I started growing koji a couple months ago & have been blown away with the results & of course trying it everywhere I can. I had some beef eye of round left from another recipe & decided to see what koji jerky was like. (Most recipes I found were for vegan jerkies with koji)

Recipe: approx 1# of beef, sliced 3-4 oz of shio koji, enough to coat Zest of one lemon Black pepper Garlic powder

Marinate for 24 hours

Dehydrate at 155 for 3ish hours

Shio koji was made by growing koji on jasmine rice, & aging in brine for a week on the counter, then blending.

No added salt, sugar, or meat tenderizers makes this a little healthier than regular methods. & The koji added a great umami/funk/richness to it.

First attempt at adding a bit of taste and colour to the brine. These are runner beans mostly, some carrots, shallots and a bit of pointy cabbage.

Recipe: weighed the whole content with water (1 kg exactly, which was handy!) then took the water out and added 30g equivalent of salt. I used 20g of salt and 10g calculated from a mix of light miso paste (12% salt) and gochujang (6% salt) which came approx 100g of paste in total. I noticed the fermentation was very active on the 2nd and 3rd day and had to burp the jar at least twice a day to avoid spillage, then it slowed down and eventually I put it in the fridge on the 7th day.

Everyone at home finally eating runner beans, so I guess the result is ok. Any suggestions to improve this are very welcome!

Hello,

I've only made one batch of mead in the past. Pure honey. I am wondering now I bought alot of frozen berries from local farms if I should do honey or sugar.

Has people tried both? What are the pros and cons of either?

I was looking to get into miso fermenting and saw some people saying they used old pickle jars as the vessel for miso which would be good cuz it’s cheap but the opening tends to be smaller than the diameter of the whole jar so that’d probably make weighing it down hard. Any tips for using a pickle jar for miso fermenting?

There’s this authentic Middle Eastern restaurant near me that also sells their ingredients, of which includes the yogurt they produce to be used in their dishes. I’ve used it in the past when making meals or sauces (where it was cooked), but only tried it as a dessert for the first time yesterday (i ate 2/3rd of the tub). I have a mild cold today, but it’s probably unlikely to be the yogurt as I don’t have gastric-related symptoms. Despite that, I’m still concerned about its safety for raw consumption.

Because it’s homemade, it probably has a lot more different bacteria and maybe even yeast that wouldn’t be in commercial yogurt. This would be a bonus if there weren’t any harmful species or strains in this. How would I know whether the yogurt is safe to eat (apart from obvious molding)? It’s not too sour or anything.

I would really like to continue eating this because I’m a broke college student trying to maintain a healthy (high protein, probiotics, fiber, yada yada) yet cheap diet. And this is like, 3USD for a liter of yogurt.

I've made a new sub called r/homepreserving. Aimed to focus on the recipes and success of home fermentation along with all other forms of preservation. I am new to being a mod so ts not perfect but if you'd like to join it's available. I will do my absolute best to address anything that may come up as a moderator as quickly and efficiently as possible. I hope you all have a wonderful day

TLDR

• Should i make yeast water (YW) with with raisins or dates? or both? is there any difference b/t the YWs when it comes to yeast amount/quality and bread taste/texture?
• To make YW using dates, should i use 100 g dates or 2-3 dates? if the latter, how many grams of water, sugar, and honey should i use?
• Should i do a "refresh" (add in raisins/dates, sugar, water, and salt) around day 5 of the ferment? how much of each ingredient should i add?

______________:
I'm planning on making yeast water (YW) in order to convert it to 鲁邦种 preferment¹. I'd like some advice on making the YW, mostly on what ratio of ingredients to use to start the fermentation & to "refresh" it.

My instructor/mentor² suggested using 100 g dark raisins, 300 g spring water, 100 g sugar, and 10 g honey to make YW, which ill be referring to as "YW1".
Ive seen several YW recipes that use raisins, dates, other dried fruits, and even fresh apples to start their fermentations.⁶ I have both dark raisins and whole medjool dates but im not sure which to use for my YW or if i should use a combination of both.³
Has anyone made YW using both raisins and dates before? Is there any noticeable difference in the yeast yield/quality when making YW using raisins vs dates or in the taste/texture of the breads made using preferments converted from the respective YWs?
Many of the YW recipes Ive seen that use dates call for just 2-3 dates. is there a reason why they only use 2-3 dates to make YW? will having more or less dates affect the amount/quality of yeast made?
Should i use the same amount of dates as the raisins in YW1 or should i use 2-3 dates? If i just use 2-3 dates, how much water, sugar, and honey should i use?

