Fermented Carrots Made Easy, Probiotic Rich

Lacto fermented carrots are DELICIOUS. The are great as a side, by themselves or in a salad. They have a nice sweet, brine taste to them. Plus, they are health and easy to make. All you need is some patience and time as they take about 1 week to ferment. I like to let mine ferment for 2-3 weeks.

Ingredients:

5 whole carrots, washed and ends removed

1 clove garlic

1 shallot

1 sprig rosemary

10 peppercorns

Filtered water ot bottled spring water

1 -2 drops fresh squeezed lemon juice, optional

Fine sea salt

Tools needed:

Digital scale

2 mason jars with lid

Weight for keeping carrots under water solution, I use an empty baby food jar

Cutting board

Sharp knife

Strainer

How to make it:

Wash carrots and cut off ends. Make sure everything is cleaned with hot soapy water. Your hands, knife, cutting board, jars etc. Cut carrots in half. Cut each half into quarters lengthwise. See picture above. Peel garlic and shallot removing root ends.

Place mason jar onto your scale set to grams. Zero out scale and add your ingredients starting with peppercorns, garlic and shallots. Carefully place carrots onto jar. Fill jar as much as possible, wedging the carrots in. Make sure they are cut short enough to stay beneath the neck of the jar as they will be kept submerged underneath the salt water solution. Fill the jar to the bottom of the neck of the jar with your filtered water. Add a drop or 2 of lemon juice. This helps get rid of chloramine that may be present in filtered water.

Record that weight. We are going to make a 2.5% salt water solution using this formula: Jar weight with water and ingredients x .025 = amount of fine sea salt needed for the brine.

For example, this weighed 870 g (carrots, garlic, shallot, peppercorns, water). If you calculate 870 g and 2.5%, you’ll end up with 21.75. This is the amount in grams that you need in fine sea salt to make your brine. I round up to 22 g. I like to go between 2% and 3% for my fermentation projects. Rounding up is completely acceptable since I went with a 2.5% solution.

Grab another empty, clean mason jar. With another lid off a mason jar, cover the jar slightly to block the ingredients and pour water into the empty jar. Place jar on scale, zero out. Slowly add salt to the calculated amount. Tightly cover jar with lid and shake vigorously to dissolve the salt. Pour that salt water solution back into the jar with the carrots.

Carefully place you weight into the jar keeping the ingredients completely submerged. I keep my ferments in a glass pie dish to catch any over spill. Place on counter top of in your pantry for 7-15 days. Ideally you want to keep your ferments at 68-75 degrees for best results. Any colder and your ferment will have trouble getting started unless you have a starter (brine from a previous ferment). Any hotter and it could ferment too fast and possibly spoil. You could possibly get a good ferment after 3 days if your house or is hotter, but less than 90 degrees. Taste after 3 days to see how it is. It should start to taste slightly sour and salty at the same time. You will definitely notice a difference in flavor. I’ve gone as long as 1 month. Just depends on your liking of how “fermented” you want your carrots. Keep an eye out for kahm yeast, a normal product of fermenting. This is a whitish film that develops on the surface of the brine. Any mold growth will result in needing to scrap your project. If you’re careful keeping everything clean and under the brine, you shouldn’t have any problems with mold.

These fermented carrots are great alone, as a side, in salads, and even as a puree for fish. Be creative and tell me your story!

Enjoy
-Logan