Lacto-fermentation, and you?

November 10, 2008

Fermentation is a correlative of life and of the production of globules, rather than of their death or putrefaction.

Also sprach Pasteur…

Instead of using ceramic sauerkraut pots, I used my Grams’ old Bauerware, covering the shredded/salted cabbage with plates and whatever weighty material I had to press and immerse it under the brine.

Towards the end of the week whenever I walked past these stacked Morandi still lives, little bubbles would appear from under the plates now submerged in brine. I understood this to be direct communication from the lactobacilli, that they had in fact fermented the cabbage to my satisfaction.

Just like Pasteur said, “It’s the microbes that will have the last word.”

• 
  An extract on Pasteur’s Memoire sur la fermentation appelée lactique (1857)

  The best book on fermentation, especially lacto-fermentation is Sandor Katz’s Wild Fermentation. Read it thoroughly to understand why the live ferments are so healthy.

  City Picklers video on pickling

  Sally Fallon is a proponent of live foods and is the author of Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats

  Wikipedia on lactobacillus

  The Gut Microflora Story, from the European Food Information Council

  The new version of Bauerware may be just a copy of the older, more valuable, but the glaze doesn’t contain lead! I’m not a collector, just love the shapes and colours, so I’ll call that an improvement.

  Here’s where I discovered that my Gram’s bowls had leaded glaze. Ooops! That said, my entire family grew up eating food out of these bowls with no ill effects.

  And here!
  

debra at 1:14 | | post to del.icio.us

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