Homestead mailing list

[Bill Jones <billj AT harborside.com>]

Rob Walton wrote:

> > I'm partial to the idea of canning it, with maybe some vinegar even, if
> > it doesn't meet the acidity level for water-bath canning.  It can only
> > change into something else (that you maybe don't enjoy the flavor of)
> > the longer it sits, especially if it really did sit for a prolonged
> > period in the high and dry air.  It's best to be skeptical of any
> > anaerobic pickle that oxygen has gotten into.
> >
> >    
>
> Bill,
>
> Thanks. I am now thinking about freezing it. I am still living with 
> relatives that hate it when I get out the canner. I figure if I put it in 
> bags and freeze any yeast growth will stop and when I cook it, I'm good. I 
> already ate some and it is not "bad" in any way including looks.
>
>
>  
>
> > This growth is almost certainly a result of the low liquid level. The 
> > brine
> > needs to cover the cabbage to keep other unwanted creatures from growing.
> >    
>
> Marie,
>
> All was well until I went down to my place to get involved in moving the 
> work along on the mobile. When I came back it was a bit dry. Not much, but 
> brine level just at the top of the kraut.
>
>  
It sounds like you know quite a bit about it.

There's always some yeasts and other aerobes that grow in the initial 
stages, when there's still some free oxygen around, but most are 
supposed to die off when the good bacteria take over.  One such bug, 
Klebsiella pneumoniae, is sometimes a cause of bacterial pneumonia in 
humans.  Actually, even yeast can cause stomach upset.  It should be 
stressed that there's normally no cause for alarm over them.  But if you 
screw up to the point that I have in the past, by moving the sauerkraut 
to a new container and exposing it to air or such, it's quite possible 
to keep on growing aerobes, and yeast is not necessarily the worst of them.

The hop sponge test I described is hard to calibrate well enough to 
generate numbers, but if you make two identical cultures whose _only_ 
difference is that the sauerkraut used to inoculate them came from the 
top layer and the bottom layer, and the top layer's culture develops 
much more quickly, then it's surely yeasty.  I'd discard the very top 
layer anyway.

And you know, it doesn't compost very well, because of its being so 
anaerobically sour.  I've heard of silage piles that didn't decompose 
for years.

Bill
S. Oregon coast