Pretty much everything you need to start out, and keep rolling, with fermented food-making!
Great kit – before purchasing the Masontops Kit I had made quite a few batches of beer, wine, and carbonated lemon-lime drinks sort of like 7up or Sprite. But I’d never made my own fermented food. Now, courtesy of this kit, I’ve made Korean kimchi and traditional German-style kraut many times. With four of the little pretty-much-goof-proof airlocks, you can keep several batches going at once. Ferment four different things, or do a little experimenting on four jars of the same veggie.Almost everything you need to get started is here. Four very simple-to-clean, simple-to-use airlocks, four weights to place in the tops of your fermentation jars to keep your veggies from floating up to the top; and significantly, a great wooden “tamp” of sorts to push things like cabbage into the bottom of the jar. The tamp-thing can also be used to mash the cabbage or other leafy veggies to get them macerating even before they land in the fermentation jar. (Many things, you won’t want to mash at all; but if ‘kraut or kimchi are in your future, this wooden tool will work great for you, you’ll be glad you bought a kit that includes it.)You will need to get your own quart-size mason jars, and a food or mixture of foods to ferment. But just make that just a head of ordinary cabbage, if you want to start with the super-simple. And you’ll need salt – any granularity of food grade sodium chloride will do in a pinch. Well, you need more than a pinch of salt…but you really don’t need much salt at all, and that surprises some people. Maybe they’re thinking that they need a bunch of salt to preserve the incipient product. Definitely not. Be careful not to overdo it on salt -- you want the correct type of bacteria to be able to grow above all else; that’s the natural process that will ferment your product and render it delicious!I love the fact that this kit doesn't presume a particular food that the buyer wants to make. If you’re buying a higher-end starter kit like this one, you might very well have something other than a head of cabbage or a cucumber in mind for your starting point. While kimchi, sauerkraut, and pickles do get their "fair ups" in the short illustrated recipe book, the company clearly acknowledges adventurous folks who are sooner-or-later interested in the fermentation of foods in the more general sense. There is no expectation to restrict yourself to their recipes…it’s just a neat prepackaged starting point, and it does a great job of explaining how to use their product to make everything easier for the small-batch home fermenter. If someday you want to take a little break from the fermenting hobby, the box is super-sturdy, and is tailored with snug spaces to stow and protect each item in the kit.If you’ve tried something of this ilk before and have been frustrated because your pickles weren’t as crisp or tasty as you’d hoped, this could be your chance to jump back into the hobby. The presentation of other opportunities in the recipe book will have you back in the produce department, farmer's market, or in your own garden to find great new items to ferment – and some day you can try pickles again, too, maybe with a different sort, or fresher batch, of Kirby cuke.If you’ve tried ‘kraut, even if it was the sterilized kind that comes in the cans at the grocery store, you’ve already done more than enough mental prep. This makes the kit a great gift for pretty much anyone who’s not afraid to eat something that doesn’t smell the same way it did when they dropped it into a jar.The only caveat here is that you would not want to buy this for someone who isn’t willing to follow some instructions – we’re looking for certain desirable biological process when we ferment things, and with this kit, that is almost certainly what you’ll get. Follow the instructions and all will be well – more well for you than before, perhaps, since your recipient will be dining on a probiotically enhanced diet, and having fun doing it. And fermenters love to share! :)If you, too, are willing to store a vegetable outside of the refrigerator, give this a fermenting thing a try. There are a few people out there who will forever refuse to eat anything that’s intentionally left to stew in bacteria or fungi – but if you have read this far, that’s definitely not you. Bet you can taste that tangy, zesty product now!