Costs
Part of Planning a full year of fermentation projects that each teach something
Fermentation projects: what's worth buying, what isn't
Why the fermentation projects price comparison misleads: salt type, vinegar acidity, a gram scale and a thermometer change results, not price tags.
What to take away
- Expensive salt is worse than cheap salt here. Canning or pickling salt is the recommended choice, and gourmet salts can discolor or off-flavor a batch.
- Vinegar is bought by a number, not a price. It must be labeled 5 percent acidity, sometimes shown as 50 grain.
- Money spent on a scale, a thermometer, jars that seal, and weights that hold vegetables under the brine is money that changes results. Money spent on presentation is not.
- Salt is optional in most canning but not in fermenting. Never economize on it in a fermented recipe.
The cheapest ingredient carries the most weight
Penn State Extension's note on salt in canning draws a line most shoppers miss. For canned tomatoes, vegetables, meats, poultry, and seafood, salt is optional and does not affect safety.
Salt: canned vs fermented
Canned goods
- Salt role
- Optional
- Safety impact
- None
- Cutting back
- Allowed
- Salt substitutes
- Not addressed
- Lower sodium
- Rinse before serving
Fermented foods
- Salt role
- Required
- Safety impact
- Critical
- Cutting back
- Unsafe
- Salt substitutes
- Not safe
- Lower sodium
- Rinse before serving
In fermented sauerkraut and brined pickles, salt favors desirable bacteria and inhibits others. Never cut back on the salt these recipes require. Salt substitutes are not safe for fermented foods.
The same page gives the only sanctioned way to lower sodium: rinse the finished product with water just before heating and serving, never before canning. Lowering salt before canning lowers the acid content and can make the product unsafe or quick to spoil.
Vinegar: read the label, ignore the shelf
Penn State's advice about vinegar states pickling vinegar must be at least 5 percent acidity. Below 5 percent, it may not control microbial growth, so spoilage can occur.
Vinegar label check
- Acidity at least 5 percent
- White or cider if recipe unnamed
- Specialty vinegars only if recipe calls
- Mother safe if commercial and in date
If a tested recipe does not name a type, white or cider vinegar works if the label says 5 percent. Use specialty vinegars like wine, malt, or balsamic only when a tested recipe calls for them.
Unfiltered cider vinegar with the mother in it is safe for pickling if commercially made, at least 5 percent acid, stored properly, and used within its date. Pay for that if you like the flavor, not because it is safer.
Where the money is well spent
Spend / What it buys
- Digital scale in grams
- Repeatable salt concentration
- Thermometer
- The variable that sets fermentation time
- Good jars and two-piece lids
- Seals that hold
- Weights that fit the jar mouth
- Vegetables that stay under brine
- Crock with a water-seal rim
- Less skimming, fewer lost batches
Where price buys nothing
Pink, gray, smoked, and flake salts. Vinegar sold at a premium without an acidity figure on the label. Starter cultures for vegetable ferments, which the tested university extension directions do not call for. Decorative crocks of unknown glaze. Kits that repackage a recipe you can read free from a university extension service.
Cheap to repeat, expensive to start
The recurring cost of a vegetable ferment is cabbage or cucumbers plus a few tablespoons of salt, which is genuinely cheap. Equipment is the real spend, and it lasts years, so the sensible price measure is cost per season, not cost per jar.
Our year plan for fermentation projects covers how many batches a season realistically holds. The guide to what supplies cost covers the shopping list in more detail.
