Fermented Foods:
Beets and Sauerkraut

Sour Beets Recipe

Select only dark-red, healthy (without damage) small and medium-sized beets of late varieties. Beets with red- and white-striped flesh are totally unsuitable for this purpose.

Wash the beets thoroughly and peel. Pack in a wide-mouth glass jar, plastic bucket or fermenting crock pot.

2 ½ pounds (1 kilogram) beets 1 ½ tablespoon (30g) salt 4 cups (1 liter) water

To prepare the 3% brine, stir salt into water until dissolved. Pour the brine over beets to cover the beets completely.

Cover the jar with a clean plate that fits in the jar, and put a weight on top. You can use another smaller glass jar filled with water, or scrubbed and boiled stones, or a Ziploc bag with any suitable weight you find.

Keep the jar in some unobtrusive place in your kitchen at room temperature. Make sure that the brine level keeps above the plate all the time. As the beets ferment, evaporation might cause the brine to reduce. If necessary, add some brine in the same proportion as in the recipe. Sugar contained in the beet, provides for the accumulation of an appropriate quantity of fermented lactic acid.

Fermentation process lasts from 10 days to two weeks. Periodically, wipe away any foam and then mold that forms on the surface, and rinse the cover and weight. The brine will become dark and sick, with sour-sweet and salty taste. The beets will soften and loose some of their dark color.

After the fermentation process is complete, store the beets in a cool place.