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Preserving our memories with food or is it preserving our food with memories?

Jessica Dean
Posted 3/30/23

As a very young child, I vividly recall my grandparents visiting us almost every weekend back in Pennsylvania. During the right season, we were canning stewed tomatoes all day long with grandma

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Preserving our memories with food or is it preserving our food with memories?

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As a very young child, I vividly recall my grandparents visiting us almost every weekend back in Pennsylvania. During the right season, we were canning stewed tomatoes all day long with grandma and bottling wine with grandpop. Grandma was always working in the garden and making use of everything she came in contact with. This custom of making the most out of what she had from her backyard has stuck with me through thick and thin. Every time I step into a big project of preparing something tasty out of a box of seasonal veggies, grandma’s face pops into my head. Memories of her cute little jokes or the way she chased us around with a broom when we were getting into something that wasn’t allowed continue to resonate.

Times have changed but the memories of grandma and grandpop still linger. When we visited them as kids, it always was an automatic assumption that lunch would consist of shredded pepper with sharp cheese on buttered bread paired with mint tea and rhubarb pie. Unfortunately, buttered bread sandwiches and rhubarb pie are not on the menu anymore for me, but I still love every aspect of food, right down to the science behind it.

Recently, I completed a food and science course on cooking with microbes through the process of fermentation. It’s amazing to me how the ancestors of fermentation were able to (after trial and error) come up with these perfect microbial processes that are still being used throughout the globe to make commonly found food staples. Still today all of the coffee and chocolate in the world goes through a fermentation process prior to getting roasted. Whole yogurt, sauerkraut, aged cheese/meat, wine and beer have their own unique way of using various microbes to produce the products we can easily pick up anywhere today.

Nowadays, fermented foods have been proven to be not only a great way to preserve food but also a wonderful way to balance our gut biome and mental health along with adding unique flavors to specialty dishes. All of this knowledge, taste and love passed on to us in an effort to preserve a hard-earned harvest, just like our grandparents did in their own way. This process of food preservation has been used for centuries, being passed down from generations as a necessity and an extreme need for survival without the reliance of our common day recipe cards, books, or online food blogs. So how did the ancient generations pass the knowledge of these techniques on to the younger generations? My guess is through coming together as a community and sharing stories while making memories like our own elders did.

As most of you know, mountain living and food preservation during the winter months can be a challenge when it comes to local availability, affordability along with the variety of food intolerances that some of us have to deal with. So, it’s always a pleasure when a local foodie decides to host a potluck. Not only is it a welcome change during those days of hibernation when the roads are icy and the “W” is blowing; a potluck with our local mountain buddies seem to carry on that continuously evolving tradition of sharing memories through food.

An imprint that can last a lifetime in the heartbeat of community.

So, in honor of our ancestors and my food loving mountain community for bringing your elder’s dishes to the table with a passionate palate, I would like to share this simple 2-ingredient recipe on fermenting. May the traditions continue to be preserved…

SAUERKRAUT FERMENTING: COOKING WITH MICROBES COURSE

INGREDIENTS:

½ Cabbage (red or green or a mix of both)

Salt, 2% by cabbage weight

OPTIONAL SPICE ADDITIONS:

Caraway, garlic, allspice, black pepper, chili flakes, cumin, turmeric, and others, can also make wonderful additions.

MATERIALS:

Quart mason jar

Cutting board

Knife

Large bowl

Rubber band (optional)

pH strips

Clean towel or paper towel (optional)

PROCEDURE:

Chop cabbage finely. Weigh the cabbage, place it in a large bowl and sprinkle 2% salt on the cabbage. Distribute salt evenly throughout the chopped cabbage.

As you go, massage the cabbage mix to break up the structure and help release the water. The salt pulls out water from the cabbage through osmosis. You want to really squeeze and knead the cabbage for at least 5-10 minutes. The cabbage should “sweat” and release a substantial amount of brine. Tilt the bowl and pull the cabbage aside to see if you have brine on the bottom of the bowl. When you have about a cup of brine, you are done.

Measure the pH of the cabbage brine. Place the cabbage mix into the mason jar. Do this by adding a little cabbage at a time and pack tightly with your fist or a kitchen utensil (a pestle or spoon is great!), pushing all the air out, before adding more cabbage. When you are done, the brine should cover the cabbage completely. If it doesn’t, make sure the cabbage is pushed down tightly – the cabbage will sweat more water in the next few hours.

Fold several whole cabbage leaves and place on top, again pushing down tightly. They will serve as a lid, and you can peel off one at a time if mold develops. Pro Tip: Use a glass weight that fits your jar or a plastic ziplock filled with water to weigh down the kraut.

Place the lid on top but DON’T tighten it – gas will be produced which can cause the jar to explode if the gas can’t escape. If you use a lid remember to check daily that the lid remains very loose and make sure to let any air out – when we do this we say that we “burp” the sauerkraut. An alternative to using a lid is to cover with a paper towel/clean towel and a rubber band. Place the jar on a shallow tray or in a large bowl to catch any brine that may bubble out when the fermentation gets going.

Leave to ferment for 1-3 weeks in a constant environment of 70 to 75 degrees F. Check often for mold on top, and remove the top cabbage leaves if this occurs. This is common and if removed right away, the sauerkraut underneath will still be fine to eat. Properly fermented sauerkraut should be measured at a pH of 3.5 or lower.