needforsneed
kiwifarms.net
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- Jul 20, 2023
Well it only took 4 days to start fermentation! Middle jar has a noticeable slight yellow/brown tint and has started fizzing and fermenting. It still smells the same, just much more intense.
Home Fermentation - Kombucha, Kefir, Kimchi, Sourdough, Yoghurt, etc
- Thread starter Judge Holden
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Well it only took 4 days to start fermentation! Middle jar has a noticeable slight yellow/brown tint and has started fizzing and fermenting. It still smells the same, just much more intense.
- Joined
- Sep 22, 2021
Update pls I have been wondering about this!
needforsneed
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Jul 20, 2023
So we're now a month in. I've left the jars out in a sunny spot this whole time, and fermentation seems to have slowed to a near standstill. I don't think this is a bad sign or anything, and it doesn't smell alcoholic, but it hasn't fizzed upon opening in a few days.
I've noticed that somehow, the jars have become sticky on the outside, and the threads are all gummed up with hardened sugar. Idk how this happens, considering how they haven't been fizzing.
The tops of the pinecones are starting to turn a little brown, idk if I should top it off with sugar a second time or not. It's definitely smelling more "heavy" now - no more almost-minty fresh green smell. Again, not a bad sign, it still smells pretty piney.
I'm gonna give it a few more weeks, then strain and double-boil till the leftover sugar dissolves.
- Joined
- Sep 22, 2021
Thanks! I really want to try this next year.
- Joined
- Dec 28, 2014
Just started a small batch of peppers. I'm hoping the headroom isn't going to be an issue and that I haven't contaminated the mash in the process of preparing it. The mash is one single Carolina Reaper, the only pepper this plant has produced this season (so far). It is an absolute beast, though, and even with gloves it was difficult to work with because the entire area it was in was like a gas attack. I was sneezing and coughing until I sealed and cleaned up. I could also swear that I could feel it through the gloves when I handled it to de-seed it.
The habaneros I grew in the same pot are also pretty brutal. I'm not sure whether that's cross-pollination or whether I'll have to wait until I sprout next year's peppers from these seeds.
I also threw in a couple banana peppers just to cut the heat very slightly.
Now I just have to wait. Hope I haven't messed it up. I'm pretty sure nothing that isn't already in there is going to get in. On the optimistic side, capsaicin has antimicrobial and antifungal properties against a lot of the things that can spoil a mash, and this mash has plenty of capsaicin. When I opened the Reaper, there was a thin, oily substance inside that is probably near pure capsaicin.
The habaneros I grew in the same pot are also pretty brutal. I'm not sure whether that's cross-pollination or whether I'll have to wait until I sprout next year's peppers from these seeds.
I also threw in a couple banana peppers just to cut the heat very slightly.
Now I just have to wait. Hope I haven't messed it up. I'm pretty sure nothing that isn't already in there is going to get in. On the optimistic side, capsaicin has antimicrobial and antifungal properties against a lot of the things that can spoil a mash, and this mash has plenty of capsaicin. When I opened the Reaper, there was a thin, oily substance inside that is probably near pure capsaicin.
- Joined
- Sep 22, 2021
Whats the rest of your recipe? Are you fermenting them in a salt brine, or doing something vinegar-based?
I wish I could tolerate super spicy food. I always push it but I can never manage more than medium-ish heat.
- Joined
- Dec 28, 2014
Very very simple. Just peppers, garlic and salt. It's been a wet season and the peppers are super juicy enough I didn't feel it necessary to add any other liquid. I'm probably going to use the mash to make a Louisiana-style sauce partly based on the Billy's sauce, i.e. light on the vinegar and heavy on the pepper (although this will be much hotter than even his hottest). At least if I didn't fuck up somehow and infect the mash.
- Joined
- Sep 22, 2021
I admire this, although it sounds terrifying! Pls post updates later
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- Jan 1, 2021
What does everybody feed their sourdough starter? I've done a 1 : 1 : 1 ratio with unbleached bread flour for a few years but I just bought some rye flour to do some experimenting. Planning to start off with an 80% bread flour 20% rye mix and go from there.
- Joined
- May 8, 2019
About 1/4 to 1/2 cup bread flour, enough water to make it about as thick as yogurt, then toss in the fridge until it's time for the next loaf in the bread machine.
- Joined
- Dec 28, 2014
Little late for this response, but I did fuck up the mash and it turned out a total disaster. I later got another harvest from the same plants, but I made it fresh this time and did a vinegar-based sauce with it that turned out fine but wasn't fermented.
On other fermentation terms, I just (yesterday) started a batch of kefir with creamline whole milk (this is not homogenized) and am waiting to see how it turns out. Creamline is pasteurized but not homogenized, but I am pretty sure you could do this with straight raw milk, since part of the process of starting kefir basically amounts to pasteurizing it (I did this even though I didn't think it was necessary).
I mean I'm just saying
I need you and your puppet's purifying intentions
True & Honest Fan
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- May 26, 2024
I've done raw milk kefir before, works fine but doesn't lead to a particularly better product, I think the kefir process elevates cheap store milk more than it does for raw, fat percentages equal.
I also never even warm my kefir milk, the grains are hardy and competitive enough that they don't need the same head start regular yogurt needs.
Speaking of which, the most recent innovation I've made with my kefir process since last time I've posted is using an instant pot on low yogurt mode to keep my primary ferment warm during winter when the house temperature is a bit too low, it seems to keep the contents at around 85f which is a bit warm, but 4.5 hours is the sweet spot for a consistent 24h harvest in the cold.
It's really made things easier because I used an immersion circulator for the same job before which did the job but was annoying at the best of times.
My electric Dutch oven can also serve as a backup warmer in case my instant pot is busy, I just set it to 80f and put a bowl on top with a kitchen towel in between as a lid to make enough room for the jars.
