I've never had anything not ferment and I've fermented every veg I can
find. I'm sure Heather is the same. Sourdough bread arrives by leaving
mixtures of water and flour around and letting the bacteria get to work.
Some lists spend their time swapping sourdough starters but there is
really no point because by the time you have made the bread a couple of
times the bacteria will be your kitchen bacteria and just the same as
they ever were.
Buying starters seems to commercialise the whole thing entirely
unnecessarily and give it a feeling of "special knowledge" which in my
experience is completely unnecessary. I remember making my first (about
a year ago) and thinking "is that it? that can't be enough" but it was.
Fermentation is really (really) very simple.
Your kitchen may be too clean I've heard that as a problem. Mine
obviously isn't. The solution is obvious and it doesn't involve buying
"special" starter
Sally
Heather Twist wrote:
> On Mon, Nov 9, 2009 at 11:42 AM, B. C <b.coole@yahoo.
>
>
>> Grocery stores disinfect their vegetables making them nearly impossible to get a ferment from without using a starter.
>>
>
> This hasn't been my experience at all. Actually, if you've ever made beer,
> it's REALLY HARD to keep lactobacilli out of beer, even after you've boiled it
> for an hour or so. LAB are all over. But the bacteria on the OUTSIDE of
> cabbage are what tend to ruin the ferment, which is why one takes off
> the outside leaves and washes the daylights out of it. Someone actually
> did a study on that for kraut making some time ago: soil organisms tend
> to make for less tasty kraut. Also in samples of Chinese kimchi, there were
> soil parasites in the kimchi (hopefully dead ones).
>
> I've never had kraut NOT ferment, nor anything with cabbage in it.
> Likely the nitrates in the cabbage push the ferment the right
> way? Beets and fruits are a little more picky.
>
>
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