Using salt to ferment vegetables

[Guest guest]

I just tried making beet kvass and it came out way too salty to be

edible and I used probably less salt than what was stated in the

book. Is that the way it is supposed to be? I also just read that

salt containing iodine will kill the good bacteria. Is that true? So

then is sea salt still good for this with its small amounts of iodine?

Is there something else I could use instead of salt or whey?

Can yogurt starter be used to ferment vegetables? Or can I just use a

couple of pinches of sea salt? Using a tablespoon of sea salt makes

for me an unedible product. Pure salt shock. I'm afraid to use whey

as I react bad to pasteurized milk, raw milk and even worse with

yogurt. I think its the lactose but I'm not sure.

I was thinking about buying a yogurt maker and fermenting the yogurt

for 24 hours to completely eliminate the lactose and see how I do but

I'm afraid of spending the money on the machine just to learn that

its not just the lactose but the proteins and I can't do dairy (other

than butter). Should I just try 100% lactose reduced lactaid and note

the reaction to that? Cause if it is a lactose problem, I can still

have 24 hour yogurt. High quality commercial non homogenized no sugar

yogurt just bloats me and makes me tired.

Any thoughts on how to proceed with this dairy thing?

I really like Nourishing Traditions but I find it odd that raw milk

is considered an " easily digestible food " when most adults in the

world cannot digest the lactose even with all the enzymes there and

everything else. Isn't raw milk really a very difficult to digest

food, raw or not, for most people?

[Guest guest]

> I just tried making beet kvass and it came out way too salty to be

> edible and I used probably less salt than what was stated in the

> book. Is that the way it is supposed to be? I also just read that

> salt containing iodine will kill the good bacteria. Is that true? So

> then is sea salt still good for this with its small amounts of iodine?

Perhaps you didn't measure correctly - or maybe I didn't. I made beet kvass

about 10 days ago for the first time using the NT recipe. It definitely is

not too salty. It's just now developing a really tangy flavor. It was very

bland at first.

As far as making 24 hour yogurt, you don't need a yogurt machine to do that.

There are several ways of keep the milk warm while it cultures. If I leave

my oven light on the oven stays about the right temp. Someone else said she

used a styrofoam cooler and a string of Christmas lights, putting part of

the string in the cooler and checking the temp, and adding or subtracting

lights to get a good temperature.

Kris