Of Spice and Men

[Javamama]

SKR8PN - I haven't tried Penzey's Adobo, but I might have to make a trip to get some this week. I think I still have that coupon for a free jar

 

[~gd]

My new favorites are the fermented flavorings. I ferment minced fresh garlic and store it in the fridge in a jar for quick minced garlic without the chemicals. I also do this with hot peppers. I ferment an Italian salad dressing mix with fresh herbs from the garden. I make fermented yellow mustard, brown mustard, and horseradish mustard. Could/Would you share your method for fermenting these things? I have tried everything I can think of to ferment mustard and horseradish and it just sits there losing flavor like the lacto-bacteria can't touch the stuff I did get garlic to ferment minced but am not fond of the taste and store that under oil or butter or lard. I haven't tried whole cloves fermenting, waiting for a fresh supply to do that.I have fermented pickles and even a few fruits but mustard and/or horseradish stopped me cold.
I just buy pickling salt for general use, it dissloves fast and has no anticake or iodine to mess things up in brine or cooking. I recrystalize it for kosher or rock salt as topings for rolls/bread Could the salt be part of my fermentation problem?
I used to make my own sausage but no longer have animals to process so I make the seasoning mixes and give them to a local sausage maker for custom sausage. he had never made anything other than breakfast sausage before and has expressed intrest in buying or trading for my mixes. He only does fresh sausage nothing smoked yet.

I use salt! I love salt. I have Celtic sea salt, Redmond Real sea salt, and homemade sea salt for things that need to be really white. I also have kosher salt for cheesemaking but would prefer to make more homemade sea salt for cheesemaking in the future.

I tend to make mixes, too, for convenience. Some mixes I've made in the past are Chai tea, sausage seasoning, salad dressing, herbes de provence, tabouleh salad. I plan on making lots of sausage seasoning mix in preparation for hog processing day this fall.

 

[~gd]

Of more general interest- my local piggly-wiggly sells "Loretta" brand spices in glass refillable grinders. The spices are nothing special but the grinders are nice! At a buck each I buy them for the grinders. The lid is plastic but I seal it with freezer tape to make it air and water vapor tight. The grinder even has some adjustment for fineness of grind. A few of the larger spices need to be prebroken to feed right but I have 18 of the things in a drawer beside my stove. ~gd

 

[Wifezilla]

If you can get "Nourishing Traditions" by Sally Fallon, there are a lot of fermented condiment recipes in that. My local library has it. It can be expensive to buy.

Also do a search for "sally fallon recipe fermented" and you will get a LOT of hits. My favorite fermented recipe so far is the salsa. Mmmmmmmmmm

 

[freemotion]

Fermenting is like bread making or cheesemaking....there are recipes to get you started, but you really have to stick with it and develop a feel for when it is right. We have an extensive fermenting thread here on ss and I posted lots of my own mistakes for people to learn by! There are some great recipes, ideas, and variations there, too. http://www.sufficientself.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=2652

Biggest lessons I learned: Room temp is 70 F, not 95 F! So don't ferment when it is too hot. Or watch it closely and put it in the fridge or root cellar at 1.5-2 days, rather than the standard 3+ days.

Second biggest lesson: If you don't like the taste, put it away in a cool cellar or fridge for a few weeks or months and try again. Most of the time it is TO DIE FOR and completely different.

Third lesson: Scrape off top nasty layer if there is one and enjoy the rest of the jar! Fermented foods don't go bad the way commercially prepared ones do. As long as there are good beasties that are active, the food is safe.....use the sniff test. If it makes your mouth water, eat it.

Fourth but not final lesson: If it comes out wrong, don't give up. Try to make another batch. Sometimes a bad bug takes over before the good ones can overwhelm it.....it happens. It is not necessarily a faulty recipe or method. Don't give up.