The day I caught someone using fruit juice in their sauerkraut

I was helping out at a farmers market demo last Saturday in Portland when this guy swears by adding orange juice to his kraut for "extra tang." I had to bite my tongue but then he pulled out a jar that looked more like fruit punch than fermented cabbage. I told him the pH was probably off and he might end up with mold, but he just laughed. Have any of you ever run into someone who refuses to follow basic fermentation ratios?

3 comments

3 Comments

drew_hart41mo ago

Jump right in with this: it's like people think their gut feeling is better than science (you know, the basic rules of chemistry that keep us from getting sick). I see it everywhere, from folks ignoring fermentation ratios to people "fixing" sourdough starters with random ingredients, because they watched one TikTok video. It's a reminder that common sense and tradition (like keeping things simple) still matter, even if we think we're being creative.

paulw531mo ago

And you know what, I actually learned that the hard way. I tried to speed up my sourdough starter once by adding a little pineapple juice because some blogger said it helps. Caught hell from my grandma when she found out. She just looked at me and said "flour and water, that's it." Once I stopped messing with it and just let it do its thing, it was the best starter I ever had. Sometimes the basic stuff works for a reason.

christopherw341mo ago

Grandma knows best, right? Next time I'll just stick with flour and water and stop trying to outsmart a centuries old process. I bet that blogger never had to answer to a grandma who's been making bread since before the internet existed. It's like people think they can hack their way around chemistry with a can of pineapple juice and a dream.