fermentation

How to make gochujang at home the traditional and authentic way. It is a lot of work but will be nothing like the ones you buy at the stores. Makes about 1 gallon (4 quarts).

How To Make Gochujang At Home

g Salt

L water ((5 litre = 5.2 quart))

How to make Gochujang at home

THE NIGHT BEFORE: Soak malt barley (all 750 g of it!) in 5 litre of cold water for 5 hrs or more.

THE NIGHT BEFORE: Soak sweet rice in water for 3-4 hrs or more.

NEXT MORNING: Strain soaked sweet rice through a colander and remove all excess water.

Grind sweet rice with a blender or chopper as fine as you can make it. Set aside.

Strain malt barley through a fine sieve or medium grade cheese cloth to just get the liquid and some fine white sediments.

Add sweet rice powder to strained liquid from above.

Leave mixture in the oven with a temperature of about 60°C (140°F) for 5 hrs.

Remove malt barley + sweet rice mixture from oven and cook on stove top.

Start at medium high -&gt; medium heat until liquid has reduced by about 20%. Let it cool.

Once liquid is cooled, add fine gochukaru, meju karu and sea salt.

Add rice syrup (jocheong 조청) - add more or less to your taste.

Mix everything well.

Transfer gochujang into the prepared, sanitized clay pot (hangari 항아리).

Sprinkle top with handful of sea salt.

Leave in full sun for 6 months.

Easy recipe for naturally fermented giardiniera. Delicious.

Giardiniera

Cauliflower cut/broken into smaller florets

Carrots

white Onion onions

Jalapeño

Bell Peppers, colors of your choosing

peppercorns

garlic

Tablespoon sea salt

water

Prepare the vegetables - Cut or break off...

Prepare the vegetables -  Cut or break off cauliflower pieces into smaller florets. Slice the carrots on an angle into 1/4" thick slices. Cut the half onion into 1/2" wide slices. Remove the seeds from the jalapeño and cut it into ringlets. Cut the bell peppers into long flat slices approximately 1/2" wide. Peel the garlic and slice each clove in half.  I'm such a fan of these Shun knives. Pricey but beautiful and so worth it. Their nicest most beautiful knife is this one.

Dissolve the salt in the water - be...

Dissolve the salt in the water - be certain to use non-chlorinated water.

Layer the vegetables - place the prepared vegetables,...

Layer the vegetables  - place the prepared vegetables, including the garlic and peppercorns, into the fermentation vessel(s).  It's nice to use glass for this since it's truly beautiful to view through the glass. This is your chance to get artistic with the layering of the ingredients if you like. For this recipe, I used a 1/2 gallon Mason Jar.  If you want to double the recipe, use two jars or combine into a fermentation crock.  Although I often use a 1 gallon jar for many of my ferments, this giardiniera puts off a little more scent during the fermentation process so best to use a fermentation vessel that has some sort of airlock to keep the scent at bay.

Add salt water - Pour enough water in...

Add salt water - Pour enough water in to reach to the top of the veggies. No need to fully submerge as the vegetables will begin to release some of their own liquid during the fermentation process and the water will eventually more than amply cover the veggies.

Place airlock on - I made two separate...

Place airlock on - I made two separate batches in experimenting with this recipe and used two different airlocks. There are many fine airlocks available.  I've been enjoying this airlock lately.

Wait impatiently! for a few weeks while the...

Wait impatiently! for a few weeks while the fermentation takes place and enjoy.

Salvadoran curtido is a lightly fermented cabbage relish. It's a salty, tangy, refreshing and delicious condiment and can be served with pupusas, tacos, bowls or more!

Salvadorian Curtido (Fermented Cabbage Relish)

cabbage,

carrots, shredded

white onion, sliced in half moons

serrano

tsp dried oregano (preferably Mexican)

tsp coarse kosher salt

Mix the cabbage, carrots, onion, peppers, oregano, and...

Mix the cabbage, carrots, onion, peppers, oregano, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Let rest for 30 minutes to begin releasing moisture.

Sanitize a quart size (4 cup) mason jar...

