Help with Ceramic Weights

[Redman55]

Hello all,

New to the board, but longtime fermenter of all things. Recently I received a beautiful german fermentation crock and teed up my first batch of kraut. As life does pull you in other directions, I had tucked away the crock in the basement, and forgot to check the water seal which had evaporated. This was discovered weeks into the process, and the kraut was the most foul smelling thing imaginable. After tossing the batch, and learning my lesson about monitoring the water lock more diligently, I came across another problem while cleaning.

While the crock just took some elbow grease to clean the nastiness out, the ceramic weights absorbed the demon stank to the core. I've tried baking soda paste scrubs, vinegar soaking, etc....... I cant get this nasty smell out. Any ideas or suggestions?

[AnnieBoo]

Oh, that's a bummer!

If you can find sun where you live at this time of the year, I think nothing does a better job of getting rid of stink out of something than setting it out in the sun. If possible I'd let it sit in bright sun for 2-3 days per side, and see how that does. This has worked for me on a lot of things, even getting cigarette smoke smell out of wooden items.

I wonder if baking it at a high temperature in your oven might also help? If there's some kind of stink-producing bacteria living deep inside, that MIGHT help.

If all else fails - can you order a replacement weight?

[Tibor]

I believe your weights were improperly fired and therefore porous .Regardless if they are glazed or not, ceramic weights properly fired according to the kind of clay used, should not be absorbent. I would return them for replacements .