What is Lacto-Fermentation
By Constantin Demuth, apprentice 2021
One of our favorite lacto-fermented condiments- Green Papaya Kimchi
What would a traditional Korean Barbecue be without kimchi, your scrambled eggs without Tabasco and a hot, sunny afternoon without a fresh pickle? Lacto-ferments are around us every day. Often they are made into dishes that we don’t even consider as fermented. Many of which are staples that have backed up our diets for hundreds of years. Try and think of the last lacto-fermented goodie you ate.
Recently, lacto-fermentation is going through a renaissance. People are realizing how easy it is to recreate flavors of their cultural ancestry. Kraut is just cabbage, salt and water. Pickles are just cucumbers, salt and water. It’s easy to make at home and much better than the stuff you buy in the supermarket. In this article I would like to take you on a little journey through the wide world of lacto-ferments, share some of the Ranch’s deepest secrets, and how we take foods from the farm and transform them into delicious, nutritious, and long lasting dishes.
History
In a time where we can buy produce all year around from every corner of the world and store them conveniently in the fridge, the reason why people ferment their food is becoming obsolete. In the beginning, they were not looking for the most incredible flavors that people at Noma’s Food Lab try to create. They were more interested in preservation, keeping their produce edible, eliminating molds and buffering cold winters without harvests. As farm to table cooking is becoming more popular again, being able to preserve foods through the year is increasingly important. The easiest method of preserving large quantities of raw vegetables is by using salt. Salt creates an environment that allows good bacteria to survive while killing bacteria harmful to humans. Today, we know salt preservation also makes nutrients bioavailable, increases digestibility and creates a great source of raw foods in our diets.
Preservation
Lacto-fermented pickles
Let’s go into a bit more detail of what happens in our jars when we mix vegetables with salt. Adding salt or salt brine to vegetables helps Lactic Acid Bacteria (LAB) to develop. LAB then turns the natural sugars of the vegetables into lactic acid. This acidified environment inhibits the growth of bacteria that makes the vegetables go bad and mold. This way we can store lacto-fermented vegetables for long periods of time without worrying about spoilage. The acidity gives these ferments their original flavor and preserves the satisfying crunch that we all crave.
As opposed to other fermentation methods, lacto-fermentation does not require any input of certain bacteria. When using fresh (preferably organic) produce we are able to work with LAB that is native to the vegetables and helps create the environment we want. As a result of their work, LAB often produce oxygen that makes our ferments bubbly. In case you find bubbles in your jars, don’t worry. That’s a sign that it works!
Lacto-ferments at the Ranch
Here at the Ranch we use lacto-fermentation every week and we eat it basically every day. Our favorite staples are Green Papaya Kimchi, Salsa Starter and some sort of pickled vegetables. The most recent and exciting experiments in the test kitchen include pickled Katuk (our daily salad green) and fermented black beans for our home made Hoisin Sauce.
We use lacto-fermentation for three basic reasons. Reason one: It’s good for us. It makes all the nutrients that fresh vegetables have to offer available to us. Reason two: We can store fresh harvests and consume them later, which is super convenient when you have an amazing orchard that produces a variety of things all year around. Reason three: It is delicious and we love delicious food!
Green jackfruit processing
Green Jackfruit
Jackfruit is a perfect example of how we use lacto-fermentation as a way to preserve fresh produce. Jackfruit is the biggest fruit in the world and we have several trees in our orchards. Once jackfruit is ripe, it goes bad relatively quickly and some people don’t like its flavor when ripe. We started harvesting them when they are still green to incorporate them as a vegetable into our diet. Even here where we feed many hungry souls every day, we cannot consume the amount of jackfruit we harvest. This is where our friend lacto-fermentation comes into play. We submerge all the jackfruit meat in a 2% salt brine, which inhibits growth of undesirable bacteria, prevents oxidation and gives a deep, rich salty flavor that we want in our dishes.
Green Papaya Kimchi
The purpose of our Kimchi is less for preservation and more for the “ooh “and “ahh” moments when we serve fresh condiments with all our foods. The kimchi accompanies eggs in the morning, hearty slow roasted pork on special occasions and provides the freshness in our weekday burritos.
We use green papaya, but you can use any local, seasonal, crunchy vegetable
As opposed to jackfruit, where we submerge the flesh in a brine, for Kimchi we use its own juice. Again, salt is our partner in crime. Shredding 20 kg of green papaya on Wednesday mornings is not everyone’s favorite exercise, but the result makes up for the work. We used to do this all with hand graters, but recently we purchased an industrial hand cranked shredder by Nemco Food Equipment. We highly recommend this tool if you are making large batches of sauerkrauts, kimchi, etc. By shredding the fruit, we make it easier for the salt to penetrate. After mixing papaya, salt and spices (aka the *flavor bomb) enough brine is being produced for the ferment to be safe. Three days in the fermentation bucket and voila, kimchi is ready. Pack this into glass jars that can be stored in the fridge.
Now it’s time to reveal the big secret you’ve been waiting for. Rancho Mastatal is giving out its kimchi recipe for the first time. Two things that are important: First, if you cannot find green papaya, use any type of cabbage. It’s important to use fresh, local and seasonal (when you live in a temperate climate please, please do not go to the supermarket and buy green papaya!). Second, fermentation is no science! Don’t get overwhelmed by ratios, phrases or utensils. Trust your senses; look at it, smell it and taste it. Your nose knows best.
Shredded ingredients ready to be combined with salt and flavors
Recipe
3 green papaya, peeled and seeded
1 carrot and/or 1 beet
Salt (2% of the total weight)
*Flavor Bomb
1/2 cup peeled ginger
1/2 cup peeled garlic
1 chili (optional)
Equipment
Fermentation vessel: A food safe container that can hold all the vegetables plus at least 20cm of headspace (buckets, mason jars, big Tupperware all work perfectly fine).
Instructions
1. Cut the papaya in half and discard the seeds. Peel the papaya.
2. Using a kitchen grater, grate the papaya, carrot and/or beet and set aside.
3. Peel the ginger and garlic. Cut the chili in half and discard the seeds. Blend all the ingredients for your flavor bomb in a food processor.
4. Weigh out all your vegetables and place them in your fermentation vessel.
5. Add 2% Salt to the total weight of the vegetables (e.g. if you have 1kg of vegetables, use 20g of salt) and mix the salt in. Stirring it helps to break up the papaya and releases the brine.
6. Make sure your Kimchi is submerged in brine. Keep it on the counter at room temperature and wait for at least three days (this will depend on your climate). You will see bubbles and be able to smell the acidification after a few days. When it’s reached your desired flavor, bottle the Kimchi in jars and keep them in the fridge. Enjoy!
Green papaya cut in half
Learn more
Those are just a couple of the many vegetables we lacto-ferment. Lacto-fermentation has made our farm to table cooking and preservation more efficient, produce less waste, and create delicious, unique and fun foods.
Join us for a workshop to learn more about fermentation, farm to table cooking, permaculture and more.
Other Farm to table blog articles
Eating Local: Reconnecting to Food
Turn Local Rice and Beans into Fermented Bread
Happy fermentation, happy microbes!