Fermented foods...........

This isn't all about stuff that is, apparently, bad for us or something that needs to be slagged off.

Some of it is about learning new things about stuff we (ok, me/I) like.

This week, there was the first in a new series of "Trust me, I'm a doctor" (the main presenter is indeed a doctor, and it seems that the other presenters are also medical practitioners - which is good in many ways).

One of the subjects they touched on was fermented foods. Now I'm interested in them a bit, because some months back, I was digging around the net and came across a recipe for making my own sauerkraut.

Years ago, I bought some commercially produced sauerkraut and found myself a bit "underwhelmed" with it - I didn't dislike it but it didn't (from memory) make me think it was something I could routinely include in my food intake.

Whereas, the recipe for making my own seemed straight forward (take that as meaning easy, so even a lazy git like me could make it), so why not.

I thoroughly enjoyed it. It also pointed me toward something I could eat on a regular basis that helps with more fibre, isn't particularly high in calories and anecdotally "good for me".

Now it seems that the programme has explained why that might be the case, in an easily understood (if a little patronising) way. It explained about the health benefits of keffir for the first to bits of programme about this, then more widely about fermented foods in general.

I still couldn't see the point of things like keffir other than for preservation of raw materials like milk ("water keffir" is even more WTF? unless if it was developed/produced/discovered by accident and meant that it kept the water part drinkable after say, travelling a long distance). Of course, it now seems that there's many benefits from eating fermented foods, though to be more specific, home made fermented foods as commercially made ones don't have quite the same beneficial levels - the person said that this is likely because of pasteurisation required by some legal and some marketing reasons.

I certainly can't (at the moment) see the point of kombucha, which is a fermented tea sort of drink i.e. was there some practical reason for this, one that I can't see or think of, or maybe it was found that it was a time saving thing so those who drink it regularly didn't have to stop and make tea, or something like that ?

I find myself eating various types of home mad sauerkraut because I like it. I don't believe in fad diets of any sort. If (like me) we find ourselves getting a bit porky, it's generally more about how much shit we put in our mouth and how little exercise we take (often for genuine reasons and not just because we don't like exercising) etc.

I can't say I've enjoyed all the sauerkraut types I've made so far, like I didn't dislike but I didn't enjoy the pineapple, ginger and turmeric flavoured one that many on one of the facebook pages I read seem to enjoy. Those three main flavours are ones I normally like, but the resulting fermented taste didn't seem right. Maybe because I'd got the wrong notion of how it's likely to taste in my head. After all, when it comes to making my wines and meads, I read lots of different recipes and info on different types, but some of the flavour ingredients that people choose I find are to do with them enjoying the ingredient in a more natural form, yet they then think that they'll retain the same taste - which they don't (and neither did I from the sauerkraut recipe for the pineapple etc etc).

I'm thinking whether it's to do with my not either enjoying or just not understanding the sort of flavour changes that come with fermentation ?

I find myself preferring tradtional combo's of flavour, than trying to use all at my disposal to see it I can come up with a flavour/taste that will be enjoyed by millions making me rich etc. No, I stick mostly to traditional combo's because they are widely understood and enjoyed (seems that more often than not, those traditional combo's work well together because one compliments the other, often on "chemical" basis like bitter and sweet or sweet and sour etc).

So, WTF! I'm happy to try different products and flavour combo's, but only if I can see the point. Hence I'll happily carry on making sauerkraut with "Indian spices", or maybe the more traditional flavours like caraway seeds, peppercorns and fennel seeds. I've got a batch on the go at the moment which purports to be like "easy Kimchi", but I'll have to see how that comes out. I'm intending to try and make some "proper" kimchi, if and when I can find the pak choi and dikon raddish (I've found where I can get stuff like the Korean chilli powder/paste), so we'll see..........