Sanitize a quart size (4 cup) mason jar including lid with boiling hot water. Be careful to not burn yourself.

Pack the shredded vegetables into the mason jar,...

Pack the shredded vegetables into the mason jar, pressing down to tightly pack and release water. If the vegetables aren't covered with water, add a little bit of distilled water so they are covered. Optional: add sanitized glass weight to keep the vegetables submerged.

Put a lid over the jar but do...

Put a lid over the jar but do not screw it on to tightly seal as gas will build up the pressure in the jars if it can't be released. Alternatively use a specialty fermentation lid.

Leave the jars out at room temperature for...

Leave the jars out at room temperature for a minimum of 24 hours and up to 5 days. Taste after the first 24 hours and let continue to ferment until you reach your desired level of tanginess. Typically 48-96 hours is ideal.

Once fermented to taste, screw the lids on...

Once fermented to taste, screw the lids on and place in the fridge. It will stay good for at least 1 month.

You can drizzle this garlic honey over pepperoni pizza (trust!), serve alongside spicy fried chicken, use in a glaze for grilled pork or fish, and/or add a few spoonfuls to savory cornbread. 

Fermented Garlic Honey

garlic (about 1 head), crushed

raw honey

heatproof 1-qt. jar

If the raw honey you find is solid at room temperature, warm it in the microwave or in a saucepan over low heat to bring it back to a liquid state before using for this recipe. You can drizzle this honey over pepperoni pizza (trust!), serve alongside spicy fried chicken, use in a glaze for grilled pork or fish, and/or add a few spoonfuls to savory cornbread.

Bon Appétit

Place garlic in jar. Pour honey over garlic and stir to combine, making sure all the garlic gets coated. Seal jar and let sit at room temperature 3 days. Unscrew and remove lid to let out any gases; give garlic honey a stir. (You’ll most likely see tiny bubbles at this stage, which means the fermentation process has started.) Reseal jar and let sit, stirring once every other day, at least 1 week before using.

Do Ahead: Garlic honey can be made 1 month ahead. Keep room temperature.

Learn how to make a magic Chinese ingredient - pickled wild peppers

Pickled Peppers (Pao Jiao)

green peppers

white vinegar

tbsp. thumb ginger

sugar

salt

Chinese spirit or other hard liquid

Boil some water and let it cool down completely. Or you can use purified water.

Wash the green peppers, discard any spoiled ones. Set aside until completely drained.

Cut the top off and keep the pepper body only.

Sterilize the container is extremely important to prevent your pickled pepper been spoiled. My common solution is soak the jars in boiling water, then air-dry completely.

Place the pepper in the jar, place water, white spirit, white vinegar, slat and sugar in. Gently shake to make all the ingredients well combined.

Set aside and wait for 7 days until well pickled.

Traditional Makgeolli (Korean Rice Wine) recipe that you can successfully brew at home with no special equipment. Ready in 10 to 14 days. Yields 5 to 6 cups.

Makgeolli (Korean Rice Wine)

kg sweet rice ((glutinous rice))

Nuruk starter (3/4 cup is about 95 g)

tsp yeast ((optional))

Tbsp sugar

Make Dry Rice (Godubap 고두밥) - Wash rice a few times in cool water until the water runs pretty clear. In the old classic Korean cookbooks, it says to wash 100 times but I&#039;m sure the rice was also not as clean as now. 😂 I think I wash about 5 times or so.

Soak rice in water for 2 hours for sweet rice, 3 hrs for short-grain rice and overnight for brown rice. You can soak longer (even up to 3 days) but change water after 8 hrs.

Drain rice in a colander for 30 - 45 min. Just completely remove any excess water.

Steaming - I use a bamboo steamer and line it with a non-stick silicone mesh and lay the rice then steam for 40 minutes or until the amount of steam coming up through the steamer is no longer really visible.

Spread out steamed rice on a tray so it can cool. Cool for 2 hrs or so until it&#039;s not warm to touch.

Prepare Rice (5 hrs before)

Sanitize your container by using soap and water then rinse if it&#039;s a non-porous container like glass or plastic. If you are using porous clay hangari jar or want to be extra safe, pour some strong alcohol like Vodka or Everclear and give it a swirl then discard. Let it dry completely.

