Hi, I’m curious what ferments and pickles people know/do.
I regularly make kimchi, as vegan kimchi is a bit hard to come by. I tend to add a bit of msg to help fill out the flavour btw so 100% recommend that if you are making it.
Recently I discovered szechuan lactofermented pickles: https://blog.themalamarket.com/sichuans-naturally-fermented-pickles-pao-cai/ (ok site, got sloppified in 2025). They’re a tasty way to use the excess hard veggies from the garden, and certain stems of greens ferment ok.
Oh yeah, I’ve also tried making soymilk yoghurt but it always ends up tasting a bit tofuy. I wonder if anyone has a vegan yoghurt that works?
I want to get more stuff going, and branch out into pickles and fermented sauces. So I’m keen to know what other people to :)
Prepare 4 cups of brine for a 1.5-liter glass paocai jar
This person uses wet cups and liters in the same sentence… Are they ok?
It’s had a slop machine go over it so probably not.
Precise quantities in lactoferments are not important anyway. They’re robust and hostile to nasties.
Ginger bugs are amazing. It’s just chopped organic ginger and sugar, you have to feed it a tablespoon a day similar to sourdough. Then you can add it to fruit juice to make a flavored ginger soda.
you have to feed it a tablespoon a day similar to sourdough
You have to do no such thing to sourdough lol. I fridge or freeze mine for months at a time and revive it fine in a couple of days of feeding :p heather is a hardy symbiotic colony.
But I’ll accept it’s needed for this.
Why organic sugar? Do you just mean raw or brown for the nutrients?
The ginger has to be organic; I’m just using cheap white sugar so I would assume that any kind of sugar works. I would think that the kind of sugar might change the taste but more testing is needed
How do you start one? This is like what you make proper ginger beer from right?
I think it’s how they make ginger ale and similar sodas. I’m not 100% sure as I’m not the one making it, just drinking the result lol. I think they found it on TikTok but this recipe sounds about right as to what they do: https://www.fermentingforfoodies.com/wprm_print/ginger-bug-starter-recipe
