A traditional technique, fermenting vegetables with salt can help prepare vegetables for flavorful fermentation.
Removing water from vegetables you intend to ferment may seem counterintuitive if you think about the all-important brine that keeps your ferment anaerobic and safe. However, for vegetables with high water content, removing moisture is an important step to reduce degradation and to keep the vegetables crunchy, with a pleasing mouthfeel and less watery texture. For example, large zucchinis and overgrown cucumbers don’t ferment well – they break down and become mushy, with no redeeming flavors. But if you first remove their excess water, you’ll get vastly better textural results. Removing moisture also intensifies flavors by concentrating the compounds in the food.
The two most common ways to rid vegetables of excess water is by salt pressing or drying.
Around the world, people are using these methods to create some fantastic contemporary condiments, but removing moisture from foods as a prelude to fermentation isn’t a new technique. Many traditional ferments rely on it – achars of the Asian subcontinent, Japanese tsukemono, traditional and modern pickling beds, and hundreds more. One notable example is a Himalayan khalpi made from a variety of cucumber that, when fully ripe, is huge – so big, fleshy, and watery that many Western gardeners consider it inedible. But when the seeds are scooped out and the flesh partially dehydrated before being chopped and packed with spices and oils, the result is a delicious and shelf-stable condiment.
In many traditional techniques, vegetables are pressed or dried whole because the makers are producing large quantities during harvest season. In home kitchens, where the scale is much smaller, it makes more sense to slice the vegetables before pressing or drying them.
Salt Pressing
Salt pressing has a few advantages. Along with removing moisture, salting can extract bitter flavors that may be off-putting. As the vegetables are pressed, they begin to ferment, which means you won’t need to worry if you can’t get to the vegetables immediately after the prescribed time, as long as all the pieces are fully submerged in the brine.
Pressing Supplies
For a successful outcome, apply even pressure across the entire quantity of vegetables. Here are some ways to evenly press vegetables:
- Two same-sized casserole dishes, food-grade storage containers, or 5-gallon plastic buckets, one nested in the other, with the vegetables in the bottom one and the weights piled in the top one.
- A casserole dish, bowl, or pot with a plate that fits inside and rests on the vegetables, weighted down evenly.
- A crock with its weights or split weights, with more weight piled on top.
- Two cutting boards, one on top of the other, with the vegetables between them and the top board weighted, set up so the liquid will drain into the sink (appropriate for recipes that don’t require foods to ferment in the brine).
- Weights: jars of water or large, clean rocks. Anything that’s reactive or not food-safe, for example, canned foods or barbell weights, can be piled on when there’s no possibility for contact with the vegetables or salt.
- A purchased pickle press or tsukemonoki.
Salt Pressing Process
The particulars of salt pressing vary slightly depending on the recipe, but here’s the general process.
- Prepare your vegetables by slicing them into rounds or strips that are 1/2 to 3/4 inch thick. (If you choose to press whole vegetables, the pressing will take 2 to 3 days and will need more weight.)
- Lightly salt all exposed sides of the vegetables.
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- Place the vegetables in a nonreactive container.
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- Place a significant amount of weight on top: 4 to 5 pounds or more, depending on the type and quantity of the vegetable you’re pressing. Leave on the counter.
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- The pressing time will vary according to the recipe, vegetable, and desired outcome. In general, vegetables should be visibly reduced in size, and liquid should be pooling. If not, let them sit for a few more hours.
- If the recipe calls for combining the pressing with fermentation, then after 24 hours (or as instructed by the recipe), add water to submerge the vegetables, if needed.
How Much Salt?
A good rule of thumb is to weigh the vegetables and to use no more than 5 percent of the weight of the vegetables in salt.
Anything more than that and you’ll risk oversalting. In many cases, you can use just 1.5 to 3 percent. Anything less than that, though, and you’ll risk texture issues. Our recipes, like the one below, indicate the recommended amount.
Don’t worry if the amount of salt seems high. Remember, the purpose of the salt is to draw out the moisture. Discard the resulting salty liquid (or reuse it elsewhere), and rinse and pat dry the vegetables.
Georgian-Style Fermented Tomatoes Recipe
Excerpted from Fermented Vegetables, 10th Anniversary Edition by Kirsten K. Shockey and Christopher Shockey, with photography by Dina Avila, and used with permission from Storey Publishing.
