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That 5 minute video changed how I think about salt ratios in ferments | Fermentation Station - Librear

That 5 minute video changed how I think about salt ratios in ferments

I was scrolling YouTube last night and this old timer from some fermentation channel was explaining how people used to just go by feel and smell instead of weighing everything out. He said his grandmother never touched a scale in 50 years of making sauerkraut. Got me thinking about all the times I stressed over hitting exactly 2.5% salt when really the veggies would have been fine. I still weigh mine out but maybe I relax a little now. Anyone else ever wonder if we overcomplicate this stuff?

2 comments

2 Comments

james_ross4mo ago

Idk, maybe it's just me but people get way too intense about salt ratios. Like yeah, too little salt and things get moldy, too much and it's inedible, but there's a pretty wide middle ground where everything works fine. I've done ferments with like 1.5% salt that came out great and others with 3% that were also fine. The old timers probably had a lot of trial and error but they also weren't writing blog posts about their exact measurements. Feels like we overthink a process that's been working for centuries without a gram scale.

oscarthompson4mo ago

Respectfully, I think you're underestimating how much the salt ratio actually matters in terms of texture and safety over time. A 1.5% ferment might be fine for a quick two week sauerkraut in the fridge, but let that sit at room temp for two months and you're asking for kahm yeast or worse. The 2% to 5% range is where the good bacteria thrive and the bad stuff starves, and there's a reason old timers used to do the "float an egg" test which usually ended up around 3% for most veggies. I've had a batch of peppers at 2% turn out perfectly fine and another at 1.8% get a weird film on top within a week, so the margins matter more than you'd think.