Prepare Container

1 hr BEFORE - measure the amount of water you are going to use for Makgeolli. I use filtered water. Bottled water is also good. Add water to your container that you will be brewing in. Use warm water if you want to give it an extra boost. Add nuruk to water and let it soak for 1 hr. Break it up with your hands if you see big chunks of it. NOT a MUST but it helps to get a good start by activating the culture. Pretty similar to putting yeast in warm water first.

Prepare Nuruk (starter) and water

When rice is cooled, add RICE to your Nuruk water mix in your container. Rice should be dry enough that individual grains separate easily from each other.

With your hands, gently mix everything so that they are evenly mixed and there are no big chunks of nuruk left. Try not to smush or break the rice grains. It&#039;s best to leave each rice grain as whole as possible but do try to mix it all well. Because the longer you mix, things get warmed up allowing the yeast and enzymes to get activated. Giving your mash a great start!

Cover the container loosely with the lid and put it in a cool dry dark place for 10-14 days. Initially, you should not see any extra liquid.

Make Makgeolli

DAY 1 - 3: keep the lid loose (as it needs oxygen), mix 2 times a day with a wooden spoon or plastic spatula. On the 1st day, it won&#039;t be easy to mix as there&#039;s very little liquid. But that&#039;s how it should be. You will see more liquid appear in the mix each day.

DAY 1 of Brewing

DAY 4+, up to 10 to 14 days, don&#039;t mix and keep the lid completely closed. But check on the change. In low temps (65℉), it can take up to close to 2 weeks but on the average it should take about 10 days. At higher temps close to 75℉, it may be ready even before 10 days. Rather than just depend simply on the the time, you should closely watch for signs that it is ready and also do a taste test to see when you want to bottle it. Read my tips below on how to check if it&#039;s done.

Day 4+

Once the brewing is complete (or when you want to bottle), we need to filter the Makgeolli. Use a fine linen cloth or mesh filter bag to filter the liquid. The brew is ready to drink immediately but I like to store in the refrigerator for a few days so it can age a little and mellow out even further.

Filter

Optionally, you can dilute the finished Makgeolli by mixing with water (1/2 amount of total wine) and added sugar (about 2 Tbs for 1 batch using 1 kg rice). This will produce a drink similar to ones sold at stores. Less thick and with similar alcohol content of 6% and sweeter flavor. I personally don&#039;t like to do it but you can try a little first and see if you want to do it.

How to dilute (OPTIONAL)

Makgeolli is best when served cold. Normally, you will see sediments at the bottom of the bottle and you can mix it before serving for a milky texture or you can just choose to drink the clearer Cheongju on top (which we kind of like to do - also less calories).

How to serve Makgeolli

A recipe for naturally fermented, whole wheat sourdough bread.

Whole Wheat Sourdough Bread Recipe

[bubbly (active starter] (100% hydration))

warm water

honey

fresh milled whole wheat flour

all-purpose flour ((I use King Arthur))

bread flour ((I use King Arthur))

fine sea salt

In a large bowl, whisk starter, water, and honey. Add the flours and salt, mixing first with a fork, then switching to your hands. A rough, sticky dough will form, no dry bits should be showing. Cover with a damp towel and let rest for 1 hour and 15 minutes (this is the autolyse). 

After the autolyse, work the dough generously with your hands for at least a minute, kneading to begin building the gluten. Then finish with your first stretch and folds. Let rest for 30 minutes.

Perform another set of stretch and folds (video to show you how). Let rest for 30 minutes. Perform another set of stretch and folds, and rest one hour. Perform your 4th and final set of stretch and folds.

Cover the dough with a damp towel and let rise about around 4-5 more hours (if your house is around 72 degrees F), until your dough has risen at least 50%, has a bubble or two on top, jiggles in a bit in the bowl. Go by how the dough looks, rather than time.  

