Fermination Starter

Bredabe

Anyone know where I can get or how to make a good starter for the like of Sauerkraut/Kinchi?

rubadub

You don't need a starter for sauerkraut. I have not made kimchi but I imagine if its high enough in cabbage you will not either. Kimchi is meant to use a special cabbage but I imagine many use a standard one.

The cabbage itself has the organisms (or whatever the term is) on the leaves. Its not like baking bread or making yogurt where you need yeast or a starter culture.

Once made some might pour a little onto their new batch to speed things up a bit, but I did not bother and it started fine. I have only made 2 batches, one red and one green and both were fine.

Now I am sure if you went into a health shop they might try and tell you its essential and probably possibly have some ancient overpriced stuff! just like they might have yogurt cultures when you can just go into a shop and buy some nice fresh glenisk with active cultures which will probably make a far superior yogurt for less. Many sites specifically recommend not using starters or the previous culture. The only way it would be needed is if it was irradiated or something, which I think would be rare here.

I am making new batches of kraut this week and plan to use a 2L lemonade bottle technique.

https://www.howtosmile.org/resource/smile-000-000-000-559


they show the cap facing upwards. I am going to face it down for 2 reasons. It will not have any trapped air in it, and I can easily add a jar of water or some other weight into the funnel shape to make sure the cabbage is submerged. I will then put a sandwich bag over the top and an elastic band to keep dust or flies out and reduce air exchange but also not have it airtight.


My first batches were in jars and many overflowed as the brew went on. I used to put the jars on a plastic tray to catch the drips, it got a bit messy with dried kraut juice going to the sides of the jars. I also used plastic bottles with wide necks, these were a pain to fill but it meant I could squeeze the bottle so all the air was gone and then tighten them. While fermenting it gives off gas and blows the bottles out a bit, so you just release air again and squeeze back down again.

I never had kruat before and wanted it for probiotic effect but I really like the taste of it.

Toto Wolfcastle

Have you watched It’s Alive with Brad Leone on YouTube? It’s a Bon Appétit show about fermentation and he’s done both of those as well as loads of other interesting fermentation projects.

the beer revolu

Mrs. Beer makes kimchi regularly. No starter needed. Chinese leaves is the main ingredient.

Cheshire Cat

A lot of US websites have recipes that use a starter, and they conveniently happen to sell it
As stated above, you don't need it!
Good luck with your experiments!

Gloomtastic!

I usually buy my kimchi in Chinatown but it's now on my To Do list this summer. Thanks for the heads up.