'll show you how we're gonna make that next , the brine that we are going to be using to pickle .

This is pretty much just salt water .

The kimchi and the sauerkraut , they're creating their own liquid by the salt , pulling it out of the cabbage .

Um , but for this , we need to add our own .

So we're just gonna be using water and , uh , I'm gonna be 24 cups of water .

I'm gonna add two tablespoons of salt and I've already just heated up some water here and I'm gonna add this in just to help it dissolve and then I'll fill it up the rest of the way with water and then we'll add it into the jar .

Again , this farm steady version comes with its own weight .

So I'm just gonna put that on top and then pour in my four cups of brine , which is just saltwater .

The reason you want the weight is because it keeps everything below the water level .

And that way it keeps everything in an anaerobic state , which anaerobic just means without oxygen .

So by it all being under that liquid , you don't worry about anything poking up and that could risk it getting moldy or yucky .

Yucky is not a very good word .

Uh All right , it looks like um I'm gonna add a little bit more water to make sure everything is under there and then we will put the lid on and that's pretty much it with all these pickles , it's gonna take about 5 to 7 days .

So this is just gonna hang out for 5 to 7 days .

The next thing we are going to make is a fermented a hot sauce .

Uh Ours is gonna be jalapeno based .

So I have a bunch of jalapenos that I've rinsed here .

Uh I have a habanero pepper as well as a green bell pepper just for some bulk .

And most of the hot sauces you buy in the store are fermented .

So we're gonna be trying to make our own and we're gonna be using the fermenting lids and the mason jars for this .

So what I'm gonna do is basically rough chop everything up here , get it in the jar and then we'll add a brine .

I'm also gonna be adding some onions and garlic to this .

So I'm just gonna start out with that at the base so I can clear up my surface .

And then in an attempt to protect my hands from jalapenos , I'm going to be using a , what are they called tongs uh in order to not have to touch the jalapenos while I cut them up .

So I hope this works and I'm just cutting them into maybe three quarter inch , one inch pieces .

And this is going to ferment in our brine for again , 5 to 7 days .

And then after that time , we will run it through a blender and we will have hot sauce .

Hopefully we have in the jar nine jalapenos , a little bit of onion , some garlic and the habanero .

I ended up not adding the bell pepper because I decided I didn't need any bulk .

So let's talk about weights for this .

I went to Michael's the craft store and I found these little glass things .

I don't know what they're actually for uh fish tanks or candles or something .

So I bought a thing of these , it was only a couple of bucks .

So I'm gonna be using these as the weights and hoping that they work because the thing you want in a way is that they're going to keep the items down .

But also let gasses release and come up , so just put a few of those on top .

I think it'll work and then we're going to make the brine , which this one is only gonna be two cups of water and one tablespoon of salt .

And now I'm going to add the brine and hope that my weights keep everything below the water level .

Alright .

I cleaned up the hot sauce is hanging out and now it is time to jar up our uh sauerkraut .

So I have one of the jars here ready to go .

I've got this canning funnel which just helps to get things inside .

Um I've got some tong even though I might want to use my bare hands .

And uh last thing is I went ahead and I told you I reserved a couple of the leaves and um I just cut them into disks using the lids of the mason jars and this is gonna go on top of the cabbage once it's in the uh in its own liquid and this is gonna help to keep things down .

The weights will go on top of this and again , it will keep everything under the of the liquid .

So let's start filling jars .

Turns out this half head of cabbage was a perfect fit for this jar and um I don't know if it's showing up on camera , but you can see that it's packed down there pretty tight .

I'm just using um this whisk in here because my hand doesn't fit in the jar to push everything down .

But , um , it's pretty much full of liquid .

I'll probably top it off with a little bit of water at the end .

But let's start adding the top and the weights .

So I just put this down on .

There , had a few weeks and I don't know if you can see that liquids coming up , but I just want to add a little bit more to be safe .

Now , we're throwing the fermentation lid on , securing it with the metal ring and just like the others .

This is gonna go for 5 to 7 days and pretty soon we'll start to see bubbles rise to the surface as it ferments .

Now , we are going to do the same exact thing with the Korean spiced mixture , just filling up the jar , packing it down and just like the last one .

We should have just enough room in the jar for this entire half head of cabbage .

I tried my best but I think because of the carrot and onion in here , it didn't all fit .

So I had to keep a little bit out , but let's go ahead and add the cabbage leaf to the top .

Try to get in there under the lip a little bit .

Doesn't look like I'm look like I'm going to need any extra liquid here , but I'm still gonna add the weights .

Did a pretty good job getting everything under the surface though .

It smells amazing .

And let's add a couple of weeks , I think I'm good with three .

All right .

Well , we're gonna wait 5 to 7 days for this and , uh , then hopefully we have kimchi flavored sauerkraut .

Um All right .

Well , I have a jar of pickled carrots that I made about five days ago .

So I'm gonna test those for you and see how they are .

But otherwise you have to wait for the , uh , wait until the next video to see how these particular fermentation came out .

So right down the lid , it's now time for the most difficult part , which is waiting .

So again , about 5 to 7 days and uh you should have pickles , sauerkraut and jalapenos that are fermented to make a chili sauce .

Now , I told you I had these carrots .

Now you can see this label also .

Um I do recommend getting some maybe masking tape and labeling them or if you have a like a china marker or something that you can write on glass , you can use that as well .

Just make sure to label it , especially the date .

So you know how long it has been fermenting .

So these have been in there for five days .

This is my first time opening it .

Um It may look a little bit cloudy and that's because the jar is actually green .

So it makes things look a little bit weird .

But um these were carrots with a little bit of dried dill because I didn't have fresh dill at the time and some chili and some garlic .

So um I'm gonna give this a taste and see if five days is enough or if it needs to go a little bit longer .

Smells really good smells .

Take away it's all crispy , really good flavor , but I can already tell this isn't long enough .

So I'm gonna let this hang out a little bit longer .

Mm .

That red pepper in there and gave it some nice spice .

So probably another couple of days to go on this .

But I will see you back here next week when all these are ready to go and be tasted .

I'll have recipes for you at that time as well .

These lids follow the link below to those lids .

They are already incredible .

Um And uh this jar as well .

I'll put a link below to that , but thanks for watching , I will see you next time on months and made this when we will taste these .

Also .

Follow my Patreon .

I'll have a link below for that as well .

Uh There won't be a month and eight this , this week , but you can check out the last three episodes of months and ate this on my Patreon .

And then I'll do one next week as well with the tasting of these .

So have a great week .

I'll see you next time with pickles .