Lacto Fermented Tomatoes, The Easy Way
What a beautiful treat lacto fermented tomatoes are. Sweet and salty with a punch, plus they're good for you. They go great on salads, sandwiches and as a base for sauces when pureed. Fermentation is a fun way to get a great flavor out of tomatoes, plus the process is easy.
Ingredients:
15 oz organic cherry tomatoes
2 cloves garlic
1 sprig fresh rosemary
Fine sea salt
Filtered water
Tools needed:
2 Mason jars
Digital scale that reads in grams
Sharp knife
Cutting board
Colender
Glass pie dish
Some sort of weight to put in the jar, I use baby food jars.
How to make it:
With a mason jar lid, partially covering the opening of the jar holding back the ingredients. Pour the salty water solution into another mason jar, keeping contents in the first jar. The lid is to hold the tomatoes back while pouring out the water. Place the jar with the water on the scale, zero out.
Now for some math. Let’s say the first jar with the tomatoes, garlic, rosemary and water weighed at 870 grams. Multiply 870 by 2.5 percent or .025. That is the weight in salt you will need, which is 21.75 grams.
870 x .025 = 21.75 grams. I usually round up to 22 if it’s that close.
Now, slowly add your fine sea salt to the water until your scale reads 22 g. Wait until the salt settles before adding more salt for best measuring practices. Put a lid on your jar, shake vigorously for 10 or so seconds. Pour that salt water into the jar with the tomatoes, place on glass pie dish or anything else to catch any over spill. Place a weight on top of the ingredients. I found that a baby food jar works perfectly for a weight! It is VERY important to keep your ingredients submerged, this is called an anaerobic environment. This is where all the fermentation magic happens.
Place in a your counter top or pantry, anywhere it will stay relatively the same temperature throughout the week. Ideally we want to keep ferments at 70-80 degrees. You can let your tomatoes ferment from 7-15 days depending on how strong you want them to be. Enjoy on salad, sandwiches and make some sauces with them!
Enjoy
-Logan
