Sauerkraut the fermented way

I’ve been lactofermenting for several years, but I’m just now getting around to trying the other iconic pickled veggie.

I put up my annual batch of hot sauce the other day, to be sold to benefit the women’s group at church.

The process I (and a lot of other hot sauce hobbyists and professionals) use is called lactofermentation. I’ve explained it before; it has nothing to do with the yeast fermentation that makes alcohol. Lactofermentation was the original way of pickling foods. The foods are packed in a salt water brine, and if the salt is at the right concentration, it fights the growth of bacteria that would cause spoilage but allows the growth of lactobacillus, the same kind of bacteria that makes yogurt and buttermilk.

Lactobacillus culture produces lactic acid, and in lactofermented pickles it’s this naturally-occurring lactic acid, not vinegar, that acidifies the food. When vinegar became mass-produced and more widely available, it was discovered that you could simply soak vegetables in vinegar and get a similar effect, a lot more quickly and easily. There’s nothing wrong with that, and I love just about any kind of dill pickle, no matter how it’s made. But lactofermented foods have a special complexity to them that is different from vinegar-infused pickles —…