Green tomato ferment troubleshooting

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Green tomato ferment troubleshooting

Postby tolitoli on Thu Dec 14, 2017 6:21 pm

Hello,

Lately I've been doing lot of open air ferments. Never had problem with saukerkraut but I am currently fermenting some green tomatoes along with garlic and basil that is troubling me a bit because of a white substance that has formed.

https://imgur.com/wfeGDoT
https://imgur.com/5piyX4q

The very fact that it appears under the brine as well as its texture is not fuzzy but rather slick makes me think that it is no mold.

To be honest I researched a bit on this forum before posting and it seems to be what you call "kahm" but I thought I'd ask anyway.

Many thanks.
tolitoli
 
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Re: Green tomato ferment troubleshooting

Postby Christopher Weeks on Mon Dec 18, 2017 8:27 am

The stuff on the top is kahm. The sediment is perfectly normal in brine-pickling. It's in any kraut or kimchi you might make too, just harder to see. It seems like normally, people first get used to it in making sour pickles. I'd ignore the stuff under the brine and skim the kahm off the top from time to time. Some people say it throws 'off' flavors. If left long enough, it can form a waxy pellicle (no idea if that's good or bad, just a thing I've observed).
Christopher Weeks
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Re: Green tomato ferment troubleshooting

Postby tolitoli on Mon Dec 25, 2017 9:31 am

Many thanks for the reply and sorry for taking a while to respond.

I did skim it off, although it came back with a different pattern this time.

https://imgur.com/wX7nBpp

I never had this before with anaerobic fermentation so much that, combined with the fact that there was not much bubble activity, it made wonder a bit for a moment whether there was actually any fermentation going on. Well I guess it is important to have all sorts of experience before settling for a particular method.

Happy holidays!
tolitoli
 
Posts: 9
Joined: Tue Nov 03, 2015 9:41 am

Re: Green tomato ferment troubleshooting

Postby Christopher Weeks on Thu Dec 28, 2017 8:52 am

The stuff in your second pic looks yuckier. Be sure to skim that, too.
Christopher Weeks
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