Fermented Foods for a Healthy Gut

I see so many questions about what foods to eat for some sort of ailment.

I saw this and thought I would share this infographic:



Source

What do you think?  Was this helpful?

Do you agree that these fermented foods help maintain a healthy gut?

I like the pictures and it does a good job of explaining the steps in making fermented foods. One note, when I make beer, wine and other fermented things cleaning is the first step. I read in a beer magazine once " You can sanitize dog poop but that does not make it clean." Next I sanitize everything that will come in contact with the ingredients.  And I will admit sometimes I forgot to sanitize a fermenter but the beer turned out good.

When my gut is not in a good place, miso does help me out. And sauerkraut is good with potatoes. Kimchi is good really if you like hot things. Last tempeh, I need to make some!

Anne Miller wrote:I see so many questions about what foods to eat for some sort of ailment.

I saw this and thought I would share this infographic:



Source

What do you think?  Was this helpful?

Do you agree that these fermented foods help maintain a healthy gut?

Many thanks for this, Anne. I love sauerkraut.

I've been sticking my toes into the fermented food world and have stumbled upon this graphic. Thank you for sharing it, it is very helpful.

I've been on a kimchi kick to take the place where pickles once were.

I have found it unnecessary to make a brine for sauerkraut, simply pounding the sliced cabbage between layers of salt is sufficient to draw sufficient liquid out of the cabbage to cover the cabbage.

I also like to add finely shredded fresh ginger and sliced garlic to my sauerkraut.

I've always got a jar of saurkraut on the go at home. I'm the only one who eats it though, so a jar lasts me a long time.

I use a 2-litre jar with an airlock lid for the fermentation process. Buying a dedicated lid was a definite improvement over the various improvised arrangements I had previously, as I now get zero discolouration of the upper surface.

Personally, I dislike measurements for ingredients like salt in cups/tablespoons etc... There is way too much variability in terms of how dense your salt actually is. A tablespoon of sea salt flakes is quite different to a tablespoon of fine table salt. Instead, I aim for a salt concentration by weight.  I chop up whatever ingredients I am using and weigh them. I typically do about 2kg of cabbage at a time. Then I do 2% of that weight as salt.  eg if I end up with 1876g of cabbage I will weigh out 37g of whatever salt I am using (2% of the weight). Add it to a mixing bowl with the chopped cabbage and (with clean hands) vigorously mix it together, aiming to bruise the cabbage a bit. Transfer to the fermentation jar and add the glass weight to hold it down. If I need a bit more liquid then I mix up some salt water at the same concentration (20g salt to 1000ml of water) and top up as needed.

Before I got accurate scales, I was sort of guessing and had some batches that were way too salty.

I also love adding a few caraway seeds to my saurkraut. If you haven't previously tried it, give it a whirl.

My only beef with that infographic is the false dichotomy between fermenting and pickling. To my experience pickles are preserved vegetables and in my house they're fermented, though I'm obviously aware that vinegar pickling exists.

Michael Cox wrote:Personally, I dislike measurements for ingredients...

Haha! I saw this and got jazzed because that's just how I feel -- I don't measure anything. But then the rest of the paragraph is all about how to be even more precise in one's measurements. Different strokes I suppose. :)

Christopher Weeks wrote:My only beef with that infographic is the false dichotomy between fermenting and pickling. To my experience pickles are preserved vegetables and in my house they're fermented, though I'm obviously aware that vinegar pickling exists.

Michael Cox wrote:Personally, I dislike measurements for ingredients...

Haha! I saw this and got jazzed because that's just how I feel -- I don't measure anything. But then the rest of the paragraph is all about how to be even more precise in one's measurements. Different strokes I suppose. :)

I teach maths, and am an engineer by training. If I'm aiming for a 2% salt concentration by weight then why on earth would I measure something like salt by "cups"? I find the concept genuinely baffling.

The scales live on the kitchen surface so using them is easy. And every batch has come out perfect, where as the unmeasured batches were all over the place.

The infographic for saurkraut was particularly bad... it mixed oz, litres, lbs and teaspoons... and still required kitchen scales!

I agree with having live active food helps out my guts! I fell in love with store bought kimchi early on. As I got older I realized it is something that I can teach myself to do. Now these days, I try to have a homemade batch jar in the fridge. The flavors, are nice, the textures nice, the ingredients, ever changing for I'm always learning and doing more variety. Pickles are easy to do too. I crave the things of jars haha

One thing missing in the graphic is beer.... One of our staff made home brew from scratch for years and we finally persuaded him to go legal so we can sell it in the shop. It is the only beer we sell that is finished in the bottle - so the yeast is still live, not sterilised like other bottled beer. My husband claims he feels it is better for his digestion.
I'm slowly experimenting with some fermented foods - sourdough baking (thank you Kate Downham!) has been lovely. I'm thinking of giving my starter a name as I'm getting quite fond of it - it's more like a beehive organism than an single entity though. I recently was given a Kombucha starter - nearly one week in and about ready for the first batch I think. I'm not sure whether I will be able to look after it consistently though. I'm thinking a continuous process, using the remains of tea from our teapot (in constant use!) may be more successful for us. I think I have a glass bottle with a tap in the attic that may be of use there.
Sauerkraut so far defeats me, but I'd like to make pickled vegetables, so try again every now and then. I'm not sure my husband will like them as much as his beer though!

Fermented foods have become essential to me: Kombucha, Jun, Sauerkraut, Kimchi, Miso, Rejuvelac, fermented vegetables...
I find that my body responds enthusiastically and positively to the bubbling goodness of live-ferments.
I also love soaking and sprouting seeds and nuts and grains.

I don't have a lot of Fridge space though, so there is a limit with how much I can store there.
When I want to save my fermented products longer on the shelf, I will add raw vinegar to the jar to stabilize it.

Just moments ago I started another jar of Jalapenos in brine.
I generally use 3 TBS per Quart of fine Sea Salt to Water for almost anything I'm lacto-fermenting.
My inner barbarian balks at precise measurements and weights in the kitchen, but I nearly always have success.