lactofermented asparagus?

[vegmeg]

Hey there,

It's asparagus season in Canada and I'd really like to lactoferment them. I can't find any recipes. Has anyone done this before? Any tips or ideas? I'm getting a few pounds of local organic asparagus this Thursday.

My guess is:
-wash asparagus, and pack the complete stems upright in a clean mason jar
-add brine solution (maybe 2 tbsp per quart?) to mason jar to completely cover the asparagus, leaving a little headroom at the top of the jar
-close the jar, leave at room temperature until it tastes good, then transfer to refrigerator

Does that sound like it'll work? Any advice?

Thanks!

[fermented-vegan]

Hello vegmeg, :)

Yum! Organic asparagus!

I've never tried fermented asparagus... yet! It sounds like a good idea. Here's some ideas/thoughts that occurred to me...

The amount of salt you use will depend on your own salt tolerance, the temperature of the room you will be fermenting in, and what type of salt you are using. When I made dill pickles in a one quart mason jar, I used 3 Tbsps of course Celtic Sea Salt per quart of water. The room temperature it was fermenting in ranged from 60F/15.5C to 68F/20C. They were tasty, but didn't get as sour as I would have liked. Which as I understand, means it requires more salt. They were not all that salty tasting either. So if you are using unrefined salt, you may need to increase the amount. Taste the brine, it should be significantly salty tasting, but within your tolerance.

As I understand it, it is not a good idea to close a container that has a ferment in it with out some sort of airlock to allow gases to escape which are a byproduct of fermenting. My recommendation is to keep the cover off, use another smaller jar filled with water and with the lid closed tight to act as a weight to keep the asparagus submerged within the brine solution. Then wrap a towel over the top to keep dust and insects out of your ferment. You may or may not have to skim off foam-like looking yeasts that grow on the surface of the brine. It seems to vary. I never got any when I made the dill pickles. But I always get some when making sauerkraut.

You also might want to consider adding other vegetables and herbs/spices to the ferment that would complement the flavor of the asparagus. You can use your imagination here. If I were going to try it, I think I might try whole cloves of garlic, peppercorns, and a diced hot pepper. Or you can ferment it all by itself.

Once you get to five or six days with the ferment. Start tasting it every day. Had I had previous experience making dill pickles, I would have stopped the ferment at about one week, removed the dill, garlic, and peppercorns, and re-jar with brine covering the pickles, and into the refrigerator. Knowing when to stop your ferment is something that seems to only come with experience. The flavor changes the longer you go. And it just depends what you are looking for in the taste.

Hope this helps.

Peace & Love from a vegan :)

[vegmeg]

Hey fermented vegan :)

Thanks for all the advice! And I finally found a website from someone who makes lactofermented asparagus! (http://www.awesomepickle.com/archives/229)

And check out this recipe for asparagus fermented in yogourt and stirred twice a day for 2 weeks: http://www.anothersubcontinent.com/foru ... t1759.html I may give it a try with my homemade soygourt... I got some local black soybeans and have started to make awesome grey soygourt recently.

So, I just put together 4 jars of asparagus last night to lactoferment, and hopefully I'll have good results... yet to be seen... :)

I have very little lactofermentation experience (I discovered it during the winter... a little late in the season :) but I kind of feel like the pressing-everything-down-with-a-weight-technique is mostly to keep veggies submerged under their own juices or to keep them from floating up... for the asparagus I did yesterday, I just kept adding asparagus until the jar was totally plugged with them (so that even if I turned the jar upsidedown, nothing moved). And then I added a bunch of brine, about a centimeter higher than the asparagus spears, and they were so packed that nothing floated up (except a few dried spice seeds)... kind of like this... http://www.awesomepickle.com/archives/51

And then I added the lid of the mason jar, but didn't tighten it, so the gases can escape. Hope it works! :)

I made:
-raw asparagus with 3 tbsp salt / quart
-slightly steamed asparagus with 2 tbsp / quart
-raw asparagus with 2 tbsp/quart plus dried fennel and curcuma
-raw asparagus with 2 tbsp/quart plus caraway seeds, bay leaves, and fresh horseradish.

