Kraut

I made this about five days ago.  No matter how many times I ferment something when it starts to bubble, I have to marvel.  This kraut is simply about 3 lbs of cabbage, a sliced onion, 5-6 cloves of garlic, some red-pepper flakes and 2 T. of salt.  I cut up the cabbage and I was cutting it up I threw it in a very large bowl and would throw a little of the salt on it.  I did this until I had cut up all of the cabbage, then I squeezed the cabbage and salt hard for a few minutes to break down the cabbage cell walls. I mixed in the other ingredients and started putting large spoonfuls of the mixture into this mason jar, each time pounding the mix down into the bottom with a wooden spoon to further break it up and eliminate air. 

Two days ago it started bubbling pretty steadily.  You can the airlock below and right in the middle of the picture the meniscus where the pressure of the gas in the jar is pushing up the water in the airlock.  At regular intervals a bubble of that gas will go up through the water in the airlock.  Very exciting.   This airlock and mason jar cap can be found at http://www.perfectpickler.com/.  

My current yogurt method

A quick rundown of what i do for yogurt these days.  I make this perhaps three times a week.  I eat a lot of yogurt.

I add about 1/2 c of powdered to give it a thicker consistency.

Here I've taken 1/4 to 1/2 c. of yogurt from the last batch.  This yogurt, which I've been making for the past 3-4 months is called Villi yogurt.  It's a culture that is apparently used a lot in Scandanavia. What I like is that the fermentation temp is between 70 and 78 degrees F, which means in essense, room temp.  I bought it from the Cultures For Health website.  Prior to that, for many years, I made yogurt simply from store bought yogurts, all of which need to be fermented at around 110 F. 

I like creamy yogurt.  I use 5 c. of half-and-half or 3:2 ratio with whole milk. I then heat this in the microwave just for three minutes to bring it up to room temp.  Note that this is a special kind of yogurt culture that grows at room temperature. 

Stirring the room temp milk into the starter.

I put this in the oven with oven light on and the door ajar.  I have a thermometer in there so I know what temp I'm fermenting at.  I should have taken another pic!