stone.thomas•2d agoMost Upvoted

Debate: Did that expensive fermentation crock save me or just waste my cash?

I put down $80 on a fancy Harsch crock with water seal, thinking it'd fix my mold issues. But my buddy swears by a plain $15 pickle pipe and says the crock is overkill. Who's right here - drop the cash or keep it simple?

3 comments

3 Comments

ninasanchez2d ago

Wait, is your buddy actually getting good ferments with that pickle pipe? Because I feel like the real question is whether you're the kind of person who forgets to burp jars or lives in a damp house. I have a cheap crock with a water seal and it's saved me from fuzzy mold twice now, but I also keep my kitchen kinda humid. If you do the airlock thing on a regular jar, you might be just fine, but if you're like me and don't want to think about it, the expensive crock is totally worth the peace of mind. Honestly, spending $80 beats throwing out a whole batch of sauerkraut that smells like a basement.

maxm632d ago

Got a buddy who spent $40 on a pickle pipe set and then left his kraut in the garage for six weeks during a heat wave. Came back to a jar that looked fine, smelled like gym socks, and tasted like someone left a beer out with a cigarette butt in it. He still swears by the pipe though, says the mold that grew on the top was just a little patch and he scraped it off. I tried his next batch and it was actually decent, but I'm not messing with that. I just use a regular lid and burp it every day like my grandma taught me. Keeps the fridge smelling like a pickle store, but no mold so far.

lisa_grant2d ago

Switched to airlock lids myself after killing a batch of pickles, @maxm63, and never looked back.