Noma Guide to Lacto Fermented Pickles

Today, I'm going to be cover the Noma guide to lacto fermenting in a brine, or simply put, how to pickle. And the coolest thing about this process is that it can be used to pickle anything you please, so experiment away.
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--- BASIC Noma LACTO PICKLE PROCESS ---
1. Place empty crock or jar on a scale and tare or zero the scale.

2. Fit the vegetables snugly into the vessel

3. If you want to add any additional spices (bay leaves, mustard seeds, peppercorns, etc.). See the video for ideas.

4. Add enough water to submerge the vegetables and note the weight down.

5. Calculate 2% of that weight, and weigh out that much salt into a bowl. (MAKE SURE you calculate and weigh exactly for safety, you can go above 2% but do not go below.)

6. Pour the water out from the vessel and mix the salt until it’s dissolved.

7. Pour the saline solution back over the vegetables. 

8. Cover with the cap, and lightly screw on the cap, allowing nothing to enter, but loose enough that gas produced from fermentation can still escape.

9. Now it is time to wait. Normally, just leave them at room temperature, though Noma does their ferments at 82 F. You can ferment in the fridge, though it will ferment at a much slower pace.

10. If fermenting at room temperature, you want to start checking on the pickles after 2-3 days and monitor the progress for sourness.

11. Once the pickles have reached the desired sourness. Move to the fridge, screw the cap tight, and it will store in the brine for several months for you to enjoy.

Fermentation seen in this video:

--- Fermented Hot Giardiniera ---
Equal parts (all diced)
- Celery
- Carrot
- Onion
- Red pepper

Spices
- 2 cloves garlic
- 2 red hot chiles
- 5 grams oregano
- 5 grams peppercorns

--- Golden Beets & Garlic ---
- 2 Golden beets, julienned
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed

--- Onions & Poblanos ---
- 1/2 large white onion, sliced
- 2 poblano peppers, julienned

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OTHER DETAILS

All sources used:

PROCESS- The Noma Guide to Fermentation
BOTULISM - Noma guide to fermentation (Pg 62)

Music: Provided by Musicbed
Filmed on: Sony a6400 w/ 18-105mm F4
Voice recorded on Rode Video Micro
Edited in: Premiere Pro #NomaFerments

Affiliate Disclosure:

[allygirl]

GREAT VIDEO as always! As an avid fermenter, I just want to bring to your attention a few considerations:
1) when making a brine, you are only concerned with the weight of water (and percentage amount of salt), not the weight of water PLUS veggies because you’re making a 2% SOLUTION . Now, when doing a dry-state ferment, like kimchi or sauerkraut, you want to weigh the veggies only, because cabbages are “self-brining”, meaning they release enough water when properly salted to make their own brine,
2) some veg, like cukes and peppers, , are prone to kahm yeast and mold, and should have a higher salt percentage, generally upwards of 3.5%, which helps keep both at bay
3) whole spices and herbs, like mustard seed or dill, will also mold if they float to the surface. Some people will use something like a cabbage leaf or a slice of onion that fits tightly in the jar (in addition to some sort of weight) to keep EVERYTHING under the brine,
4) lots of people (myself included) use air-locking lids on their glass jars which allow for off-gassing of carbon dioxide without allowing oxygen to enter the ferment, effectively eliminating mold.

And lastly, fermenting works better when done at slightly lower temps, which allow time for ALL the stages of fermentation to develop.

I would encourage anyone interested in fermenting to research the science behind it, explore various methods, etc. so that they get a deeper understanding of the process and a higher success rate.

Your videos are always enjoyable and informative and I appreciate all the work you put in. Thanks!

[swimfan]

I love how I can tell that you’re teaching yourself all of this stuff and getting to a point where you’re capable of teaching others. I was always taught “if you want to see if you know what you’re talking about, try to explain a concept to someone who has no context”

[jakubwiatrak]

I am from Poland and we eat lacto fermented food almost on daily basis - cucumbers, sauerkraut, beets, you name it. Most families make that at home. I have never even considered the risk of botulism. I've heard about it happen with old canned meat, but pickles? Never. I think it says something, that a nation of 40 million makes those all the time for hundreds of years and we don't have any problems with botulism

[johnjesberger]

My favorite lacto-ferment is a sriracha like chili garlic sauce made with hot cherry peppers and maybe add some fresnos, or some fresh thai chili if I want to boost the heat.. I halve and deseed the peppers, then when everything is fermented I just blend it down with just enough of the liquid to get the texture I want. So good.

[ericm]

Thanks for the video! The beets are super carbonated because they contain a lot of sugar, though, not more lactobacteria. It’s wild yeast breaking down the sugars into CO2 and alcohol. If you want it less bubbly/alcoholic you can cut the beets into bigger chunks to avoid that.

[AdamDaubauew]

Awesome video. The end parts about botulism and mold was exactly what I was hoping to learn!

[Saltiren]

If you're like me and didn't know what Noma is: Noma is a fancy restaurant in Denmark where the foods are all fermented. Ethan didn't explain what it was in his video, which maybe tells me I'm not his target audience as a novice chef haha.

[Scranny]

This is a MUCH better and thorough introduction to lacto-fermentation than Joshua Weissman's video on the subject. Thanks Ethan!

[randocommando]

finally someone who knows how to measure the brine the right way👍

[xjuhnx]

I loveeee your cadence and how you structure useful information!! Subscribed.

[hyanotha]

This guy is good and he told me more than any of the other videos I watched. (especially as far as explaining mold and Botulism).

[MrMaxHolm]

This is really cool. I follow several cooking channels and like your channel a lot!

Thank you and keep up the nice work!

[quintonwilson]

I'm so glad you mentioned pH and botulinum.

[papiezguwniak]

I usually do 1.5% brine without weighing vegetables. The reason is I usually add more brine than just to cover vegetation for the purpose of drinking the brine. I like that fermented brine so much so I lower the salt content so it's not too salty. My ferments were all successful so far. Try with beetroot for example. For 1kg of beetroot go for 2 liters of brine 1.5%. Stick it in a cool place with an airlock. Cool environment will cause it to slowly bring out the beets goodness into the brine and slightly carbonizes it. It's delicious to drink and I use brine and beets to make Ukrainian borscht.

[etherdog]

Well done, E! I have been watching quite a few fermentation vids lately and yours is the most straight-forward, easy to follow out there. Thanks!

[anthonymotley]

Great video. I just did green beans. I did a traditional pickle and water bath canned them. I also did a lactoferment of some. I will see which ones I think taste better.

[commenter]

FYI, 1:49 "tare" is a native English word pronounced exactly like what you'd expect for an English word, i.e., the same as "tear". It's only pronounced ta-re when referring to the Japanese sauce.

[cy]

I like how a fly flew by just as you were saying that you don't have to sterilize the jars (6:42).

[bleutitanium]

OH MY! I was recently gifted with the Noma Guide ! I have gotten pretty good at making my own version of KimChi, and now I want to try more. Your video has given me a little more confidence to try something new again ! Thanks !!

[jonathonsimon]

Ethan- Perhaps you could do one on pickling with Soy Sauce (instead of salt) which adds a nice umami. I've had some daikon pickled this way at a Korean restaurant and it was the best pickle ever. I also was curious what your thought are on adding some vinegar right from the git-go, like when you pickle red onions - kinda give the ferment a head-start on the sour, and keep the Butolism at bay.