3 Tips for Eating Ferments Without Regretting It: #2 Give It Time

More fermented food fun!  Here is your second tip to help make integrating this delicious traditional food into your daily life more enjoyable and more beneficial:

Tip #2: Make sure your sauerkraut (or other ferment) has fermented long enough.

(If you missed my first tip CLICK HERE. For basic sauerkraut info and recipe CLICK HERE.)

Some of my more sensitive patients have trouble digesting sauerkraut purchased from the store, but find that they have no difficulty digesting it when they make their own.  This is likely due to the store bought kraut not being fermented long enough for someone with gut impairment issues. It has not completed enough of the fermentation process, in which lactic acid accumulates in the cabbage to suppress microbial activity and stop the fermentation. If the cabbage and other vegetables in the ferment you consume are still fermenting, they will continue fermenting inside your digestive system, producing gas and giving you unpleasant symptoms. This applies to sauerkraut, kimchi and all other fermented vegetables. Sauerkraut takes about 2-3 weeks at room temperature to complete fermentation.  How do we know when fermentation is complete? It stops producing gas, the vegetables taste sour and do not spoil at room temperature or in the fridge, even if it dries out.  So, be sure to ferment your home ferments long enough and take temperature into account.  In general, the warmer the temperature, the more rapidly your batch will ferment.