Solid Food - Carrots

The kefir was a start, but I was very interested in fermenting solid food. I bought this wonderful kit from Masontops

OK, technically, I bought it from Bed Bath & Beyond using one of my extensive collection of 20% off coupons. The kit has these very simple "pickle pipes" for venting the carbon dioxide from the fermentation process without letting air back in. Everyone who had reviewed them online seemed to love them.

I chose the Fermented Dilly Sticks recipe from the Masontops web site for my first attempt. For one, Masontops suggested it as a good starting recipe. Second, the product can be sampled after one week. Many of the recipes take several weeks to complete. As a new project, I am naturally eager to test my results. It turns out that Mastontops got the recipe from Cultures for Health, so I'd better give them credit. I kind of wish I had read the Cultures for Health description when I was making my batch. Their explanation of how to put the garlic in makes more sense.

Given my supplies, I needed to modify the recipe a bit. The recipe uses 1 quart mason jars, and I bought 1 pint jars. I don't want to over commit to something that I might not like. That change was easy enough. Just divide everything in half. I thought about using some pre-packaged, ready-to-eat baby carrots, but decided to stay closer to the instructions to increase my chances of success.

I bought whole carrots and sliced them in quarters, sort of. I needed to leave 1-2 inches of space in the jar, so I got out a ruler and measured from the counter top to the top of the jar. I needed 3 inch long sticks. I cut one and used that as a guide for the other cuts. The fat half of the carrot could be cut into 4 sticks, but the narrow end was too skinny for that. I cut those in half.

Dividing the recipe in half works fine except for things like 3 cloves of garlic. I rounded up to 2. Then, there was the 3 small sprigs of dill. My dill is already dried and crumbled. Well, you can search for the answer to just about any question online these days. "How many teaspoons in a sprig of dill?" comes up with the answer of about 1/2 teaspoon. I used a heaping 1/2 teaspoon.

Now, the recipe calls for 4 cups of filtered water and 3 tablespoons of sea salt. No problem with dividing that in two, but I didn't want to bother with the filtering. Some guides suggest that chlorine will disturb the fermentation process. I looked up the water report for my local utility, and they say there is less than 1 part per million of chlorine. I'm satisfied with that.

For the sea salt, I am using kosher salt. I already had some. It doesn't contain iodine or any anti-caking additives, so I think that is going to be a satisfactory choice.

2 cups of water was far more than I needed. I still had a cup left over. Maybe I'll try 1-1/3 cups of water with 1 tablespoon of salt, next time.

OK, here is my result.

It's been sitting on the counter for a couple of days, and I see some bubbles rising up from the bottom, so I think the fermentation has begun. The recipe suggests trying them after a week if you like them crisp. Sounds good to me. Watch for an update on Thursday or Friday.

Update: I tried one after 7 days. It tasted pretty good, but still quite salty. I'm going to leave the rest to ferment for another week. There are bubbles coming up from the bottom of the jar, so there is some fermentation going on.

Second update: After 16 days, I took off the Pickle Pipe and fermentation weight. I'm considering this batch to be done. They mostly taste like salty wet, but still crispy carrots. I'm not sure that there was that much fermentation. I might try this recipe, again, but I'm not that impressed with the first try.