to cook or not to cook fermented grains?

[pandor]

Hello everyone. I have just read the book and I have been fermenting everything and I love it.

My question is about grains. When is it OK to let them ferment and skip the cooking process? I am asking because cooking kills many of the good bacteria that forms in the fermentation process.

I fermented quinoa for 4 days with raw apple cider vinegar and ate it raw. I didn't get sick or anything like that but I noticed in my bowl movements that it did not digest well.

I've also fermented amaranth (SO DELICIOUS) and rice but I cooked them afterward. What about steel cut or rolled oats? Can they be fermented long enough to skip cooking? And I was also wondering about bulgar wheat. I read a post in this forum that someone is fermenting bulgar wheat to make a cheese. If it fermented long enough, could you just throw it in a vitamix and have a cheesy sauce?

[korakora]

I just got "The Art of Fermentation" too, and it's a great resource for experimentation.

Page 221, the chapter on fermenting grains talks about fermenting rolled or steel-cut oats overnight or a few days (stirring occasionally), then cooking.

I sometimes eat rolled oats without cooking, so I can imagine they would be really nice if fermented and eaten uncooked. What did the fermented uncooked quinoa taste like?

I'm trying the keckek el fouqara (poor man's cheese) with rice and bulgur now, see http://korakora.org/2013/08/keckek-el-fouqara-experiments-and-ginger-bug-taste-test/. Those won't be cooked. I am hoping they will turn out well.

[pandor]

quinoa was delicious uncooked. It tasted a little nutty with a very slight cheesy flavor and had a nice crunch.

thanks for the link. I will probably try that too. I love cheese. I no longer eat dairy so I am looking for alternatives.

[korakora]

Hi Pandor,

I researched a bit about grains and fermentation.

Grains are supposedly not fit to be eaten raw, because of phytic acids. See http://www.westonaprice.org/food-features/living-with-phytic-acid

So I think that even after fermentation, they should be cooked, since fermentation alone does not remove all phytic acid.

The good bacteria may be killed by cooking, but the nutritional benefits of fermenting (and cooking) grain is probably more important.

To supplant the lost good bacteria, we can add fermented ingredients to the grain ferment after cooking.

My keckek el fouqara was a failure, at least the experiment with cracked wheat. Turns out what we have available here is just cracked wheat and not bulgur. Some notes at http://korakora.org/2013/08/some-observations-regarding-the-keckek-el-fouqara-experiment/

Cheers! :)