Potassium Chloride - good for vegetable fermention?

[xenolith]

Hi folks,

Does anybody know if potassium chloride [KCl] would make a good alternative to sodium choride [NaCl] (commonly kown as table salt) for vegetable lacto-fermentation?

KCl is a salt composed of potassium + chorine, much like NaCl is a salt composed of sodium + chorine. Chlorine is an antibiotic/antimicrobial, so KCl should inhibit bacterial growth other than lactobacilli, much like NaCl, right?

[Campfiredan]

Sounds like a good idea since we all probably need more potassium and less sodium. However http://www.pickyourown.org/pickles_oldf ... barrel.htm says that potassium chloride causes bitterness.

And, http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalo ... pnw355.pdf says: Reduced sodium salts (such as potassium chloride) may be used in quick pickle recipes. However the pickle may have a slightly different taste. Don't use reduced sodium salts in brined pickles or sauerkraut - these products need a specific amount of sodium to control bacterial growth and to give a firm texture.

So it looks like it is the sodium, not the chloride that does the anti-bacterial trick.

[Jason]

A useful reference here is this study:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8043352
Fermentation and sensory characteristics of kimchi containing potassium chloride as a partial replacement for sodium chloride.

... that concludes kimchi made with varying degrees of KCl rather than NaCl tastes fine.

Since high NaCl intake is associated with gastric cancer, this is worth pursuing.

[Jason]

Another useful study (full text, PDF) here:

Sauerkraut and sauerkraut juice fermented
spontaneously using mineral salt, garlic and algae
http://www.mtt.fi/afs/pdf/mtt-afs-v20n2p169.pdf

Here is the conclusion:

The preliminary results of this study show that it is possible to produce sauerkraut and sauerkraut juice by natural fermentation using mineral salt* (0.8%, 1.2% and 1.5%) with final NaCl concentrations of 0.5%, 0.7% and 0.9%. All the sauerkraut juices were found to have a smoother taste compared to sauerkraut juices produced by using ordinary salt.

However, the preliminary sensory evaluation of the sauerkraut juices showed that the best sensory quality was obtained by fermentation using 0.8% mineral salt resulting in a very smooth-tasting juice. On the other hand the number of lactic acid bacteria was highest when 1.5% mineral salt was used in the fermentation trials and the number of yeast and moulds was lowest in these trials. Although the used mineral salt amounts were low the fermentation process proceeded well and the pH decreased to the desired level, pH 3.8 in a time of 20–25 days. The highest yield of pressed sauerkraut juice was obtained from the treatments where the cabbage was cut into a very fine mix, the cabbage slices being approximately 1 mm × 1 mm.

The preliminary sensory evaluation results show that it is possible to produce sauerkraut and sauerkraut juice with low sodium content with garlic and algae supplements. Consumers who want to consume fermented vegetable products with low sodium content would perhaps find these kinds of products interesting.

* - Mineral salt contains 28% KCl and 57% NaCl

[Ozark Alchemist]

For anyone else looking into potassium chloride, I'd like to add some research conducted by the University of Tennesee.

https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_gradthes/7387/

In short:

They made three versions of sauerkraut; one with only regular salt (Sodium Chloride), one with only potasium salt (Potassium Chloride), and one with a premade mix of sodium and potassium salts (Morton Lite Salt, the package says 50% less sodium so I am going to guess it is about a 1:1 ratio. This is just a guess. Please correct me if you know otherwise.). The study tested microbial growth and flavor.

"Total and lactic microbial counts for the potassium chloride and Lite Salt treatments were found to be higher than counts for the sodium chloride treatments."

So, potassium salt seems to boost microbial growth.

"Sensory evaluation using an untrained consumer-type panel showed kraut prepared with Lite Salt compared favorably to kraut prepared with sodium chloride"

So, potassium salt makes good tasting kraut when mixed with sodium salt.

"Sauerkraut prepared with potassium chloride was rated lower than the other two treatments due to its bitter, metallic aftertaste."

So, don't use potassium salt by it's self.