- Joined
- Sep 22, 2021
That’s what use, I agree it’s annoying but it does the job. I have an old instant pot without a yogurt setting unfortunately.
Trying to ferment in a chilly house is a bit tricky!
- Joined
- Mar 9, 2022
A sourdough thread with no discard recipe opinions? Let me change that.
Preamble: My starter just recently decided to consistently double rise in my jar (after two/three weeks of struggles), so while I hesitate to just shove it in my refrigerator to only feed it once a week, my feeding ration of 1:5:5 is leaving me with a lot of discard, about 200g daily. I peronally don't have time to bake every single day so the recipe being fairly easy is very important.
I can edit specific recipes later if people are interested but so far here's my ratings for discard recipes I've used
Pizza crust: A+
Turned out good, uses a decent amount of discard
Crackers: C
most efficient use of discard, had to add loads of cheese to make it acceptable
Brownies: B
Liked it, a bit too fudgy. Was more work intense than I need
Discard bread: C
Acceptable but I plan to make bread with the active starter so not super sure it's a useful recipe.
Pie crust: B
People liked it but it was noticeably different from regular pie crust. It rose quite a bit which I didn't quite appreciate.
Waffles: S
Most approved use of discard so far, just found a recipe that uses discard only as flour so I'll report on that later.
Cookies F
Taste wise okay, lots of work for relatively smaller amounts of discard use in the recipe
What are your favorite discard recipes?
Preamble: My starter just recently decided to consistently double rise in my jar (after two/three weeks of struggles), so while I hesitate to just shove it in my refrigerator to only feed it once a week, my feeding ration of 1:5:5 is leaving me with a lot of discard, about 200g daily. I peronally don't have time to bake every single day so the recipe being fairly easy is very important.
I can edit specific recipes later if people are interested but so far here's my ratings for discard recipes I've used
Pizza crust: A+
Turned out good, uses a decent amount of discard
Crackers: C
most efficient use of discard, had to add loads of cheese to make it acceptable
Brownies: B
Liked it, a bit too fudgy. Was more work intense than I need
Discard bread: C
Acceptable but I plan to make bread with the active starter so not super sure it's a useful recipe.
Pie crust: B
People liked it but it was noticeably different from regular pie crust. It rose quite a bit which I didn't quite appreciate.
Waffles: S
Most approved use of discard so far, just found a recipe that uses discard only as flour so I'll report on that later.
Cookies F
Taste wise okay, lots of work for relatively smaller amounts of discard use in the recipe
What are your favorite discard recipes?
I mean I'm just saying
I need you and your puppet's purifying intentions
True & Honest Fan
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- May 26, 2024
There's the bread-specific thread which likely has more of what you're looking for, I actually only just noticed this thread also has "Sourdough" in the title.
Crackers are my S-tier I actually posted about them in the other thread a while ago.
QRD on why I think my crackers work so well:
- 4:1 discard to oil. Any oil works, recently I've even been using up strained deep fry oil here and they come out the same.
- Separate the starter that's going to live on and keep a discard bin at low room temp another few days to deliberately have the starter overferment and get a bit runny. The overfermentation adds flavor and a runnier discard makes for a runnier batter which we want here..
- I feed my starter whole wheat flour, which I find makes crackers with more flavor and a sturdier texture.
- I've tried experimenting with toppings, but nothing so far has compared to everything bagel seasoning. The spices are a safely good flavor and the added texture from the seeds is very welcome. Don't be shy with the EBS, really flavor blast it.
- Batter should be pourable and spreadable after oil is well mixed. I try not to go over 300g per half sheet pan because thinner is better, but thick crackers can be good with extra cook time.
- Pour out batter in the middle of a silpat-lined sheet pan, use an offset spatula or the next best tool to try and spread it as even as you can (it's not gonna be perfect)
- I usually make two sheet pans at a time, one on top of the other on two racks. Space racks roughly in thirds.
- At 350F, Bake 5m+swap+5m, or bake 10m on one tray
- Use a silicone-edged spatula or the next best tool to make cuts in the just-set crackers. Don't worry about widening gaps, the crackers will shrink a bit and do it for you, the most important part is making the cut down to the silpat so it can shrink which is why I don't recommend an actual knife.
- At minimum, bake 15+swap+15, I almost always need more but this is the point where I'll check- start grabbing crackers and lightly pressing them against the bottom of the tray: if they bend they're not quite done but if they're firm they can go on the cooling rack. The edges tend to be thinner and finish first so I remove them to a cooling rack and return the rest to the oven for another 10-15m.
- For exceptionally stubborn crackers, I'll take them off the silpat and put them on a rack-lined pan and keep checking every 10-15m until they pass the press test. I tend not to have more than one half sheet pan's worth at this point so I don't have to worry about swapping trays anymore while finishing up and lamenting my inability to spread these evenly.
This recipe is my favorite yielded the best waffle I've ever had, let alone made. I'm always interested in a more discard-heavy recipe though.
I need to try this both for pies and other flaky pastries, I could see it being incredible in some sort of creamy tart.
Last edited:
- Joined
- Mar 9, 2022
Hard to beat your best waffle recipe ever...my goal was more like "use all the discard the easiest way that is also reasonably tasty", but here's the recipe anyway. I just generally feel that adding more flour to a discard recipe kinda sorta defeated the purpose of my goal.
A newly discovered discard use that was very well received and extremely easy was this granola bar.
The bars have a more cakey texture to it compared to store-bought stuff. I did the base discard-oats-sweetener-peanut butter, then whatever made sense at the time (no dried fruits, and more chocolate chips).
Anyways, my first high hydration (75%) boule is going to the oven soon.
Felt gutsy after a few sandwich loafs enriched with butter. Might regret it later.