44
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 ...
- 58.3k
44
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 ...
- 1,240
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 ...
- 2,104
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 ...
- 47.5k
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 ...
- 47.5k
25
votes
Why must fermenting meat be kept cold, but not vegetables?
It is a good thing that you wrote up your assumptions, this helps greatly with explanations. To look at each:
Assumptions 1,2 and 3 are true.
Assumption 4 is false. You can't lacto ferment meat. ...
- 135k
24
votes
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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 ...
- 135k
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 ...
- 58.1k
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, ...
- 26.1k
21
votes
Why is it that veggies, fruit, and meat need to be salted or sugared when fermented to avoid pathogens, but milk and yogurt don't?
With all fermentation the goal is to create an environment where tasty microbes will thrive and harmful microbes won't.
One way to do this is by changing the chemistry or temperature of the ...
- 47.5k
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 ...
- 298
18
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 ...
- 1,103
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 ...
- 5,204
14
votes
Accepted
Do I really need fermentation weights for making sauerkraut?
You don't need them, but they are helpful. The issue is that any product above the surface of the liquid has a good chance of developing mold. The weights keep the product submerged. You can do the ...
- 72.6k
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 ...
- 14.8k
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 ...
- 10.6k
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 ...
- 3,634
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 ...
- 3,053
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 ...
- 5,204
11
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 ...
- 221
10
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
...
- 541
10
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.
- 74.1k
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
Would replacing sugar with a sweetener affect bread dough fermentation?
The short answer is that it's probably safe, but here are some considerations:
What Does Yeast Do?
Yeast eats sugar and converts it to carbon dioxide (also alcohol, but that's not a consideration in ...
- 2,480
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-...
- 635
9
votes
Why must fermenting meat be kept cold, but not vegetables?
Edit for your edit:
Fermenting the meats for long-term preservation in a moist, ambient temperature lactic acid bacteria (LAB) environment as you described would theoretically be safe in terms of ...
- 5,380
9
votes
Bubbles/foam on refrigerated maple syrup - safe to eat?
Assuming the can and the syrup were in good shape when opened, it's not going to mold in the refrigerator in a week's time.
Although you say the bubbles weren't there when transferred, do you just ...
- 1,056
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 ...
- 47.5k
8
votes
Accepted
Are salamis/pepperonis in the USA truly fermented?
The short answer is yes, salumi produced in the US is a fermented product. The process is different from salumi produced in Europe, but it is still a fermented product. In the US, producers rely on ...
- 72.6k
8
votes
Why is it recommended to mix yogurt starter with a small amount of milk before adding to the entire batch?
To avoid clumping. It is much easier to disperse a solid into a small volume of liquid first by whisking or stirring to reach an even consistency and then pouring it into a larger volume of liquid ...
- 191
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