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Salt ratio doubter after a 3 week brine chat
I used to throw 3.5% salt at everything and call it science, then I talked to this guy at the farmers market in Portland who kept his kraut at 1.8% for over a year without mold. He pulled out a pH strip and showed me how the acidity does the real work once the good bacteria take off, not the salt alone. That one conversation made me test batches at 2%, 2.5%, and 3% side by side last month, and the texture came out way crisper on the lower end. Now I adjust based on veggie water content and jar temp instead of just following a blanket rule. Has anyone else dialed back their salt after seeing what acid does solo?
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rayc941mo ago
That lines up with what I ran into when I stopped treating salt like it was the only thing keeping mold away. I did a similar test with a few jars of carrots and beets, kept one at 3 percent and one closer to 2, and the lower one stayed crunchy while the salty one went soft on me. The thing that finally clicked was that the salt is mostly there to hold things steady for the first few days until the acid builds up, then the pH takes over and does the heavy lifting. Now I check the veggies and how much water they're letting go before I pick a number, and I keep the jars a bit cooler so things move slower. It's less of a set rule for me now and more of a feel for the batch.
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