Some recipes suggest doing a YW "refresh", where you add in a bit more dried fruit, sugar, water, and a pinch of salt, before the initial fermentation is finished, around day 5. ⁵
Does anyone know the reason for the "refresh"? Will doing this increase the chances of successfully making YW or make a higher quality YW? Are there any risks in adding salt to the YW before it finishes fermenting?

also, how much of each ingredient should i add for the refresh?/how do I calculate the ratios relative to the amounts I used to start my YW? i dont want to just blindly add the same amount of ingredients as the various recipes ive found since their initial amounts may differ from the ones i use and i especially dont want to add too much salt.

basically, im just not sure whether to use raisins or dates to make my YW, how many dates i should use, and how to calculate the amount of ingredients to add for "refresh" step. ik im probably overthinking this but i really want to do this right so any advice is welcome!

Foot Notes:
¹ Im not sure what the english for 鲁邦种 is, can anyone confirm if its levain?
² I recently graduated from a pastry school in China and he was one of my bread instructors.
³ I also have golden raisins but heard that they can be hard to ferment due to the sulfur. anyone know if this is true/has successfully made YW w/ golden raisins before?
⁴ for a combined raisin/date YW, should I use the same ratios as YW1 but use a 50/50 split of raisins/dates instead of 100 g raisins? would the ingredient ratios be the same as YW1 even if im using 2 fruits?
⁵ some recipes instead do YW maitenance to keep the YW alive/ready to use. its essentially the same as a "refresh" except the ingredients are added after the initial fermentation process is complete & once most of the YW has been used to make breads. YW maitenance wont be necessary in my case since ill be converting all my YW into 鲁邦种 preferment, which ill be able to continuously feed so idt ill need more YW
⁶ Links to a few YW recipes i referenced:
Rosemary Mark Yeast Water
King Arthur Yeast Water
Pablo Giet PPG Baker Yeast Water
Mary's Nest Yeast Water

Update you guys in 10 weeks.

Pepper seeds that work their way up, making a hot sauce

Spice floaters in the pickles

All 3 air locked

No idea what is wrong, I was intended to feed LAB to make a water starter. They work perfect with milk, but did not work with lactose water.

I think I added around 10% lactose into water, 12h of fermentation under 100F/38C according to yogurt making. It turned out nothing happened, no acidity at all.

Did I get fake lactose or LAB does not only fed on lactose?

I processed a bunch of tomatoes recently and have about a quart of tomato juice leftover (currently in the fridge). I’m thinking about making tomato vinegar with this but I’ve never made vinegar before. My plan is to add a bit of Braggs (just to get it going) and leave it out with a cloth over the jar.

Is that sounding like a good plan? Any other tips that folks have?

I've noticed a lot of "does this seem safe to eat" and "is this mold" questions. While I love that there is a space to ask these questions and for people to have a space to learn and maybe grow their confidence around fermentation. Is there a sub that has more "this is what I made" or "this is a family recipe that's been used for generations and works" sharing subs? That might not be a coherent ask but I'm gonna leave it at that for now.

Just wondering what this film forming on the edges is? Is it ok? Both jars have it but smell fine

Happy Friday all! I’ve recently been getting into water keifer and it’s been going great. The time has finally come to split the grains up due to how much they’ve grown/multiplied. My question is what’s a good ratio of grains to water? I’ve seen some resources stating 6-10% grains to water would work well, but results are so varied depending on the site you check. Any advice/recommendations would be greatly appreciated!

Currently fermenting 1.5L batches at 6% sugar with the same bunch of grains originally ordered.

helloooo i know kombucha is supposed to be fermented tea however i think my lemon/ginger soda turned into kombucha. i used a cup of my ginger bug (which looked and smelled fantastic, but also had a slimy scoby like texture) and about a gallon homemade lemonade. fermented for about three days, because i didn’t see bubbles so i let it go for 3 instead of 1-2 days. tasted it day three, it has that kombucha taste.

i now have it in soda bottles in the fridge to carbonate. is this how it’s supposed to taste? did i let it ferment too long? i really just wanted to make a soda/ale

I am back, cause my horseradish bug got slimy.. I tried to look for horseradish bugs here but can’t seem to find anyone who has done one. I also found that some ginger ones get slimy because of some bacteria developing. I already started a new one but I keep also keep feeding the first ones in hopes it goes back to normal (I also added some water).

Both bugs were started the same: I glass of water, tbsp of root and tbsp of sugar, then tsp of each for following days. Everything was cleaned and the roots are fresh, organic and rinsed, unpeeled. It was covered with a cheesecloth and stood in dark, warm place.

Anyone has done a horseradish bug and can let me know what might be going on?

Anyone have any experience with fermenting nuts? Got the idea to try it out recently but have been struggling to find good recipes and sources. Was wondering if anyone has any successful experiments. I know Pascal Baudar soaks his nuts and seeds in a brine/backslop to make vegan cheeses, but I am also looking for no-blend experiments. Thanks!