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A friend pointed out my sauerkraut brine was way too salty after one taste
I was sure my 2.5% salt by weight ratio was the standard, but they said it was almost inedible. I checked my notes and realized I'd been measuring the salt after the cabbage was already packed, not on the total weight including water. That added nearly an extra half percent. I switched to weighing everything together before adding salt, and my last two batches have been perfect. Has anyone else messed up their brine math and fixed it?
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seth_shah18d ago
Yeah, the "volume instead of weight" thing is a total trap. I did the exact same thing with my first few ferments. My fix was to just get a cheap digital scale and always weigh the salt against the total veggie and water weight before mixing anything. It feels like an extra step but it saves so much guesswork. Now I write the total weight on a piece of tape on the jar lid so I don't forget my math halfway through.
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lewis.terry18d ago
Been there, done that, got the t-shirt that says "I Can't Do Basic Math." I once made a batch so salty it could have preserved a whole cow. My mistake was using volume instead of weight for the salt, and let me tell you, a tablespoon of fine salt versus coarse salt is a huge difference. It's such an easy thing to mess up when you're just trying to get the cabbage in the jar. What's the worst batch you've ever had to toss?
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