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Green beans fermented like Sauerkraut, anyone?


chattius

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Our daughter made a barrel for fermenting cabbage to Sauerkraut in the girls week project of her school at a local woodworker.

Since it was to early for cabbage we tried out an old family recipe.

Fermented green beans: a layer of beans, a bit salt and spices/vegs, layer of green beans, layer of salt and spices/vegs, ... till the barrel is nearly full.

Press it a bit with a heavy bean masher till liquid covers the beans. lay a linnen sheet on top, lay a fitting wooden plate on the sheet and a heavy stone on the plate. Then wait some weeks till the bacteria did their job. Watch for not normal colours at the linnen sheet and replace the linnen sheet if needed.

 

How are Saure Bohnen named in english. Seems Sour Beans is a sort of sour candies in a bean shape ;)

Because of the bacteria fermentation they have a lot of healthy stuff. Don't get confused with sour beans made with vinegar. They lack the health of fermentation and pasteurizing kills a lot of useful bacteria. Fermented vegs are great to rebuild the bacteria in your gut after using antibiotics.

 

I like sour beans with a Kasseler (cured and cold smoked cut of pork). Our second likes sour beans with her favourite cheese filled Bratwurst.

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Our daughter made a barrel for fermenting cabbage to Sauerkraut in the girls week project of her school at a local woodworker.

Since it was to early for cabbage we tried out an old family recipe.

Fermented green beans: a layer of beans, a bit salt and spices/vegs, layer of green beans, layer of salt and spices/vegs, ... till the barrel is nearly full.

Press it a bit with a heavy bean masher till liquid covers the beans. lay a linnen sheet on top, lay a fitting wooden plate on the sheet and a heavy stone on the plate. Then wait some weeks till the bacteria did their job. Watch for not normal colours at the linnen sheet and replace the linnen sheet if needed.

 

How are Saure Bohnen named in english. Seems Sour Beans is a sort of sour candies in a bean shape ;)

Because of the bacteria fermentation they have a lot of healthy stuff. Don't get confused with sour beans made with vinegar. They lack the health of fermentation and pasteurizing kills a lot of useful bacteria. Fermented vegs are great to rebuild the bacteria in your gut after using antibiotics.

 

I like sour beans with a Kasseler (cured and cold smoked cut of pork). Our second likes sour beans with her favourite cheese filled Bratwurst.

I can just taste this, sound pretty terrific actually . The sourness of this is what appeals to me.

You guys cook the coolest stuffs!

:bounce:

 

gogo

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Probably our climate did a lot to use fermentation for food storage. Mid in dense and moisture forests food couldn't easily be dried, or stored at a dry place. So barrels for storage of fermentated food was quite common. Also caddle was rare and did a multi purpose role for milk and using as a horse replacement. So calves weren't that common and without calves you can't do the normal cheese which needs their stomach.

So the local cheese (Handkäse) is done by lacto fermentation and has only 1% of fat.

A nice recipe against colds is garlic fermented in fresh honey (we need these tiny microbes alive for fermentation). Turn weekly, as soon the garlic sinks down it is ready after 3-4 month. Fermented garlic is also a nice spice for lamb.

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If therenisn't enough sun some years ferment unripe walnut till they are black and taste a bit like truffles.

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Fermented honey is a beer replacement,

Sourdough is needed to produce bread from rye.

...

You people really don't use fermentation ?

 

Fermentation kept us barbarians alive in these unhealthy place we live ;)

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Various kinds of fermentation isn't uncommon in the American south where I grew up. My grandfather was particularly fond of sauerkraut. I just said find fermented vegetables gross. But then in the rural areas, most people were farmers so there was usually fresh produce. My grandfather said the community was tight knit so if you weren't able to grow any, you knew someone who would share in exchange for eggs, meat or whatever else you'd have.

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We exchange too. Mid in forest I get wild hop, bear garlic, late potato for winter...

In the main village they have more sun so they can plant and harvest vegs which won't ripe around my house. So we exchange harvests. But the main problem is winter when nothing except field salade can be harvested.

For centuries people in the area had wood, had clay but they didn't have much glas (to pickle in vinegar). So barrels from wood or earthenware were easily available and they were used for fermenting to have a sort of vegs in winter.

 

After world war 2 cigarettes were for quite a while a currency in germany. My grandgrandpa successfully used 'tobacco' from fermented cherry leaves in Frankfurt at the black market in exchange for medicine. Cherry leaves have some content of nicotin. So using knowledge how to ferment had some impact in the history of my family and is probably a reason why my grandma taught it to us kids.

 

I have to admit that I use fermentation more for meat than for vegs (my wife is great in this). Using sour milk to 'marinate' / soften boar meat for 10 days is a good way to make even an old boar eatable. The lacto bacteria produce an acidic environment most other (dangerous) bacteria can't live in. Mainly bacteria which can survive the stomach remain. Most of them are needed for digesting anyway.

Sauer (sour) is related to Säure (acid) in germany. So sauer/sour in german often stands for lacto fermented food which is not always really sour/bitter.

The most known fermented meat is probably classic Salami?

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