Now it&#39;s time to shape. Gently coax the dough onto a flour surface. Shape it into a rustic round and let rest, covered, for 15 minutes. Then shape the dough using this method. Put banneton with dough into a plastic grocery bag, or garbage bag, so that it doesn&#39;t dry out, and let cold proof in refrigerator for 8-10 hours. 

Preheat your oven to 475 degrees F. When oven is preheated, take dough out of refrigerator, cover with a piece of parchment (cut larger than the banneton) and flip banneton onto counter so that seam is now on the parchment. Lift banneton off. Gently rub a bit of flour onto the top, and score the dough.

Lift parchment with bread into a dutch oven, put cover.

Turn oven down to 450 degrees F, and slide pot into oven on middle rack, and bake with cover on for 25 minutes. Remove cover, turn heat down to 435 degrees F, and bake for another 20 minutes, until exterior is golden brown and crispy.

Let cool for one hour before cutting. Store bread in a plastic bag, cut side down for up to four days.

https://embed.mediavine.com/videos/mgahrhcrshjqfmu1uxme

A quick video showing how to shape round sourdough bread, also known as a boule. Shaping is important for sourdough baking so that the loaf can hold its shape. Beginners to bread making will be able to see each step necessary.

How To Shape a Round Sourdough Boule

Use this recipe to execute your Jun Kombucha Primary Fermentation to perfection!

How To Brew Jun Kombucha Tea

Filtered Water

Honey

Funnel

Thermometer Or Adhesive Temperature Strip

1-3 pH Strips

Kombucha

Bring two cups of water to a boil, then remove the pot from heat.

Steep the tea for 5-10 minutes.

Allow tea to cool slightly (If you add the honey in while its too hot, it can scorch the microbes that you want to preserve, too cool and it will be hard to fully dissolve).

Pour sweetened tea into the glass brew jar and fill with filtered water, leaving enough room to add the culture, and some head space (about 4").

The addition of the water should bring the tea mixture to about room temperature. Just make sure it's cool to the touch before moving on.

Add your Jun starter culture (SCOBY)  (pellicle with 12 fluid ounces of mature jun starter tea).

Cover the jar and leave it to ferment ideally between 75-78°F. Start tasting after day 5 to asses the progress. If it is still too sweet, allow it to continue fermenting as the full fermentation can take up to 21 days.

Learn how to make a bubbling sourdough starter using white bread flour and water. After feeding the starter for five days, you can use it to make a sourdough loaf

Sourdough starter

strong white bread flour

Day 1: To begin your starter, mix 50g flour with 50g tepid water in a jar or, better still, a plastic container. Make sure all the flour is incorporated and leave, semi-uncovered, at room temperature for 24 hrs.

Day 2: Mix 50g flour with 50g tepid water and stir into yesterday’s mixture. Make sure all the flour is incorporated and leave, semi-uncovered, at room temperature for another 24 hrs.

Day 3: Mix 50g flour with 50g tepid water and stir into yesterday’s mixture. Make sure all the flour is incorporated and leave, semi-uncovered, at room temperature for another 24 hrs.

Day 4: You should start to see some activity in the mixture now; there should be some bubbles forming and bubbling on top. Mix 50g flour with 50g tepid water and stir into yesterday’s mixture. Make sure all the flour is incorporated and leave, semi-uncovered, at room temperature for another 24 hrs.

Day 5: The mixture should be very active now and ready for making your levain (starter). If it’s not bubbling, continue to feed it on a daily basis until it does. When it’s ready, it should smell like yogurt.

You now have a starter, which is the base to the bread. You’ll need to look after it, but naming is optional! Keep it in the fridge (it will stay dormant) and 24 hrs before you want to use it, pour half of it off and feed it with 100g flour and 100g water. Leave it at room temperature and it should become active again. The longer the starter has been dormant, the more times it will need to be refreshed – the process of pouring off half the starter and replacing it with new flour and water – to reactivate. If your starter is ready to use, a teaspoonful of the mixture should float in warm water. The starter can now be used to make white sourdough bread.

This traditional sourdough starter recipe takes a little bit of patience, but yields big results. With consistency, time and intention, you can maintain your starter indefinitely.

