You may unsubscribe at any time. Newsletter Shop Help Center. Home Cooking. Log In Sign Up. Want to stay up to date with this post? Those are just a handful of the terms used to describe what fermenting sauerkraut can smell like. Thankfully, not every batch will produce these off-putting odors.
Cabbage—and asparagus, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, red cabbage, leeks, onion, radishes, turnip tops, and more—contain high levels of sulfur. Sulfur is the third most abundant element in your body and is present in amino acids found in your skin, hair, and nails where they help to make these tissues strong and flexible.
Your body needs sulfur to build and fix your DNA and protect your cells from damage that can lead to serious diseases such as cancers. Sulfur also assists your body to metabolize food and contributes to the health of your skin, tendons, and ligaments. Hydrogen sulfide is a flammable, colorless gas with a characteristic odor of rotten eggs. It is commonly known as hydrosulfuric acid, sewer gas, and stink damp. People can smell it at low levels. Depending upon the variety of cabbage and growing conditions, the amount of sulfur in any one head of cabbage can vary greatly which is why some of us have yet to have the pleasure of experiencing these lovely odors.
However, unlike intentionally rotten foods, fermented foods like sauerkraut and kimchi, have been perfected over the years to create unique and delicious flavours, and a whole bunch of good gut bacteria for good measure! But where does that unique bouquet of scents come from? As with anything, food that is decomposing starts to go through changes, and chemicals are a massive part of this.
Mesenteroides are eating the sugars in your cabbage and vegetables. This produces carbon dioxide, hence the bubbles. Their work also increases the acidity of the brine. When the acidity reaches 0. Mesenteroides die off — around Day 5 — and the bubbling slows down.
The amount of bubbles you see depends somewhat on the sugar levels in your cabbage, which can vary quite a bit depending upon variety and growing conditions. Nutritional data shows that the sugar content in 5 types of raw cabbage ranged from 1. They can be elusive and not every batch of sauerkraut progresses through each stage with perfect timing. You are not fermenting in a climate-controlled laboratory! To reassure yourself that fermentation is progressing, try a few solid taps on the outside of the jar.
You should see some bubbles begin to move up the sides of your jar. If not, and if your home is especially cool, you might need to move your jar to a warmer spot. The brine in your sauerkraut may slowly change from clear to cloudy and you may notice some white sediment forming at the bottom of the jar. This white powder is from the bacteria and is perfectly normal. If your sauerkraut contains beets, turmeric or other deeply colored vegetables, you may see the brine change to match the color of what you are fermenting.
You may also notice dirty specks of color — especially when using carrots or beets — forming at the top of your jar. The cabbage and vegetables in your sauerkraut will lose their brightness and the cabbage will become somewhat translucent.
Those are just a few of the terms used to describe what fermenting sauerkraut smells like. The sulfur-containing compounds in cabbage — and other cruciferous vegetables — are what produce these strong and pungent odors. Just remind yourself the numerous nutritional benefits they are packed with as your nose adjusts to the odors. Sadly, many a spouse has banished fermentation from the home due to the smells of fermentation.
For some, however, they are not sure if the smell indicates all is well in their jar and they worry that their fermenting sauerkraut is turning to poison. But, if you are totally new to sauerkraut and not sure how it should smell, buy a jar of sauerkraut to get a sense of what sauerkraut smells like.
Look for raw, unpasteurized sauerkraut in the refrigerated section of a natural foods store. Compare its smell to what you have fermenting and nibble on it while you wait for your sauerkraut to ferment. Try to figure out what went wrong and then try another batch. If you are fermenting during hot weather, or if your brine levels dropped to expose your top layer of sauerkraut, you may notice that the top layer of your sauerkraut has turned brown.
This is from oxidation and this section will have reduced levels of Vitamin C. The general recommendation is to toss this oxidized layer when you get ready to eat your sauerkraut.
Those who hate to waste can just mix the oxidized layer in with the rest of the sauerkraut. Brine movement by temperatures. However, you may observe that the level of the brine moves up and down throughout the day. In fact, I find it rather fun to monitor the temperatures in my home by the brine level in my jar of fermenting sauerkraut. Our house tends to be cooler at night and warmer during the day. When I first check on my jar in the morning, I might find the brine level is below the top surface of my ferment.
Then, as the house warms up, the brine level rises to almost the top of the jar. Brine drops below the top of sauerkraut. After the first days, you may see the brine level drop and the upper part of your sauerkraut remain exposed and not covered in brine. This is normal, especially in the small environment of a jar, and happens when the active stage fermentation is complete.
No worries. Add extra brine? I used to keep adding brine at this stage only to find it disappear again. I also found that not only did the additional brine add extra salt, but that it diluted the flavors I worked so hard to achieve. I no longer recommend adding brine to your ferment. Do you notice your packed mixture of sauerkraut expanding and moving up in your jar and causing brine levels to rise?
In other words, excessive CO2 is being produced. Rates are influenced by the concentration of malic acid in your particular head of cabbage. The Leuconostoc mesenteroides bacteria that are active during the first few days of fermentation, are converting malic acid to lactic acid and producing CO2. The more active the Leuconostoc mesenteroides , the greater the CO2 production. By the way, bacteria are broken into two main categories: Homofermentative and heterofermentative.
Heterofermntative bacteria produce more than one compound: lactic acid, acetic acids and alcohol in this case and homofermentative bacteria, just one compound. This gal that barely passed her high school biology class is still learning. Trapped air bubbles forcing brine out? If air bubbles get trapped in your sauerkraut, the mixture will expand and force your fermentation weight up, making it look like there is no brine.
To release these trapped bubbles, first, remove the lid, then either push down on the weight, slide a butter knife along the inside of the jar or poke the sauerkraut with a bamboo skewer. Doing so will release the air bubbles and allow the sauerkraut to condense back down into the jar and the brine to once again cover the top of it. This will ensure that your sauerkraut mixture remains below the brine and that fermentation unfolds in the absence of oxygen.
As I expand my fermentation repertoire and also better understand why my ferment might bulge above the brine, I am slowly seeing the benefits of a device that is strong enough to contend with the power of the Mighty Microbes furiously working away in a jar of fermenting sauerkraut. I have used fermentation weights — Pickle Pebbles — but find that every once in a while they are not heavy enough, especially with an extra active batch of sauerkraut. Fermentation Gates is a term I have coined to describe a device safely locked inside the neck of your jar, that no matter how much force you apply to it — or how much gas is created by the Mighty Microbes — it will not open, or move up the jar.
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