If it works, I'll let you know... first pickle of the Canadian growing season :)

meg

[fermented-vegan]

Hello again vegmeg, :)

Your welcome. And thanks for posting those links for fermented asparagus recipes. That may come in handy in the future. It's interesting that the recipe that uses yogurt is more than just a small token amount to get the fermenting jump started. So it's just as much about adding a certain flavor also. I can't imagine what that would taste like. Certainly let us know what the results are if you try the recipe with your soygurt.

I got some local black soybeans and have started to make awesome grey soygourt recently.

Yum! I don't buy soygurt at my local co-op because they all have pure refined sugar in them. But I really miss eating a yogurt and fruit substitute. What other ingredients do you add to yours besides the soy beans? Perhaps you could post your recipe?

but I kind of feel like the pressing-everything-down-with-a-weight-technique is mostly to keep veggies submerged under their own juices or to keep them from floating up...

That's exactly it.

for the asparagus I did yesterday, I just kept adding asparagus until the jar was totally plugged with them (so that even if I turned the jar upsidedown, nothing moved). And then I added a bunch of brine, about a centimeter higher than the asparagus spears, and they were so packed that nothing floated up (except a few dried spice seeds)

That's a fantastic idea!!!! I'm going to have to try that next time I make dill pickles. If I cut them into long spears, I should be able to pack them in tight to get the same effect as you did with the asparagus.

And then I added the lid of the mason jar, but didn't tighten it, so the gases can escape. Hope it works! :)

I also like the idea of the lid on but not tightened. I wonder if you could get away with just the lid resting on top minus the screw on part. Either way, it saves on having to find enough towels to cover them, and then the extra laundering of them.

I made:
-raw asparagus with 3 tbsp salt / quart
-slightly steamed asparagus with 2 tbsp / quart
-raw asparagus with 2 tbsp/quart plus dried fennel and curcuma
-raw asparagus with 2 tbsp/quart plus caraway seeds, bay leaves, and fresh horseradish.

If it works, I'll let you know... first pickle of the Canadian growing season :)

Sounds great!!! You really got creative with the combinations! And very good to keep notes of the differences between them so as to identify and correlate the results. Definitely let us know how they taste! I'll be curious to hear from you the difference in texture, firmness, and flavor between the raw and slightly steamed asparagus. And whether they tasted good enough plain, or needed the spices in the other two variations. The horseradish and asparagus combination sounds like a good one.

You're off to a good start! Happy fermenting! :D

Peace & Love from a vegan :)

[vegmeg]

Hey fermented vegan :)

The asparagus projects went quite well! I now have 4 jars of lovely fermented asparagus, each fermented at room temperature for 6-7 days. Here are a few more details... (for the recipe about how to make soygurt from scratch, I thought it made more sense to post it in "legume ferments"... go take a look).

Either way, it saves on having to find enough towels to cover them, and then the extra laundering of them.

I actually did cover them with lightly with a towel to keep the light out... just a very light covering with a small bath towel across all 4 jars.

That's a fantastic idea!!!! I'm going to have to try that next time I make dill pickles. If I cut them into long spears, I should be able to pack them in tight to get the same effect as you did with the asparagus.

In the end, the asparagus softened up a lot after a day or two in the salty water, so some of the asparagus spears loosened and started floating up. Luckily I had more asparagus so I packed several more spears into each jar. That seemed to solve the problem and I didn't have any more issues :) However, since they were so tightly packed and I didn't want to disrupt them, when I did taste-tests during the week I would cut the end of an asparagus spear off with scissors, rather than pulling out a complete spear, since that could have dislodged other spears.

The asparagus also had a little "bloom" on the surface of the liquid after a couple of days, but it was easy to skim off. I checked them once or twice a day, mostly for curiosity, and also to remove the bloom.

I'll be curious to hear from you the difference in texture, firmness, and flavor between the raw and slightly steamed asparagus.

