Fermentation Support Forum

I can't say I've ever noticed sugar in a ferment recipe. Can you add sugar to a vegetable ferment ? Since I already did it I will know the answer in a few days I suppose. Had a small amount of a hot/sweet pepper and thought I'd add a little more sweet to it in a ferment. Anyone tried this yet? Thanks..... Gary

I did for a celery ferment. It had gone two days without a single bubble and I wanted to see if there was anything growing. So I put a teaspoon of sugar it in and in the morning there were bubbles.

No way to tell how much of an effect it really had. But the celery did seem to ferment normally afterwards (small bubbles forming on the ends and a few on the sides) and turned out nice in the end.

Kimchi procedures often include sugar in the porridge. Pao Cai seems to normally have some. I do that if I'm following a specific recipe, but not otherwise.