By: Tom Kearney | Feb 11, 2010 | #
Yes, Turnips…Again
Ok so there’s a ton of snow out there, you’re home, so here’s a project. I guess this is what was done before refrigeration. Here we’ve taken some beautiful turnips from Guy Jones and cut them into wedges. They’re tossed in a lot of salt and then thrown into the jar. The jar is then filled with water. It’s basically a backwards way of making a brine. You could just as easily cover the turnips with brine. This jar has a “double bubble airlock” which allows the gasses created by fermentation to be released without allowing contaminants inside the jar. Let this sit at room temperature (70-75˚F). There is also an inverted lid lightly weighing down the vegetable so they’re completely submerged in the brine. All this is to ensure a very clean fermentation with no spoilage. After five days or so you’ll notice when you taste them that they’ve developed acidity like a pickle. That’s the starches and sugars in the turnip converting into lactic acid. Such a simple way to preserve vegetables. Unlike pickling with vinegar, lacto-fermented vegetables are teaming with beneficial enzymes and retain their vitamins and nutrients. The flavor is tangy, a little yeasty and for turnips this process seems to really bring out their inherent horseradish flavor. I’m thinking these snappy little pickles are the right thing to snack on with a martini or bloody mary in the afternoon looking out at the snow. If you want to experiment, look out for some local cabbage, carrots, celery root, or beets. They’re all out there in season right now. Here’s a link to the jar: Picklemeister