Fermentation Crock - Uses other than kraut?

[Fathand]

Recently I sampled a friend's sauerkraut that she'd made in a fermentation crock and it was fantastic.

I've made a batch of kraut before that was fermented in a glass jar and her's was far and away much better than mine. So much so that my wife and I were eating it right out of canning jars at 10 in the morning.

So I've been given the go ahead to get a crock however at the expense I am hoping kraut and kimchi aren't the only things I can use the crock for.

Does anyone have a crock that they use for things other than kraut?

 

[cluckk]

There are various things you can ferment. I regularly ferment tomatoes for great salsa. There is pepper sauce, pickles, beets, all sorts of vegetables.

Here's one site to check out.

 

[Xpertskir]

Here's a very short list, basically every culture that predates refrigeration has a laundry list of fermentation preserved foods.
You could pass a decade or two just doing asian fermented bean products
Soy Sauce
Soy Bean Paste
Miso
Stink Tofu
Fish Sauce
Garum
Gundruk
Kombucha

You could also go down the vinegar route.

 

[DougK]

I am currently fermenting hot chili peppers to make my own fermented hot sauce.

It is a bunch of peppers (I grew super-hots like ghost peppers, red mourugas, carolina reapers, and the like, as well as a couple of milder peppers like jalapenos), some chopped carrots, a bottle of sweet white wine, and about half a cup of sauerkraut juice, all in a 1 gallon Kerr jar. It is my first attempt, so I don't know how it will turn out just yet.

 

[boscobeans]

Since this is HOMEBREWtalk, how about doing an open or semi open brew?
We used a 12 gallon crock years ago for 10 gallon batches, using a clean towel stretched over the crock. It always came out pretty good, and considering the lack of choices we had as far as ingredients go that wasn't too bad..LOL

bosco

 

[Jacob_Marley]

Does anyone have a crock that they use for things other than kraut?

Other than a beer like a Belgian Sour (which relies on the same or similar Lactobacillus bacteria as kraut), you wouldn't want to use the kraut crock for any other alcoholic beverage fermentation - even if it was cleaned well. Just a bad policy. In fact, you would not even want to keep it in the same room as your beer or wine operations.

 

[boscobeans]

Other than a beer like a Belgian Sour (which relies on the same or similar Lactobacillus bacteria as kraut), you wouldn't want to use the kraut crock for any other alcoholic beverage fermentation - even if it was cleaned well. Just a bad policy. In fact, you would not even want to keep it in the same room as your beer or wine operations.

We must have been lucky back then. LOL When the crock wasn't being used for beer it sat in the corner of the cellar near the coal bin.

The only sanitizer we had back then was chlorine bleach..



bosco

 

[BrewerE]

you could do 'real' dill pickles in it

 

[ostensibly]

Preserved lemons are a good use for an empty crock.

And a second vote for fermenting chiles. Pulse some chiles and garlic in a cuisinart. Add to a crock with kraut brine or salt+water, maybe a tbs of suger, let it sit for a month. It blows peoples' minds when they taste it and it's really easy to make.

 

[DougK]

Just a month? I've had mine fermenting for 4 months now.

 

[ostensibly]

haha, maybe a month minimum.
I have a couple quarts from last summer that keep getting better, one with cider vinegar and one without.

 

[bigken462]

A swamp cooler?