How long does small crock fermentation take?

October 6, 2018 6:27 PM

Why does the Mortier Pilon cookbook and instructions claim that you can ferment food in significantly less time that it actually takes?

In the cookbook that came with my 5L crock it frequently claims that I can ferment things in 2 days. Or 5 days.
This seems like total bullshit, unless I'm missing some magical step.
Sauerkraut! The Mortier Pilon fermentation cookbook says my sauerkraut will take five days. That's crazy short. Talk to me about fermentation times.
Is this a legal thing?
Is it the government?
Is it CYA?

posted by Baby_Balrog to Food & Drink (7 answers total)

I’ve fermented a few things in a few different regions, including kefir and kombucha and sourdough, in places ranging from e.g. PA to TX. Guess which place things fermented faster.

Temperature matters, as does the specific nature of the innoculum (especially if wild type) relative humidity, size of the vessel, how often it is vibrated or disturbed, etc etc. We’re talking here about a complex ecosystem of many different micro-organisms feeding on different food stocks under different conditions— of course we should expect a decently large degree of variability in the metabolic processes and hence the time to finished product.

Another tack: Kraut, like kombucha or kefir, is somewhat in the category of “it’s done when you like how it tastes”— the kraut that is too raw for you may be plenty done for me, and one person’s delicious kombucha is another person’s nasty vinegar or overly sweet tea. It’s all about how much fermentation you like, there is not much in the way of objective assessment.

Yet another angle: see also all the cookbooks that straight up lie and claim you can caramelize onions in 10 minutes, even though that is almost never true, it’s been discussed s few times here on the blue and green.

I am pretty sure there are no laws or govt. regulations that lead to large variability in fermentation times listed in recipes, natural variability in conditions and desired tastes explain the variation in recipes just fine, in my view.
posted by SaltySalticid at 7:07 PM on October 6, 2018 [3 favorites]

I agree with SaltySalticid re: temperature/time; cookbook lies; personal taste preferences; variances in recipes and local airborne flora; although I have less experience.

I make kimchi at home in California, usually in the fall (daytime temp high of 80, low of 55). If I leave the kimchi on the counter as recommended, it is too tangy/fermented for my taste after 2 days at that room temp (I keep it in the fridge and it ferments sooooo slowly). Upon looking, the Mortier Pilion recipe site says to leave kimchi for 4 days at room temp, which would be way past my limits. My father in law makes curtido at home in Michigan in the winter (temp is controlled to between 68 and 50) and he leaves it out for about 10 days (the MP site says 3 hours, WTF), and I find it perfect/not too tangy. So...make some, taste at 5 days, if it's not what you want, wait!
posted by holyrood at 7:41 PM on October 6, 2018 [1 favorite]

I’ve definitely done small batch lacto-fermentation in just a few days! I’ve never done a batch as big as five liters, but a quart of kraut is exactly to my taste in about five days given the right circumstances.
posted by padraigin at 7:54 PM on October 6, 2018 [1 favorite]

Sauerkraut in particular seems to be a ferment that many people prefer in the early stages, I've noticed.
posted by praemunire at 9:13 PM on October 6, 2018

That’s a good point, the national brands of sauerkraut here in the USA at least are very soft and well-done, so keeping it crisper and lighter is a way to make the home product stand out as distinct and preferable. The longer you let it go, the closer to the mass-produced version you get, and for many people that’s not the point.

Also, specific to fermented veg, the cut will strongly affect ferment time, with finer cuts going faster than coarser, just like any other cooking.
posted by SaltySalticid at 6:02 AM on October 7, 2018

Nthing what folks have said above - one of the beauties of fermentation, and something that distinguishes it from a lot of cooking with artificial heat, is that it is highly local (e.g. due to wild yeasts in the environment), attuned to the seasons (or at least to indoor temperature), and much less amenable to success via following step-by-step instructions. Do it long enough, and it can open you up to messier, more organic, anti-capitalist/industrial ways of thinking about food and food culture (I don't think I'm overselling that).

FWIW, I'm in DC, and even in the summer, when our kitchen is routinely 75-80 degrees, I leave kimchi and sauerkraut in the crock for a minimum of a week. I have a crock of the former going now that's a week in, and I will probably let it go for at least another 4-5 days minimum.
posted by ryanshepard at 8:02 AM on October 7, 2018 [1 favorite]

I agree with what others have said, but I have one more thought about where you and the recipe might be miscommunicating.

You know how most ferments will reach a point where they stop or slow (often because the acidity gets high enough to make it less hospitable for fermentation organisms). And getting to that point can easily take a few weeks.

But in terms of flavor and texture, there's nothing special about the point when fermentation slows down, and no particular reason you need to let things go that long. And in fact things that tend towards mushiness can get pretty gross if you don't step in sooner and put them in the fridge. So, if you're thinking of the point when fermentation slows as the point when things are "done," then the times in recipes will definitely seem too short, since they're aiming for (someone's idea of) optimal flavor and texture instead.
posted by nebulawindphone at 12:36 PM on October 7, 2018