Sourdough Starter Recipe

bread flour

heirloom sourdough starter ((optional, see notes))

Measure 100 grams flour and 100 grams water into a jar with a tight-fitting lid, and then whisk them together using a fork.  If using an established sourdough starter, whisk it into the flour and water now. Set the jar on the countertop away from direct light and heat.

Day 1

Set a bowl on your kitchen scale, and then tare the scale. Measure 100 grams sourdough starter into the bowl, and then discard it.

Set the jar containing your starter onto the scale, tare it again, and then measure in 50 grams water.  Whisk the water into the starter in your jar, and then whisk in 50 grams flour.  Clamp the jar tightly, and then set it on your countertop away from direct light and heat.

Day 2

You should begin seeing bubbles appear on the surface of your starter, or the surface may appear slightly foamy. These are signs of microbial activity.

Measure 100 grams sourdough starter into the bowl, and then discard it.

After discarding the starter, whisk in 50 grams warm water and 50 grams flour.  Seal the jar and store it away from direct light and heat.

Day 3

The surface of your starter should appear slightly bubbly, and you may see evidence that your starter is beginning to expand in the jar.  You should start feeding your starter twice a day today.

In the morning, measure 100 grams sourdough starter and discard it.

After discarding the starter, whisk in 50 grams water and 50 grams flour.  Seal the jar and store it away from direct light and heat.

In the evening about 12 hours after your first feeding, discard 100 grams starter, and then whisk in 50 grams water and 50 grams flour.  Seal the jar tightly, and store it away from light and heat.

Day 4

The surface of your starter should be very bubbly, and it may expel gas when you open the jar. You should also see evidence that your starter is expanding in its jar.

In the morning, measure 100 grams sourdough starter and discard it. Whisk in 50 grams water and 50 grams flour, and store the jar away from direct light and heat.

In the evening about 12 hours after your first feeding, feed the starter again by discarding 100 grams starter and replacing it with 50 grams water and 50 grams flour.

Day 5

Your starter should be bubbly, and it should smell of yeast and bread with faint sour notes. It should also double within 12 hours of each feeding.

Discard 100 grams of starter, and then whisk in 50 grams water and 50 grams flour.

If you&#039;re planning to bake with the starter today, wait until it doubles in volume and then follow your recipe&#039;s instructions. If you&#039;re planning to bake with the starter later, transfer it to the fridge.

Day 6

To maintain the starter, remove it from the fridge at least once per week.  Discard 100 grams starter, and then whisk in 50 grams water and 50 grams flour.  Let it rise at room temperature up to 12 hours if you&#039;re planning to bake that day.  If you&#039;re planning to bake later, transfer it to the fridge.

Weekly Maintenance

Remove the starter from the fridge approximately 8 to 12 hours before you plan to begin your recipe.

Feed the starter by discarding 100 grams spent starter, and replacing it by whisking 50 grams flour and 50 grams into the jar.  Seal the jar, and let it sit on the countertop until it doubles in volume.

Remove the amount of starter that your recipe calls for, and then replace it with equal amounts of flour and water.  Transfer the jar of starter to the fridge.

Proofing the Starter on Baking Day

Hello everybody! I know some of you have been waiting for my doenjang and ganjang recipes for a long time! Today I feel a real sense of achievement to release this recipe here. It&#039;s one of the recipes in my cookbook, and whether you have my book or not, this video and recipe should still be...

Fermented soybean paste (Doenjang)

Hi Maanchi, What will happen if I soak my Meju blocks longer than 2-3 months? Will that be damaging? Also&hellip;

Comment by Shanook on September 19, 2021

Hi Maanchi, I am following your Doenjang recipe, which is absolutely great! I have followed all the steps and I&hellip;

Comment by Shanook on August 3, 2021

I&#039;m really sorry, I wrote chestnut but I was going to write chickpea and I noticed it now.

Comment by use gram metre celcius please US on October 11, 2021

Hi! I decided to make doenjang (not now there are so many flies) but soybeans aren&#039;t used much in home&hellip;

Comment by use gram metre celcius please US on July 8, 2021

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