Garlic, honey, and botulism?

Kimchi, pickles, sauerkraut, and more!

Moderator: Christopher Weeks

Garlic, honey, and botulism?

Postby pizzafoundry on Thu Jun 22, 2017 6:31 pm

18 days ago I put up a jar of garlic (Costco bag of peeled cloves) and covered them with fresh raw honey.

About 4 days into the ferment I realized my jar was much larger than I needed, so I moved it all into a smaller jar after saving about half the honey elsewhere and then resealed it.

Then I discovered the numerous mentions of botulism risk with this recipe. I also discovered the 4.6 PH magic number re botulism life. It's bubbling along quite nicely by now but I had no idea what the PH might be inside so I finally ordered a meter.

Today, I rinsed my meter electrode with distilled water and then as a test, put it into some spring water. Eventually it settled down to 7.0. (I haven't run calibration on it yet as I failed to get the solutions but I still was curious if it might "appear to be correct" as it sits now.)

So I poured out some honey from the fermentation and tested it. To my horror it showed a 5.1.

My question now of course is - since 4.6 is the limit to remain safe with this process, and since I have no idea how long this has been over that number, isn't it fairly safe to say it would be insane at this point to attempt to 'fix' this with vinegar and continue on? I have no real feeling for how botulism grows but I have read that even microscopic amounts can be dangerous or even fatal.

Yet, with as many people as must be doing this with no attention to PH (I would assume), we don't really hear of scores of people dropping dead of botulism poisoning, do we?

Really looking for some wisdom on this. I do think I'll restart a new batch and monitor it daily, I guess... or is this really such a big deal?

Thanks1
pizzafoundry
 
Posts: 3
Joined: Thu Jun 15, 2017 8:18 pm

Re: Garlic, honey, and botulism?

Postby Christopher Weeks on Fri Jun 23, 2017 7:22 am

I've made honey garlic. I've never tested, or even wondered about the pH. I've never gotten sick. I can't say that you won't, but I have no reason to think you would. Honey is hostile to microbes, but nothing is sure.
Christopher Weeks
Nuka Ninja
 
Posts: 2602
Joined: Tue Oct 12, 2010 3:59 pm
Location: Carlton County, MN


Return to Vegetable Ferments

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Bing [Bot] and 7 guests