The first differences I noticed were after two days of fermentation. The brine for the steamed asparagus looked slightly murky, whereas the raw asparagus brine looked clear. The steamed asparagus jar smelled kind of like asparagus, whereas the raw asparagus jars smelled more like salty water. The raw asparagus developed a layer of bloom at the top, whereas the steamed one just had little bubbles. After a week when I put them in the fridge, though, it seemed to be the steamed one that had minor problems with yeasty-bloom, while the others were doing fine in the fridge. They all look and taste fine... I guess I wouldn't bother with steaming since they all worked out.

Certainly let us know what the results are if you try the recipe with your soygurt.

Man... asparagus fermented with soygurt...this recipe is totally wacky. The brine tastes like opening your mouth in an ocean near a shipwreck of aromatic spices--overwhelmingly salty, yet intriguing. I can't say that I followed the recipe with any accuracy. I didn't have the right spices, so I blended mystery spices from my cupboard. All of the measurements were eyeballed (who measures anything in grams?), and the milk yoghurt was replaced with soy... so... it's been 10 days so far at room temperature... the asparagus have retained their green colour and are still reasonably crunchy. Did you see the quantity of salt they ask for? 1lb of asparagus for 100 grams of salt. Other people in the discussion clarified that... 1 part salt for 4 parts asparagus. It's insanely salty. I have no idea what I'll do with the asparagus or the brine, as they both very much taste like they are 1/4 salt. Perhaps the asparagus can be put in the back of someone's mouth if they have a cancre sore? Anyway, it's an interesting recipe, but the results are borderline inedible... though when I'm playing around with soygurt at room temperature for 2 weeks, I don't want to decrease the salt content if that's potentially keeping the whole thing from rotting. So, I can only refer to this fermentation as a "partial success"... it works, it's just doesn't taste like something I can imagine eating with glee (even when rinsed). Though, if I get creative with it, maybe I can find some good ways to incorporate it in other recipes.

Anyway, the normal lactofermented asparagus is lovely, and I intend to keep it for the winter :) I realize now that I could have added more horseradish, as the spicy taste is quite mild. I've closed the jars and put them in the fridge, hoping that they'll last for months... we'll see :)

Happy fermenting!

vegmeg

[fermented-vegan]

Hello vegmeg, :)

Thank you for all the lovely details of your fermented asparagus project. It's really informative and helpful.

In the end, the asparagus softened up a lot after a day or two in the salty water, so some of the asparagus spears loosened and started floating up. Luckily I had more asparagus so I packed several more spears into each jar. That seemed to solve the problem and I didn't have any more issues :) However, since they were so tightly packed and I didn't want to disrupt them, when I did taste-tests during the week I would cut the end of an asparagus spear off with scissors, rather than pulling out a complete spear, since that could have dislodged other spears.

That's really helpful to know. Thank you!

Man... asparagus fermented with soygurt...this recipe is totally wacky. The brine tastes like opening your mouth in an ocean near a shipwreck of aromatic spices--overwhelmingly salty, yet intriguing.

Thank you for my morning laugh! :D

Did you see the quantity of salt they ask for? 1lb of asparagus for 100 grams of salt. Other people in the discussion clarified that... 1 part salt for 4 parts asparagus. It's insanely salty. I have no idea what I'll do with the asparagus or the brine, as they both very much taste like they are 1/4 salt.

Yeah, that salt content for that recipe is really high. And I don't see any reason for it to be that way unless they are fermenting at really high temperatures. I don't think there is any safety reason for it. I'd personally adjust the salt content to your own liking. Use your taste buds as your guide. I now always taste the brine to make sure it is to my liking. From my readings in this forum, you might be able to make this current batch more edible by dumping out some of the brine, and replacing it with fresh water to dilute it. Reference the following link:

http://www.wildfermentation.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=50&p=191

Anyway, the normal lactofermented asparagus is lovely, and I intend to keep it for the winter :) I realize now that I could have added more horseradish, as the spicy taste is quite mild. I've closed the jars and put them in the fridge, hoping that they'll last for months... we'll see :)

That's great! I love it when a ferment comes out tasting yummy!

Keep us posted of new fermentation projects you have going.

Peace & Love from a vegan :)