43
votes
Accepted
How can oak leaves be made edible?
I cannot find any internet source that recommends eating oak leaves, however treated. The level of tannins in oak leaves isn't just bad-tasting; it's sufficiently strong to cause kidney or liver ...
- 45k
43
votes
How can oak leaves be made edible?
Take the oak leaves.
Feed to a goat. (mix in some other feedstuffs: hay or grass).
Eat the goat (or drink its milk)
Goats are browsers, and have a gut, kidneys and liver that can deal with oak ...
- 794
38
votes
Accepted
Mold on homemade sriracha
Do NOT eat this. You figured out right that the stuff on top is mold. The thing that makes mold dangerous is the mycotoxins produced by it and these will likely remain in the sauce even if you scrape ...
- 1,694
36
votes
Accepted
Why is it recommended to mix yogurt starter with a small amount of milk before adding to the entire batch?
Dry powders are easier to mix if you make a slurry first with a small amount of liquid and then mix the slurry in.
If you skip this step you will have clumps of dry powder floating on top of the milk ...
- 46.8k
36
votes
When making yogurt, why doesn't bad bacteria grow as well?
The initial heating of the milk, besides denaturing proteins to improve the texture, also pasteurizes the milk.
The culture needs to be added in a high enough concentration to crowd out harmful ...
- 46.8k
24
votes
Accepted
What is the relationship (if any) between natto and miso paste?
They are completely different. They use different fermentation conditions and different cultures. The result is also totally different in taste and texture, with natto being slimy beans and miso being ...
- 124k
23
votes
Accepted
Is Nattou safe to eat when it has white dots on it?
Yes, those spots are normal, they form as the nattou ages. They are amino acid crystals, and they are perfectly safe. Here's a picture.
They're a bit crunchy, which you may or may not like. If you ...
- 58k
22
votes
Accepted
My applesauce has fermented, is it safe to bake with?
It sounds like it's fermented, and more harmful bacteria or mold could definitely have grown without being visible.
So it's not safe, in that there's definitely some risk. It's hard to evaluate ...
- 57.3k
22
votes
Accepted
Kimchi air bubble removal
Small air bubbles are normal and make no difference to kimchi fermentation, nor do larger bubbles that form during fermentation. As long as the kimchi remains more or less submerged in the liquid, ...
- 20.1k
18
votes
Mason jar stuck inside another
Ok, first you had me wondering "How did he get the small jar inside?", but having kids I quickly realized this is a futile question. (For those w/o children, read Douglas Adams...)
The standard ...
- 53.9k
18
votes
When making yogurt, why doesn't bad bacteria grow as well?
Note that the milk you take out of the fridge has been sterilised (UHT or pasteurisation) - it doesn't have any bacteria (etc.)[1]. It also isn't very acidic or salty. This makes it a wonderful ...
- 299
18
votes
Accepted
Canned Coconut milk is curdled when opened
I didn't notice an exact duplicate of this question anywhere, but it's quite common for canned coconut milk to separate leaving an opaque white solid layer of fat and solids, and a thin watery/syrup ...
- 4,904
17
votes
Accepted
Fermenting Sauerkraut - Should I Stir?
Well, having grown up near "the" Sauerkraut region in Germany - I'd say don't.
Honstly, I hadn't ever thought about why until today (can't have been only lazyness that my ancestors left the kraut in ...
- 53.9k
17
votes
Lactic fermentation related question: Is there a relationship between pH, salinity, fermentation magic, and heat?
Your question is missing the word 'bacteria'.
All bacteria have a growth curve. These will vary quite a lot by species.
This is the growth curve for salmonella
As you can see the growth peaks around ...
- 1,093
14
votes
Accepted
Why potatoes need to be boiled in order to make alcohol?
Vodka by definition is a flavorless distilled alcohol, retaining any of the organoleptic properties of the grain or potato could be considered as ruining the end product.
Potatoes are a good source ...
- 6,958
14
votes
Accepted
Why isn't glass ideal for the fermentation of sauerkraut?
SUMMARY: Glass containers are perfectly fine for fermentation. It's usually other design aspects of the container that create fermentation problems.
Do you have any sources that actually say glass ...
- 31.4k
13
votes
Accepted
Sauerkraut/sourkraut - ratio of grams of salt to grams of raw cabbage?
2% (20g per 1000g) would be my default recommendation based on sources local to me, but with care less salt may work if sanitation is extremely good (to minimize introduction of undesirable bacteria ...
- 10.5k
13
votes
Accepted
If pickling destroys Vitamin C, how is Sauerkraut rich in Vitamin C?
Vitamin C is destroyed by heat and light. If you use a preservation method that relies on heating the sauerkraut at any stage (hot pickling liquid, water bath or pressure canning the jars) then some ...
- 10.5k
13
votes
Kimchi air bubble removal
I believe the instructions are about trying to remove any major air gaps, initially.
As the process goes on, and your kimchee is fermenting, it will be impossible to remove bubbles, since the ...
- 3,564
12
votes
Accepted
Are accidentally fermented foods safe to eat
Do.
Not.
Eat.
The assumption that it fermented enough to be safe because it fermented some is likely incorrect. Lacto fermented food recipes are specifically formulated to encourage the rapid and ...
- 3,023
11
votes
Accepted
What stops my pickles from turning into alcohol?
So, fermentation is complicated, and the answer to this question really depends on multiple factors. You're particularly interested in the role of sugar vs. salt, not lactobacillus vs. yeast. The ...
- 4,904
10
votes
How can oak leaves be made edible?
A good indicator of whether there is a way to make something edible is whether it was recorded as a famine food. (Wikipedia) There are records of people eating dried lichen, tree bark, books, and ...
- 211
9
votes
Accepted
Why is it hard to ferment fennel?
After dumping out a couple of jars of failed not-quite-fermented fennel I wondered, "Could fennel have antimicrobial properties?"
<< facepalm >>
Why, yes. Yes it could:
An article on PubMed
...
- 511
9
votes
Can fresh basil cause tomato sauce spoilage?
Yes. The cooking sterilizes the sauce, but adding uncooked basil afterwards has contaminated the sauce again with germs.
- 304
9
votes
What to do with fermented lentils?
Throw it away, it's spoiled and probably contains several colonies of foodborne illnesses. Sealing food isn't sufficient to stop it going off, you need to refrigerate it or freeze it.
- 66.6k
9
votes
What is the relationship (if any) between natto and miso paste?
Natto is fermented whole soybean product, fermented with Bacillus Natto. To my palate, Natto has a complex flavour. Mostly it's the upfront flavour of the beans. But there is also a strong blue-...
- 527
8
votes
Why does the sour taste in yogurt increase with time?
Lactic acid is produced by 'probiotic' bacteria breaking lactose into lactic acid. Over time, more lactose is converted, producing more byproducts, thus more sourness.
The byproducts of this reaction ...
8
votes
Possible dangers of home fermentation of vegetables
Fermenting vegetables is a pretty safe procedure, in fact, if done properly, fermented veggies are probably safer than raw. Really, little can go wrong if handled properly. The process is literally ...
- 63.9k
8
votes
Fermenting Sauerkraut - Should I Stir?
Exposing the sauerkraut to air is undesirable: we want an oxygen-free environment for the bacteria to do their work, and air exposure also brings increased (though small) likelihood of surface ...
- 81
8
votes
1 ltr Milk is not curdling even after squeezing 2 lemons; What could possibly wrong?
Milk proteins will coagulate at particular temperatures and Phs. You wrote that you used 2 Tbs of lemon juice but you didn't say how much milk you added that to. If you used too much milk then the ...
- 46.8k
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